After 13 years of schooling, I have definitely
learned to dread my alarm waking me up to go to class. I have mastered the art
of complaining about homework and stressing about tests. However, I cannot
imagine my life without school. Even after I graduate college, I will still be
in a classroom, but as a teacher instead of a student. Meanwhile, there are 65 million school-aged
girls around the world who are out of school, of which 17 million will never
enter a classroom.
Why is this number disconcerting? Well,
the education of girls has been positively correlated with many aspects of
development. Yet as an American millennial, education has been guaranteed to me
and I have taken it for granted, not stopping to consider its full impact.
Mothers who are literate are more likely to provide their children with
education, creating a cycle of female empowerment and poverty alleviation. However,
if access to education continues to be inequitable, development, especially in
the realm of sustainability, will be inhibited or occur at a slower pace than
if education was open to every school-aged child globally. Considering that
policy makers and leaders are hesitant to support the many Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), it is vital to provide them with courses of action
that have the potential to achieve multiple goals. Holistic and comprehensive
actions will make the SDGs seem more manageable and leaders will be more likely
to agree to them.
If the 65 million school-aged girls not
currently receiving education were given the opportunity to go to school, this
action could potentially lead to the achievement of 9 of the 17 SDGs. Educating
girls on the topics of sexual health and teen motherhood could save the lives
of mothers and infants, as childbirth is the second leading cause of teen girl
deaths globally, and babies born to teens have a higher risk of infant
mortality.
Educating girls in academic topics also
increases their chance of working after completing school. If girls are
employed, they are more likely to hold off on having children and are more
likely to have fewer once they decide to start a family. With the additional
income of the mother and fewer children, the standard of living is vastly
improved. The economic benefits of family planning, facilitated through
education, leads to a demographic transition to a population that the earth and
its resources could more easily support. Not only would individual females and
their families benefit from education, but educating women and having
agricultural job opportunities leads to more food security. If women were given
equal access to agricultural production resources, crop yields would increase
20-30%[i].
Aside from agricultural employment, educating girls contributes to the overall
intellectual capital of the society, fostering more innovation.
Since all countries could benefit from
educating their female citizens, it is important that support is shown to
organizations that offer these programs. Governments need to trust that the
programs will help and allow them to do their work where they see it best fit.
Additionally, individuals can support through monetary donations to the
organizations, school supply donations, or becoming a volunteer teacher. Such
organizations include Girl Rising: ENGAGE
(Empowering Next Generations to Advance Girls’ Education), started by
USAID[ii].
The sooner that girls are educated, the sooner the cycle of empowerment and
poverty alleviation can begin.
Although the effects will not be
immediate, the economic and social benefits will mitigate negative consequences
of climate change and achieve various aspects of the SDGs in the long run. The
effects will go beyond the girl’s immediate family because globally experienced
problems such as world population and food supply are involved. Increased
access to education around the world may result in increased groaning that it’s
Monday, or more complaints about an upcoming test. But those are problems we
should be willing to have.
[i] "Men and Women in Agriculture: Closing the
Gap." Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2015. Web. 29 Apr.
2015.
[ii] "Girl
Rising Launching in India, Democratic Republic of Congo and West Africa." Girl
Rising: ENGAGE. Girl Rising, n.d. Web.
No comments:
Post a Comment