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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Education and Sustainable Development
Education and Sustainable Development
Education is a process that we experience throughout our lives. We learn from our experiences in the home, different institutions, from others around us and in the community. Education is key to the social and economic development of a country or community, yet over the last decade, education is in a state of crisis throughout the world.
Access to education is a basic step towards achieving the general well being of people. People need education to care for their health, to find employment, and to be able to care and provide for themselves and their families. Millions of children, and the majority of girl children, will never have access to basic education. The victims of this crisis are not only the children and youth who may not have access to education or the same quality of education. Society as a whole loses when the education of the population is neglected.
In both Northern and Southern countries, social spending directed towards education has been drastically cut back. As governments undergo the restructuring of their economies they no longer see education as a spending priority, and thus they direct government spending elsewhere, yet military spending has been maintained at the same levels. Structural adjustment policies, which limit the levels of social spending, have also targeted education as an area where spending should be cut.
In many developing countries, children living in poverty are forced to work to support themselves and their families. This also creates the situation where girl children are often deprived of education later resulting in illiteracy rates among women being disproportionately higher than that of men.
Article 26 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to education, and that it should be free at least at the elementary levels. Education is becoming a commodity, it is becoming privatized, available only to those who can afford it. The marginalized - poor youth, youth from different races, youth who have a disability, or girl children are losing access to education. The right to be educated is being determined by social groups.
Conditions in schools are deplorable. Lack of materials, oversized classrooms, and with few teachers make learning difficult. In industrialized countries, communities where immigrants, blacks and Hispanics live, have even fewer resources for education available to them.
Education is key to sustainable development. It can be a force that stimulates participation in political life, brings awareness of new ideas, assists in the process of analysis, and it eventually shapes society. We should see education as more than learning how to read and write It should foster peace, development, respect for the environment, human rights, and cooperation, it should help us achieve sustainability. There needs to be a broad approach to education, one that includes a shift to issues that give youth the tools to build a sustainable future.
Youth organizations not only have a role in advocating for accessible education but also have a role in promoting education. Young people can work in literacy, peer education, education that will be sensitive to the needs of minorities, women and Indigenous People.
If education is truly going to contribute to the socio-economic development of communities, it is important that it is available to everyone, regardless of gender, race, and socio-economic status. Education needs to address the needs of all members of society and insure that it brings about change toward a sustainable future.