Need For Basic Education

Education is a human right and it plays a central role in achieving sustainable development. However, according to UNESCO data, 250 million children around the world of primary school age are failing to acquire basic literacy skills.

According to the 'World Declaration on Education for All', basic education is the educational activities designed for people to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to survive, develop their full capacities, live and work in dignity, participate fully in the development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions and to continue learning. In short, basic education was defined to cover early childhood, primary, lower secondary and non-formal education.

The quality of education is a key concern in developing nations. Young people with incomplete quality education lack the foundational competence for work and life. There are numerous cases seen in poor countries where primary schooling doesn’t guarantee that children have acquired basic academic skills. In fact, many adults with some schooling (five years more or less) are illiterate and innumerate.

Children in poor nations drop out of school before graduating. According to UNESCO institute of statistics, the dropout percentage rate of primary school-age children was an astonishing 25 per cent in developing countries.

It is important to understand that education and development go hand in hand. The lack of education is not only a factor behind poverty but also the plummeting economic growth. The right to education leads to better opportunities in life for al - boys and girls, such as employment, enhanced health and narrowed gender gaps between women and men.

There is a huge disparity between sexes in low-income countries. This bias against girls can be seen profoundly in South Asia and Africa.

Other benefits of education include a boost in economic growth, an increase in GDP, reduced mortality rate and increased human life expectancy. Nations across the globe should invest significantly in the education sector as it promotes global peace, reduced drop-out rates of school and college students and healthy competition. Education also helps achieve sustainable development.

Currently, we are seeing that school education is merely restricted to academics. It is the need of the hour that school education gets equipped with relevant life skills. Students’ education should be focused on creativity and skills.

Moreover, extra attention needs to be provided to vulnerable groups of society - children residing in slums, specially-abled and girls, children as they are prone to get affected because of the unavailability of teachers, infrastructure, study materials and other resources.

In India, education for all has been a core issue for a long period of time. Consecutive governments have focused on improving the literacy rate, enrolment ratio and retention, particularly in primary education. While India has its fair share of issues like poverty, discrimination and compromised resources, there has been progress in the last decade or so. In 2010-11, the retention rate in primary education was 73.4 per cent which has now elevated to 95.3 per cent as per the data from UDISE+. Though, there is a need to focus on secondary education where the retention rate has not improved much as 57.4 per cent in 2015-16 and 65 per cent in 2020-21.

It is disheartening to witness the disparities in educational attainment between different groups within nations and regions. In most low-income countries, children from weaker financial backgrounds are much less likely to get educated than others.

Moreover, disabled children are particularly disadvantaged. According to the 2011 World Report on Disability, it is estimated that less than 10 per cent of learning-disabled children in Africa who require special education, attend school. This number could shoot up if the schools had the right facilities. Many developing nations face this challenge. They don’t have the adequate resources to cater to their especially abled citizens’ needs. These children from low-income families are left with no option but to beg rather than get enrolled in schools.

The solution is quite simple, (acclimating requires some time) societies adapt to the education system to ensure that everybody has the right to education and has a better future.

It is evident that children with access to quality education outshine others and are successful. Developing a nation’s education system should be student growth-centric. In addition to a successful life, children’s economic & financial lifestyle improves and it plays a major determining factor in the prospects of future generations.

Ashwani Awasthi

Guest Author The author is Managing Director - South Asia, RICS School of Built Environment