SDG#4 Quality Education

This month’s Sustainable Development Goal the Local Peace Economy is working on is #4 Quality Education: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.  Education enables upward socioeconomic mobility, is a key to escaping poverty and is crucial to fostering tolerance and more peaceful societies.

Over the past decade, major progress has been made towards increasing access to education and school enrollment rates at all levels, particularly for girls. Nevertheless, about 258 million children and youth were still out of school in 2018 — nearly one fifth of the global population in that age group. The global adult literacy rate (aged 15 years and older) was 86 per cent in 2018, while the youth literacy rate (15 to 24 years) was 92 per cent.

Women and girls have a more difficult access to education. About one-third of countries in the developing regions have not achieved gender parity in primary education. These disadvantages in education also translate into lack of access to skills and limited opportunities in the labor market for young women.

In America, quality education is available to all, not just the rich. Regardless of social status, all Americans have access to education. This enables young Americans to become successful in their later years of life. Yet only 2 of 10 students from low-income families attend schools that have successfully closed the achievement gap compared to their peers across the state. Nearly every major U.S. city is home to a large or massive achievement gap. According to The Education Equality in their study: Education Equality in America Comparing the Achievement Gap Across Schools and Cities.

In their study they found when they measured at the school and city levels of the 100 major U.S. cities, eight have small achievement gaps, 25 have large achievement gaps and 67 have massive achievement gaps.  On average, only six percent of students from low-income families in the biggest 100 cities in the U.S. attend a school with no achievement gap.

There are a few bay area cities on the 100 major U.S. major list: #6 San Francisco, #25 Fremont; #45 San Jose; #52 Oakland.

According to the Education Equality Index schools in every city prove that all children, regardless of background can succeed at high levels if given the opportunity and some cities with high concentrations of free and reduced lunch students are those that are most equitable. And it is at the local city level where the innovation for public educations can yield enormous results for low income students in achieving at or above the same level as their peers across the state.

A quality education for all is a pillar of democracy that can create equal opportunity for all.  It can be as simple as making sure students have free lunches. It is up to citizens to ensure schools in their local districts, city provide an equitable education for all children regardless of income level.

So join the Local Peace Economy and work for SDG#4 Quality Education and promote continue education  opportunities for all.

The Local Peace Economy joins the United Nations in its call for a Decade of Action to transform the world by 2030. The 2030 Agenda for 17 Sustainable Development goals, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The spirit of human endeavor has demonstrated our shared ability to deliver the extraordinary. The Global Goals are our best hope-for people, for planet, for prosperity, for peace and for partnerships.

The Local Peace Economy calls on everyone everywhere to join us and the UN and pledge: “We are resolved to a Decade of Action to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are necessary.   As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.”

Please join us as we pledge to work urgently to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path of peace, that leaves no one behind.

To find out more about Goal #4 and the other Sustainable Development Goals, visit: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment