“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world,”

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.