Educational Equality with UNICEF
The topic I would like to talk about today is educational equality. Being born in India where giving education to a child, especially a female child is not of relevance; overlooking that, most of the population being under the poverty level cannot afford any sort of education. It has a close and personal meaning for me, as I have seen it first hand, how much it can affect a child’s life. I had the opportunity to work with UNICEF Indian about 6 years ago, and I would like to share my thoughts on organisations and barriers in education.
The definition of Educational equity is referred to as equality in education. It is a measurement of achievements, fairness, and opportunity in education. The study of education equity is often linked with the study of excellence and equity. Educational equity is dependent on two main factors. The first is fairness, which implies that factors specific to one's personal conditions should not interfere with the potential for academic success. The second important factor is inclusion, which refers to a comprehensive standard that applies to everyone in a certain education system. These two factors are closely related and are dependent on each other for true academic success of an educational system.
International organizations like UNICEF work to improve every child’s life. Especially the lives of young girls and the poor, around the world. Despite progress in recent years, girls continue to suffer severe disadvantage and exclusion in education systems throughout their lives.
UNICEF research shows an estimated 31 million girls of primary school age and 32 million girls of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2013. And sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest proportion of countries with gender parity: only two out of 35 countries. Looking at these statistics, it comes as no surprise why girls still suffer in third world countries. Education for girls or any child is their birthright. Providing a child, with education helps break the cycle of poverty. As for girls, it holds more power as UNICEF research shows:
“Educated women are less likely to marry early and against their will; less likely to die in childbirth; more likely to have healthy babies; and are more likely to send their children to school. When all children have access to a quality education rooted in human rights and gender equality, it creates a ripple effect of opportunity that influences generations to come.”
Barriers to education equality
The list of barriers to education equality, is long and endless, all over the world. From governmental influences, finances, to society, cultures, religion, conflicts, rural location, etc. While gender parity has improved, barriers and bottlenecks around gender disparities and discrimination remain in place, especially at the secondary school level and among the most marginalized children.
Increasingly more adolescent children are also facing economic and social problems in their personal lives that further disrupt their education.
Another study by UNICEF shows that:
“Girls in the developing world are married before age 18, and one-third of women in the developing world give birth before age 20. If all girls had secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, child marriage would fall by 64 per cent, from almost 2.9 million to just over 1 million.”
UNICEF aims to continue to take a more transformative approach to girls’ education by tackling discrimination, violence and the exclusion of girls from education. As such, programming in girls’ education will focus on the empowerment of girls in tandem with improving their learning and measuring learning outcomes.
While UNICEF is such a huge organization and is well connected with financial aid and support, I do feel that you still require the smaller organizations in countries to garner aid especially in extreme rural areas. This can only be achieved with local organizations that work in conjunction with the government or big organizations like UNICEF.
One such organization amongst many is ASHA for education. They help to empower underprivileged children by providing access to education. In the summer of 1991, a few students got together to think of ways in which they could play a role in the development of India, the country of their origin. These young people shared the belief that education is a critical requisite and an effective catalyst for social and economic change in India. Basic education became the agenda for the action of this group that emerged from this gathering. The group was named ASHA to represent the meaning hope; that had brought these individuals together and the hope that they aimed to bring into the lives of children in India. In that summer of 1991, ASHA was born at the University of California in Berkeley.
ASHA is a fully volunteer-run, non-profit with 50+ chapters around the world. Their mission is to encourage the formation of various local groups across the world to reach out to larger sections of the population. To encourage a socio-economic change in India through the education of underprivileged children.
They get involved by holding fundraisers or ask donors/volunteers to help with individual projects around anassigned state. You will be required to attend and help them out with any physical help they might need. Another option is that they have the ASHA Support A Child program. Just like many international services, it lets you support a child’s expenses through monthly contributions. This organization was created by three young students who understood and acknowledged the hardships children where having in India, whilst they studied abroad. They decided to involve and create a community for Indians who lived abroad and ask their help to create a better future for the children.
“They collect small amounts from people concerned about the marginalized and the poor and offer finance and fellowships. There are only two institutes I know that are working from abroad, Asha is one of them. It’s a commendable way of helping India.” - Times of India
Website: http://new.ashanet.org/
Another Indian based organization that my family has personally worked with is Udavum Karangal meaning helping hands. It is a centre for humane services that work in conjunction with educational equality. Udavum Karangal believes that it is only a good education that can make a child self-reliant. The school imparts value-based education not only to children in an area but also to children from other poor families in and around the country; bringing quality and understanding within India’s cast system. They have the noon-meal scheme, which has been well-received by the community.
One amazing project they take part in is the “Wings Mobile School-a school on wheels”. The organization believes the biggest wealth that can be achieved is education. Udavum Karangal has extended its literacy program to these socially and economically marginalized children who are not integrated into the regular mainstream educational system through a mobile school project called ‘Wings Mobile School’. Their aim is to educate children from the ages of 4-11 years old who do not have permanent schooling facilities. In the mobile school, they try to provide food, quality medical care and informal education so that they can improve their way of life.
Website: http://www.udavumkarangal.org/index.php
Other organizations in the U.S like the CCSSO(Council of chief state school officers) and CCSS Common Core State Standards, aim for the same for their country in different ways.
The CCSSO aims to create a public education system that prepares every child for lifelong learning, work, and citizenship. By focusing on those state-driven leverage points, they are positioned to increase their capacity to produce students ready to succeed as productive members of society. The CCSS establishes clear, consistent guidelines for what their students should know and be able to do in mathematics and English language arts, from kindergarten through 12th Grade.
Big organizations like UNICEF and UNESCO bring the worlds attention to equality in education, whilst small groups like ASHA play an important role to put forward the implementation of it. For third world countries, more than the curriculum and the core study, the main priority is to ensure that each child can and should attend school, no matter their circumstances. This is the biggest hurdle that big and small organizations face.
In my experience in the education sector, it shows that the first step towards universal primary education lies in universal pre-school education. This plays a pivotal role in laying a strong foundation for a child's intellectual, physical, and social development. Trying to establish the importance of this, is still a difficulty in non-third world countries.
To conclude: learning, reading, writing, and other basic learning skills during preschool and primary education are essential for a child's success in higher education and ensure a reduction in drop-out rates for the future. It is up to us as a society, to help and aid to the best of our ability, organizations that seek to help primary education.
Please feel free to donate to the above organisations. Thank you.
References:
The Council of Chief State School Officers (The Council of Chief State School Officers)
Preparing America's students for success. (Home)
India | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (India | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/worldwide/asia-and-the-pacific/india/
Home (Home)
Basic education and gender equality (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/education/
Udavum Karangal (Udavum Karangal)
http://www.udavumkarangal.org/index.php
Home (Asha for Education)
