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Education improves lives

Jun 29,2017 - Last updated at Jun 29,2017

Acquiring quality education is the cornerstone to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.

When you have access to quality education, this can help you break from the cycle of poverty.

Education is a major tool to combat all forms of poverty everywhere.

A recent study by UNESCO revealed that the poverty rate around the world could decrease by half if all adults complete their secondary education.

Education helps reduce inequalities and achieve gender equality. It also empowers people everywhere to live more healthy and sustainable lives.

Education is also crucial to fostering tolerance among people and contributes to more peaceful societies.

Major progress has been made towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools, particularly for women and girls.

Basic literacy skills have improved tremendously, yet bolder efforts are needed to make even greater strides for achieving universal education goals.

While enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 per cent, 57 million children remain out of school.  An estimated 50 per cent of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas; 103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills and more than 60 per cent of them are women.

The UN put out, in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. 

It was endorsed by all UN member states in September 2015 in order to achieve sustainable development in its three dimensions: economic, social and environmental.

The 2030 Agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the fourth goal of which is “quality education”.

Goal four seeks to ensure that by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education and have access to quality early childhood development and care; and all women and men have access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university. The goal’s main targets are to increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship; and to eliminate gender disparities in education, and ensure equal access to all levels of education for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities. 

Education is the key that will allow many other SDGs to be achieved.

 

 

The writer is the national information officer at the UN Information Centre in Beirut. She contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

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