Education is a human right and it’s important that we continue to fight for those who are excluded from receiving it. Good quality education is fundamental to giving people the power to get jobs, stay healthy and be aware of the world around them. Currently, there are 262 million children who don’t go to school and the majority of this demographic is young women and girls. One-third of countries in developing regions still haven’t achieved gender equality particularly when it comes to education, moreover, this translates into these women being put at a disadvantage due to a lack of access and opportunities as a whole.
How COVID-19 deepened the global learning crisis
During the global pandemic, COVID-19 caused everyone to be stuck in their homes, including limiting children’s access to go to school, with the majority of learning taking place online over Zoom and Teams calls. Most education systems were severely affected with an estimated 147 million children missing more than half of their academic year which had detrimental consequences on children worldwide in terms of their educational progress as well as their well-being as a whole. Surprisingly, only 20% of countries implemented measures that supported students when schools reopened and also may fail to provide additional sessions for students to catch up on work they may have missed or feel that they didn’t fully understand. Students across the globe, particularly in the UK expressed their concerns about the volume of work they had missed and how this will affect their upcoming work and exams
Amid the crisis, the United Nations partnered with Theirworld charity and launched the #LetMeLearn campaign to create and finance plans that provide quality education to every child. Secretary Antonio Gutteres warned that “across the globe, education is in crisis” and that the launch of the #LetMeLearn would set out a new vision for education. Campaigns like this could be the next best thing for improving education on a mass scale and can be a step in the right direction
The goal
SDG want to focus on ensuring quality and inclusive education on a global scale that is accessible to everyone in order to promote lifelong learning. Education helps to enable upward socioeconomic stability and helps to build a foundation for people to escape poverty and better themselves as well as their well-being by ensuring that they are better educated and know what options they have and how to overcome situations and problems they may encounter. The biggest struggle we will face trying to provide more access to education is ensuring that schools have the right resources available to start basic teaching. This is particularly a problem in less economically developed countries that are already struggling for basic necessities such as clean water and electricity, so it would be difficult to implement learning strategies with these problems still prevalent
What progress has been made?
There has been some progress with primary school completion rates increasing to 84% from 70% since 2000 and is set to reach 89% globally by 2030 and during crisis, education is provided as a lifeline. For example, as of April 2022 3 million Ukrainian children where offered remote learning during the war as a place of safe haven. This is ensuring that education is taking a step in the right direction and continues to ensure that children have the basic right of being educated as well as have a space place to study and learn. It’s important to note that there are children who use school as an escape to get away from struggles and stresses they may be facing at home so ensuring they have access to this is crucial.
To endorse this, the government has implemented schemes that ensure education is free and even encourages schools to open during summer holidays for a few weeks or even days to ensure its easily accessible to students if need be. All of this is a step in the right direction for ensuring quality education on a global scale and hopefully, with further resources and time, education won’t be seen as a privilege and every child all over the world will have the opportunity to go to school and learn as a basic right.
To find out more about quality education as well as other Sustainable Development Goals, visit: