The International Day of Education

On the 24 January every year the world celebrates the International Day of Education. The day was introduced in a resolution passed by The United Nations General Assembly in 2018; recalling, reaffirming and acknowledging the importance of education in the earlier ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ that was introduced in 2015. By doing so, the General Assembly invites all organisations and individuals to observe the International Day of Education and to continue to consider the support and efforts towards the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 4: to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.

We must do far more to advance Sustainable Development Goal 4, to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all – UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.
 

This year, 2021, due to the world-wide pandemic, the United Nations set the theme: ‘Recover and revitalize education for the COVID-19 generation’. Due to the closure of schools and other learning institutions, as well as literacy and lifelong learning programmes, around the world, the lives of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries have been seriously affected. As the new year starts, the UN has stressed the importance to increase international solidarity and collaboration in order to place education at the heart of the recovery. Moreover, it is a chance for the world to put in place systems for the transformation towards more inclusive, safe and sustainable societies.

The right to education can be found in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, calling for free and compulsory elementary education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child goes even further and prescribes higher education to be accessible to all. Unfortunately, this is far from reality for many people. About 265 million children and young people around the world do not have the opportunity complete school, and 617 million cannot read and do basic maths. Since established in 2005, the ASER Centre has produced a nationwide report on the situation of education in India. Although 96% of children in India are enrolled in school, figures from the 2018 report says that only about half of all children enrolled in Standard 5 can read at least at Standard 2 level, and a similar number of children are able to do simple maths problems correctly.

The situation has not become better with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is estimated 300 million learners across all age groups in India are out of school. Recently Shubh, Grade 10, published a report titled ‘Protecting the Right Education for Children in India and Adapting Our School Education System from the Learnings of COVID-19’. The research report evaluates the impact on the Right to Education (RTE) for children in India during COVID-19 as well as long-term risks, as the world adapts and moves forward. The report concludes that the closure of physical schools has increased the gap to access quality education. Only about 20% of families with children in India have access to internet (15% in rural areas), and only about 11% have access to a computer.

Many students also rely on schools to provide them with the mid-day meal, which is now hampered and may lead to a significant negative impact on children’s growth and development, leading to delayed motor development, impaired cognitive function, poor school performance and higher risk of mortality. Moreover, it also means that socially and economically vulnerable households will need to spend more money on food, causing further economic distress. Fear about health, disruption in livelihoods and changes in normal life, all lead to anxiety in families and communities. Children are not immune to tensions around them. Furthermore, due to the closure of schools and social distancing, many students miss their friends and feel isolated, lonely, and depressed.

Shubh’s research and the report also highlights creative solutions that communities of teachers and students have come up with across the country, to overcome the challenges of a lack of technology, such as computers and internet infrastructure for online learning. During the pandemic, many students at TISB have been involved in projects and efforts to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic – especially when it comes to students who find themselves in a precarious situation with regards to their education. In addition, TISB’s Primary Years are currently in the process of planning a virtual Book Week that will take place in March. The team is planning to arrange a ‘Readathon’, where students will recruit sponsors for their reading efforts. The students will collect sponsorship funds, that will be donated towards bettering the reading ability among socio-economic vulnerable students in India. The more the students read, the larger the grant will be!

If you and your family want to take part in observing the International Day of Education, you may want to join in on the ‘Learning Planet Festival’, arranged by The Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity and UNESCO, on the 24-25 January. To find out more about the program and register, visit the Learning Planet Festival's website.

Keep following our #SchoolStories in the news section of our website and follow our social media channels to stay up-to-date with all the initiatives taking place within the TISB community.