Education Articles

“Knowledge gives discipline, from discipline comes worthiness, from worthiness, one gets wealth, from wealth one does good deeds, and from that comes joy.” This Sanskrit shloka was written in 200 BCE and holds true today, in that education is all-empowering and pivotal to building sustainable communities. 

Historically, sections of society had deliberately limited access to education to a select few and had therefore denied an education to large swaths of the population. This was a very myopic view indeed, as no civilization can reach its zenith unless all its citizens are given an equitable educational opportunity to reach their full potential. We may not all have equal talent, but we must have an equitable opportunity to unleash our potential. Equity addresses the needs of students in a way that equality cannot. 

Sadly, the statistics are still very grim: according to the UN, one in four girls aged 15–19 is unemployed compared to one in ten boys of the same age group. The global body said that by 2021, about 435 million women and girls across the world will be living on less than $2 a day, including the 47 million recently pushed into poverty as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The UN says that one in three women (pre-COVID-19) have faced sexual or physical violence. Data shows that violence has significantly increased since the COVID-19-induced lockdown, particularly domestic violence. This is simply not acceptable as we attempt to forge an equitable world. 

Education has always been considered a panacea to dispel poverty and gender inequality, and while this is not disputed, the problem has always been for girls to access an education. There is a multitude of reasons for this, including cultural and economic. Families are often faced with a stark decision and prefer to send their boys to school and their girls to work. Pre-COVID-19, valiant efforts to close the gender gaps in education were starting to pay off as female literacy and enrollment were increasing. However, COVID-19  has negated much of that progress, as more girls are pushed out of education due to lockdowns, families losing income and not having digital access. These girls are now at increased risk of early marriage, early pregnancy, poverty and violence, and this cycle is likely to be perpetuated with their daughters. COVID-19 will harm the most vulnerable children and their families, who will not have the resilience to adapt without external support. 

The disruption will severely impact the girls, as the crisis continues to expose the fault lines in education disparities and diminishes their opportunities to access educational opportunities. Many of these girls have limited opportunities to continue learning at home, so the closure of schools will effectively bar them from an education and will have a negative ripple effect on their longer-term mental and social development. The pandemic will continue to feast off a vicious circle of poverty, increasing inequalities, and erosion of social and economic resilience, thereby hampering progress. 

Education is the great equalizer, but only when there is equal access and a change in mindset. To ensure that the crisis does not deprive millions of girls and their descendants of a future, a robust plan must ensure that girls stay in school – whether remotely or in person – and receive an education. Rural societies are adapting to immediate problems of students with no access to technology. There are many inspiring stories, from loudspeakers installed in village fields that are blaring out lessons to a teacher on a bike delivering classes to village schoolchildren, with many of them being girls. This approach suggests that if the girls cannot attend school, then the school must attend to the girls, as they will co-create the future! As an old African proverb says, “Alone you may go faster, but together we will go further.”