Education is the sine qua non for the development of a family as in turn it helps to develop a society and finally helpful for the development of the country. That is why history says colonial rulers never encouraged local persons to get at least higher education. In this regard, I am sharing my experience. I was in Eritrea and served as Associate Professor. Many told me that when it was under the colony of Italy, the rulers did not allow the locals to study more than the primary level. As they wanted male persons should serve in the Army as simply sepoy and females should work as domestic help. So after Independence in 1991 (Eritrea got its independence on 24 May 1991), the Government of Eritrea gave utmost priority to the development of education. And Indians were mainly selected for the teaching jobs.
The United Nations General Assembly declared 24 January as International Day of Education in celebration of the role of education for peace and development as education is a human right, a public good, and a public responsibility. As per UNESCO report, “today, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable”.
This year, the third International Education Day occurs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a global learning disruption in a massive way. The closure of schools, universities, and other learning institutions, as well as the interruption of many literacies and lifelong learning programs, has affected the lives of 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries. The Governments although everywhere moved immediately to offer alternative measures, but at least one-third of the world’s students were not able to access remote learning, while it is estimated that those in low-and lower-middle-income countries have lost nearly four months of schooling compared to six weeks in high-income ones. And, unfortunately, the disruption is still very much ‘with us’. The pandemic COVID-19 has created social, economic, and digital inequalities also. In view of this, the theme of this year is ‘Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation’.
In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 4 (SDG 4) is the ‘Education Goal’. It envisages, by 2030 all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
Lastly, before concluding it may be stated that all religions placed a high value on education as the faith spread among diverse people so education is an important channel through which development, universal peace, and consistent social order can be achieved. And the famous saying of Napoleon Bonaparte which is still relevant may be quoted, “Give me an educated mother, I shall promise you the birth of a civilized, educated nation”.
The following websites have been consulted for writing the article:
Dr. Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad
24 January 2021
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