Education, a key objective
It is more than the entire population of Spain. This number may not surprise you if you consider that there are about 7 billion people in the world, but it should. What's more, it should not only surprise you, it should also worry you. A lot.
The reasons for concern are obvious, but often forgotten. Many involve the individual, but many also impact the community. Not one is irrelevant. It is worth reviewing the main reasons in both cases.
From the community point of view, it has been fully proven that quality life-long education is one basis, if not the main, for sustainable economic and social development. Numerous collective benefits, such as social equity, cohesion and justice; civic and environmental awareness; public health and safety (hygiene, disease prevention, conflict reduction), among others, derive from it.
From the individual point of view, education promotes personal growth and professional development, production capacity, creativity, good judgment, and wellness.
It is clear that the two aspects (community and individual) are complementary, and the results of investment in quality life-long education are reflected not only in the statistics, but especially in the betterment of the lives of billions people.
After all, behind the impressive figures, there are individuals, citizens who discover or rediscover the world as they learn to read, write, count, develop more complex thought, develop projects, and create.
Therefore, this is the challenge: imagine the life of a child born in a low-income family with a poor intellectual background, without access to a quality school, or books at home, without any educated relatives prepared to teach basic content. He or she is a child born in 2000.
That year, the United Nations established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals are a kind of synthesis of the planet’s main challenges: reducing poverty, achieving universal basic education, ensuring gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating AIDS , malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and finally, establishing a global partnership agreement for development.
Education appears as the second goal. However, a closer reading of the MDGs would lead to the conclusion that without it there is no way to achieve the other seven goals. In other words, education is transversal. Moreover, it is essential in the strict sense.
More than 14 years have passed and that child is now a teenager. If he or she had the advantage of being born in a country willing to meet at least the second MDG, today, he or she is in high school (or its equivalent in your country) or a technical school, and has a promising future. Otherwise, he or she may have lost his or her life, may be living in materially poor and limited conditions, or may have even entered the world of crime.
The deadline for the fulfillment of the UN Millennium Goals by the 189 nations that signed the agreement arrives next year. Needless to say that most of them will fail to fully comply. Nevertheless, for those who "did the job", there are new challenges.
With respect to education, developed or developing nations are responsible for improving or maintaining the quality of teaching and learning (access to education is not enough); and reducing or eliminating dropout (enrollment in school is insufficient). They must continually assess, rate and stimulate teachers; and prepare teachers and students for the constant and rapid changes in the world, especially in the field of science and technology.
Obviously, there are thousands of people in the world thinking and debating about the best future for education. UN agencies (such as UNESCO and UNICEF), governments and programs like Educate a child, to name one example, but also companies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and individuals, must all be committed to encouraging and defending quality life-long education for all.
Today, there seems to be a consensus regarding the importance of education for all. Yet, political will and concrete action are needed in less developed and developing countries, to prevent them from resting on their laurels or becoming contented with statistical advantages only. We must also think about the people behind the numbers. While there is still such a significant number of out-of-school children, only part of the mission has been accomplished and there is always the risk of regression. We cannot stop. When it comes to education, we need to move forward and deal with the uncomfortable, but necessary notion of infinity.
Jorge Werthein, former UNESCO representative in Brazil and the United States of America
Published in printed edition, La Nación, Opinion, August 18 2014
