World leaders universally acknowledge that education is the backbone of a society and is crucial for sustainable development of a nation. But many people, especially in developing economies such as India, struggle to get a decent education to support their families, escape poverty and contribute to the development of their communities.
Many young girls and women remain out of school owing to family pressure, lack of sanitation or infrastructural facilities. According to a recent UNICEF report, 40-50 per cent of children from the 15-18 age group drop out of school. And of the 229 million students enrolled for Std I-XII, only few receive quality education with good teachers and modern teaching aids.
The root cause of poverty is the lack of education. Recently, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, as a part of the larger Millennium Development Goals 2030, designed to end poverty, protect planet Earth and ensure inclusive prosperity and the well-being of all. One critical and powerful instrument to bring about this bold and positive transformation is education.
Comprehensive plan
To ensure a comprehensive plan to educate all, India Inc, educational institutes and NGOs need to work hand-in-hand with the government to build an overarching strategy to aid the realisation of a sustainable economy dream — one where there are ample and quality schooling opportunities along with an equitable delivery of knowledge, especially among girls and women, who form a formidable 50 per cent base of the country’s current and future population.
Here are some ways to do this:
a. Partnering for growth : Education plays an important role in the eradication of poverty. It helps people break the cycle of poverty, especially when combined with access to healthcare facilities, career counselling, guidance, and training for income-generating activities.
The purpose of education is to enable communities to get a headstart in life and empower people to become responsible, productive citizens. For any government intervention to work, all the stakeholders — including educational institutes, financial centres, NGOs and companies — need to come together and work as a team. This would require brainstorming together and working towards generating awareness about the benefits of education, providing financial assistance for higher education, and more.
b. Infrastructure development: While we continue to inspire people to learn and grow, efforts should be made to meet the basic requirements of infrastructure, especially at the grassroots level. Maintenance and renovation of educational institutions are important.
Basic sanitation facilities, access to safe drinking water and security are some of the key factors that influence villagers to send their children to school. Corporates can help through various initiatives — with something as basic as the development of anganwadis in villages, or upgrading infrastructure in schools to enable digital literacy in secondary and higher secondary schools.
c. Foster a culture of community learning: Education that aids development of critical and innovative thinking and fosters a sense of responsibility with respect to resource use would help drive the agenda of sustainable development. The objective of our education system should be bringing about positive behavioural change in the community.
This would then create a ripple effect and help bring about overall empowerment of the larger community. In a resource-strained and densely populated country like India, corporates can help create self-study libraries, free coaching centres, and smart-class learning systems that promote literacy and build ‘community leaders’ of tomorrow.
d. Thrust on female literacy and women empowerment: In conservative societies, women often take a step back owing to various factors such as self-inhibition, lack of sanitation, pressure from the family and society, and lack of access to employment opportunities. In situations such as these, corporates can help run literacy programmes, conduct special classes/vocational training, provide study material and, eventually, offer financial and social incentives through self-help groups, to drive entrepreneurship and empower these women.
e. Community involvement and motivation: Proactive participation from parents is required to make any intervention successful. They need to know what their wards are doing. We at Srinivasan Services Trust are not only helping with education but also establishing the connect between teachers and their wards. The results have improved tremendously, parents are now taking more interest and this motivates the teachers to plan better activities.
To sum up, countries and communities, regardless of their national wealth, stand to gain from education. As per an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report in 2015, by providing every child with access to education and the skills needed to contribute to society, GDP can increase by an average 28 per cent a year in low-income countries and 16 per cent a year in high-income countries for the next 80 years. For these estimates to translate into reality, all stakeholders in society need to come together and intensify their efforts to educate each and every individual. Education is a basic human right regardless of the boundaries of caste, creed, race and geography.
(The author is Chairman of Srinivasan Services Trust, the social arm of TVS Motor Company.)