REASONS WHY EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT
“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change
the world,” Nelson Mandela.
Children living in poverty
experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources
needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their
rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members
of society. No child should be forced to live in such a powerless state but
through education, be empowered to create a brighter future for themselves and
their families. We believe that education is the key to reducing poverty and
inequality, to creating sustainable economic growth, to preventing needless
deaths from hunger and disease and to foster peace.
Why
education?
Here are 10 reasons we sourced from
the Global Partnership for Education.
1. End Poverty– Education is the one of the most effective ways to reduce
poverty.
According to UNESCO, 171 million people could be lifted out of
poverty – a 12% drop in global poverty – if all students in low-income
countries left school with basic reading skills. UNESCO also found that one extra year of schooling
increases an individual’s earnings by up to 10%, and each additional year of
schooling raises average annual gross domestic product by 0.37%.
2. End hunger – achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture.
There’s strong evidence that a
mother’s education improves her children’s nutrition, especially as she seeks
higher levels of schooling. Education gives mothers the skills and resources
needed to be able to provide nutritious meals for their children. The most
recent UNESCO research in
2013 shows that there are approximately 47 million children in low-income
countries who are stunted as a result of malnutrition in early childhood. If
all mothers in those countries had a primary education, 1.7 million children
would be saved from stunting. If those mothers
had a secondary education, 12.2 million children would be saved from stunting.
3. Good Health – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages.
Better educated people are much less
vulnerable to health risks. Education helps fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and
other diseases, reduces mother and child mortality and helps improve health.
When mothers in particular are educated, even at the most primary level, they
are more likely to be well informed about various diseases and take steps to prevent
them. UNESCO reports that each extra year of a
mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by as much as
10% and that a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past age
five. “In Africa’s poorest states, UNESCO projects that the lives of 1.8
million children could have been saved if their mothers had at least a
secondary education,” Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of
Education. A study in the journal
Lancet also showed that four million child deaths have been prevented over the
past four decades thanks to the global increase in women’s education.
4. Quality Education For All – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and
promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Education builds on itself, creating
greater capacity to educate others and nurture a culture that values learning.
Education equips learners of all ages with the skills and values needed to
better provide for themselves and their children; to be responsible global
citizens, such as respect for human rights, gender equality and environmental
sustainability. Investing in and strengthening a country’s education sector is
key to the development of any country and its people. Without investment in
quality education, progress on all other development indicators will stagnate. works
to ensure that all children irrespective of where they live get a quality
education.
5. Gender Equality – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Education enables girls and women to
reach their full potential – in parity with men and boys – in their homes,
communities, workplaces and institutions of influence. One additional
school year can increase a woman’s earnings by up to 20%, according to World Bank studies,
and Plan International has shown that
some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls at
the same level as boys. We also know that as the gap between the number of
girls and boys narrows, so, too, do gender disparities in wages and employment.
6. Clean Water and Sanitation – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water
and sanitation for all.
As communities become better
educated about the links between their sanitation and health they see substantial improvements in sanitation.
And, as societies become more economically prosperous, it stands to reason that
they will be better able to create modern water and sanitation facilities and
systems.
In many societies, girls can spend
as many as 15 hours per week fetching water for their families, leave no time
for school, UNESCO reports. Similarly, without access to safe
sanitation, there are many more sick children who will miss school. In
Ethiopia, 6.8 million people gained access to improved sanitation from 1990 to
2006. This was partly the result of having educated communities about the links
between sanitation and health, and of implementing new, affordable
technologies.
7. Good Jobs and Economic Growth – Education helps people work better and can create
opportunities for sustainable and viable economic growth now and in the future.
Education is one of the strongest
drivers of economic progress and prosperity. Studies have shown that each additional year
of schooling raises average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth by
0.37%.
The Education for All Global Monitoring
Report showed that, in 1965, adults in East Asia and the
Pacific had, on average, spent 2.7 more years in school than those in
sub-Saharan Africa. Over a 45-year period, average annual growth in income per
capital was 3.4% in East Asia and the Pacific, but 0.8% in sub-Saharan Africa. The
difference in education levels explains about half of the difference in growth.
8. Reduce Inequalities – Reduce inequality within and among countries.
As more children, from across the
demographic, geographic and cultural spectrum become educated, we are likely to
see an improvement in a country’s income inequality.
One study showed
that a 0.1% improvement in a country’s education equality can, over forty years,
raise its per capital income by 23% higher. Research demonstrates
that with more education equality, Vietnam’s economic performance improved and,
in 2005, its GDP surpassed Pakistan’s, where education equality levels are half
those of Vietnam’s. And, with better education, people from traditionally
disadvantaged communities are better positioned to advocate for their own
rights and needs, gain entry into higher echelons of economic, social and civic
life and help narrow gaps of inequality across their societies.
9. Sustainable Cities and
Communities – Make cities and human settlements
inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
With education, people are more likely
than not to understand, support and craft creative solutions that ensure the
basic ingredients of sustainable cities and communities are in place.
Good urban planning, efficient
energy use, good water and sanitation management, social inclusion and other
elements of well-working communities require people with knowledge and skills
that are only available through quality education. At the heart of a World Bank Sustainable Cities
Initiative, for example, are awareness-building programs,
development and implementation of local diagnostic tools, the creation of
policy reforms and other tasks that require not just primary but advanced
education.
10. Peace and Justice – Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable
development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable
and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Education is an essential precursor
to peace, tolerance and a healthy civil society. Education encourages
transparency, good governance, stability and helps fight against graft and
corruption.
Studies have shown
that people with secondary educations are more likely than those with only
primary education to show tolerance for people who speak another language (a
21% difference in Latin America and 34% among Arab States), immigrants (26% and
16%, respectively), people of a different religion (39% and 14%), people with
HIV (45% and 12%) and people of a different race (47% and 28%).
We also know that literate
people are more likely to participate in the democratic process and exercise
their civil rights, and that, if the enrollment rate for secondary schooling is
10 percentage points higher than the average, the risk of war is reduced by about three
percentage points.
Nelson Mandela once said: Education
is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the
daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can
become head of the mine that a child of farm workers can become the President
of a great nation (Mandela 1994).
Every child, wherever they are, have
the right to an education but not all children get to exercise this right. Join
us as we strive to bring education to children in the poorest communities
around the world. Learn more about how you can help: www.idreamyouth.org.
Do you have a few more reasons why education is important?
We would love to hear them. Drop us a note in the comment section below.
