Importance Of Education For All

To survive in this world, you might need only three things- food, clothes, and shelter. But mind it if you want to thrive, instead of just surviving and flying high up in the sky, my friend, you require something more- EDUCATION. Being educated is important not only to land yourself in a good job, but also for leading a quality life which includes many aspects like employment, personal development, active citizenship, and self-determination. Education gives people of a society equal opportunity, status, and a lot of self-confidence. The proportion of the educated population of a nation determines in turn its economic growth. Many countries including Iran, North Korea, Russia, and many more have their literacy rates higher than 80 percent (North Korea has a literacy rate of 100 percent); India has a literacy rate of 71.2 percent. While this is definitely a moment of pride for all Indians that the literacy rate in 2020 has been reported to be 71.2 percent as compared to the meager value of 12.2 percent at the time of independence, we still have a long way to go. India’s per capita public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP is amongst the lowest in the world. If we go by statistical data, the literacy rate in urban India is 85% while that in rural India falls down to 69%. Even though there is now a primary school in almost every village, the rate of dropouts continues to be over 50 percent with a majority of them being girls. Now we can understand how serious the problem is at the national level because children are considered to be the future of education; at the local level, because how a society is built up and what are its beliefs are largely determined by the values shared by the people living there.

Social entrepreneurs are people who have the ability to sense something wrong with the world and then develop innovative ways to put it right. They are ‘social change makers’, who are fundamentally using entrepreneurial approaches to tackle complex social problems. They are working towards a world that offers fair and equal opportunities where the potential of all people is fully realized. They might find a way to employ homeless people, provide affordable sanitary products to poor women, or ensure disadvantaged producers receive a fair price for their labor. They combine insight, compassion, and imagination to solve social and environmental problems. Social entrepreneurship in schools is an area of enormous potential, but one that has received little attention until now. ‘‘Entrepreneurship and education are two such extraordinary opportunities that need to be encouraged and interconnected if we are to develop the human capital required for building the societies of the future.’’, Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum mentions.

Social entrepreneurship is slowly making its way into the education system. In universities, the concept is starting to gain some traction, and there are some dazzling examples in schools too. But the concept is still relatively new and education systems can be notoriously slow to change.

There are some commendable works by some social enterprises in this field and are worth giving a read at least and appreciate their work if not participate in that.

The Asha Foundation or “Asha for Education”, as it is more commonly known, was started in 1991 by a group of 3 students and works to bring about a social-economic change in the country through the education of underprivileged children. It is a nonprofit enterprise seeking to improve the conditions of slums in India through various methods including educating community members about their rights to safe water and sanitation and training groups in how to engage government officials to seek change.

The Teach for India Foundation was founded by Shaheen Mistry, who got a strong inspiration from the parallel program, Teach for America. The Teach for India foundation works for removing the aspect of education inequality in India. It is essentially a nonprofit organization, with its presence in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. TFI focuses on leadership being at the core of the solution in the education sector. They now run the prestigious Teach for India Fellowship Program, which recruits several young students and professionals to work in low-income schools at minimal stipends in various cities. Initiated in 2009 with the first cohort of TFI fellows, it now boasts a strong of 1,250 fellows and alumni who are making a difference every day. They strongly believe that one day, all children will attain an excellent education in the country.

Primarily based in Mumbai and Pune, the Akanksha Foundation is a nonprofit organization and focuses on initiating social reforms through its project, “The School Project”, as well as providing supplemental education to more than 6500 students through its centers. The School Project ties up with schools that are ready to partner with local municipalities and provide high-quality education to students from low-income households. The children are taught to have a good educational foundation, strong self-esteem, and a value system to enable them to provide themselves a steady livelihood.

HippoCampus is a profit-based enterprise focusing on providing an enriching experience to children through learning with books. Flourishing since 2003, it has opened up experience centers for the city kids in Bangalore and Chennai. Apart from this, HippoCampus has collaborated with over 50 schools, government centers, and mainstream schools in Bangalore city. It also organizes events and productions that are children-centric, like their annual carnivals and book collection drives.

IDiscoverI was founded in the year 2002 by three graduate students from Harvard, as a social enterprise seeking to renew and revive the education sector in India. The name, pronounced I-DISCOVER-I, aims to unleash the potential and power of every human mind. The XSEED project, under the same foundation, targets children between 3 to 13 years of age. Located primarily in Singapore, Bangalore, and Gurgaon, they use a five-step teaching module that inculcates the process of- Aim, Action, Analysis, Application, and Assessment.

These are only some to be mentioned to get a glimpse of many of the social enterprises working tirelessly to provide quality education to each and every child of this country. But even social enterprises cannot achieve this target until the privileged section of this nation undertakes this cause as their responsibility. We as responsible citizens of the country have to understand that just like education holds importance for our family, the same is true for a poor man’s family and that for their journey to progress, education is the only feasible road they can take.

Education is still a dream for many children out there and it is our responsibility to make their dreams come true because-

“Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world.’’

• Nelson Mandela

Written by Connecting Dreams Foundation SVC member Rythem