SDG 4 - Right to Education

Classroom in Lagos, Nigéria (By Doug Linstedt on unsplash.com)

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world” (Malala Yousafzai).

Education is a fundamental human right, crucial for human dignity and a key factor to achieve all SDGs. However, around 258 million children and youth were still out of school in 2018 — nearly one fifth of the global population in that age group. At the same time, about 773 million adults (two-thirds of whom are women) don’t know how to read and write. Women and girls have more difficulties accessing education which in turn is translated into lack of access to skills and less opportunities in the labour market for young women.

The presented activity is divided into two distinct sessions. The first session aims to introduce SDG 4 and to prepare an interview guide to assess the perception of the local community about what quality education is and to collect some testimonials. During the first and second sessions, young people should conduct interviews with the target audience that they consider appropriate (family, teachers, colleagues, company directors or managers, among others). In the second session, students will reflect on other realities different from their local context, in order to understand what challenges many young people encounter in accessing education around the world, particularly in the case of girls and women.

Action Areas

Learning Objectives

Cognitive learning objectives:

The learner understands the important role of education and lifelong learning opportunities for all (formal, non-formal and informal learning) as main drivers of sustainable development, for improving people’s lives and in achieving the SDGs.
The learner knows about inequality in access to and attainment of education, particularly between girls and boys and in rural areas, and about reasons for a lack of equitable access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities.

Socio-emotional learning objectives:

The learner is able to raise awareness of the importance of quality education for all, a humanistic and holistic approach to education, ESD and related approaches.
The learner is able to recognize the intrinsic value of education.

Behavioural learning objectives:

The learner is able to contribute to facilitating and implementing quality education for all, ESD and related approaches at different levels.
The learner is able to promote the empowerment of young people.

Competences

Collaboration competency
Critical thinking competency
Self-awareness competency

Instructions

Step 1) Introduction (10 minutes)

Start the session explaining the scope of the project or the educational process in question. The SDG 4 refers to quality education – show the short video to introduce the SDG from resources section.
Briefly introduce the SDG through a short introductory reflection based on the vídeo:

SDG 4 aims to ensure access to quality and equitable education for all. But what is quality education? What are the opportunities and challenges associated? What is our role in achieving this goal?

Step 2) Education in the world (40 minutes)

Show a video to describe the reality of education in other parts of the world, in particular the challenges that some girls and women face and the importance of education for their lives. As an example, you can use a video from Girl Rising Organization (e.g. resource section).

Based on the video, ask students:

How did you feel?
What challenges do girls face in accessing education?
Based on this testimony, would you change your description of the importance of education? Why?
Can quality education contribute to professional development? How?
What do you think your role can be in contributing to access to quality education for all?
What similarities and differences do you find between the local reality and this testimony?

Step 3) Education in our community (50 minutes)

Divide participants into groups of 4-6 people who will form a team of journalists and photographers. Each group should prepare their work in order to find out the reality of education in their neighborhood, or in their village or city.

Each group should prepare some questions to interview several people from their local community (if possible from different ages, places of origin, etc.)

Some examples of questions:

1. What level of education do you have? (primary, secondary, university)

2. How were your teachers or how are they at your school, high school, university, etc.?

3. Does the school have or did it have all the necessary services (water, electricity, toilet, material)? Are they or were they available to all?

4. Do you think what you have learned or what you currently learn at your school is useful?

5. Do your family members know how to read and write? Up to what school level did they study: primary, secondary, university, etc.?

6. Do you think that education in our country is of high quality and that everyone can access it on equal terms?

7. How would you improve education in our country?

8. What would you ask our government to improve education?

Students must carry out the interviews within 1 or 2 weeks. After this activity, students will have an overview of the reality of education in their context.

Step 4) Evaluation and debriefing (10 minutes)

End the session, summarizing the importance of access to quality education in its various dimensions, in particular for girls and women.

- CALL TO ACTION 1

Based on the interviews about their local context and testimonials of the realities from different countries (vídeos from Girl Rising, or the book “I am Malala, among others), students should prepare a presentation through a video, digital mural, a theatrical play or a newspaper article about their findings on the importance of education. If possible, disseminate the results through digital channels.

- CALL TO ACTION 2

As an alternative or complement to the activity, you can ask students to reflect on what is a quality education for them and what could be improved in their schools. Asks students to write a letter to local, regional and / or national authorities about some measures that they consider important to be implemented to promote quality education.

Requirements

Resources

Click each section below to see all resources available.

Videos

ODS 4 | Educación de calidad

Girl Rising | Nepal Chapter

Notes for Educators

Estimated Total Duration: 2 hours + Call to Action

Preparation

This session has no limit on the number of participants
Assist students to prepare the interview guide and the identification of people to interview.
You can search for other videos that you think are best suited to your context.

Tips for Educators/ Variations

If you have a heterogeneous group, you can find students whose family has different levels of education. It is important for the educator / facilitator to understand if the fact that there are students whose families have higher and lower levels of education can inhibit some students to interview their families about this topic.
In relation to the interviews, as an alternative, students can create an online questionnaire. There are some online tools to create questionnaire such as:
- Survey Monkey
- Google Form

The testimony from the Girl Rising Organization is from 2013. Recently (2019), some videos were published on how the girls lives today. You can complement the session with visualization of this video so that students can understand in depth the impact of education on their lives.
If, instead of a video, you know a person who can give a testimony about the reality of education in another country can be an alternative for the first activity.
As an alternative to the video you can ask students to read the book “I am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai.
You can also explore the issue about online and face-to-face classes, because of the pandemic context and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each type of class and how they contribute to quality education. Here you can also bring to discussion how access to digital tools can contribute to a lack of access to quality education at local and global level.

Further Information

Education is a fundamental human right, however access to any education is not enough, a quality and equitable education is necessary, in order to not discriminate against the most vulnerable groups.

Education has a pivotal role in breaking the cycle of poverty, reducing inequalities and promoting more peaceful societies. However, access to quality education by vulnerable groups still presents many challenges. The most vulnerable populations are people living in more isolated rural contexts, people living in situations of poverty, people with special needs, those belonging to minority ethnic groups, girls and women ( 2 out of 3 illiterate adults are women), refugees and displaced persons and people living in conflict zones.

The lack of access to quality education has several consequences for the population, namely:

The lack of opportunities necessary for the full development of the personality and skills of excluded people, which in turn affects their relationships and decision-making capacity;
It feeds the cycle of poverty and contributes to the increase of social inequalities;
Limits access to stable and satisfactory job opportunities;
It affects economic growth and an improvement in the quality of life;
Promotes an increase in conflict situations;
It contributes to a greater passivity of the population in reacting, for example, to situations of corruption at the economic and political level.

Achieving SDG 4 is possible through political measures that ensure quality education for all people, through an equitable distribution of resources and an efficient management. In addiction, it is also the role of the whole society to contribute to the fulfillment of this right.

Source

https://girlrising.org/
FGS (2014) Guia estudantes – Direito à Educação, Direito à Esperança. Edujesuit.
FGS (2014) Guia de Conteúdos – Direito à Educação, Direito à Esperança. Edujesuit.
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/