Goal 2 of the Millenium Development Goals is to 'achieve universal primary education' with a sub aim that wants to ensure that all children have the opportunity to complete a primary education.
The Millenium Development Goals are a large issue in themselves, however it is not these that I aim to discuss now, I only use them here as an indication of how key education is for what we term 'development' (again another topic for discussion - one I'm sure I'll attempt to write about at a later date).
Education is (according to the trusty Oxford dictionary) "the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university". Learning is often confined to the subjects of reading, writing and speaking (in your mother tongue), maths, science and if you're lucky an additional language. This obviously depends on the institution that you are attending, but I'm thinking very broadly now. In terms of 'development', education of the population is said to be one of the main drivers of change; improved economic prosperity, improved levels of health and sanitation, and overall decreased poverty are all attributed to improvements in education. I’m not denying that any of this is untrue, but I’ve just been thinking that in reality, education as an isolated entity is not going to do much for development in a region.
You may think that this is a bit of a controversial statement to make so here are my reasons why and I’d like to use the area I’m in as an example….
Education in India has many variants, however if you’re in an urban area you’re more likely to get a better education (as is true in other areas of the world, including the UK). The state education system here is pretty poor, and again the rural areas suffer the most. The area I am currently based in has a number of schools, however due to the geography they are few and far between and children walk miles every day to get to their classes.
Assuming that the children make it to school, the teacher may or may not turn up and if they do, the quality of teaching often leaves a lot to be desired – surely this should also be addressed.
As we know, content of school lessons is often set by national curriculum and I can think of subjects from my own time at school that I have never used in my 23 years of existence. So, if I haven’t found a use for some of my schooling, how can a child in rural Uttarakhand that follows the same syllabus as the rest of the state (and often the country) find a use in their area for what they learn in school? In my mind, for education to contribute to development, it is the content of education that also needs to be addressed. Making an education relevant to the specific needs of the population will enable them to use it in their every day life.
Furthermore, if there are no jobs awaiting said child in their area when they leave school, what will they do? They will leave to look for a job – maybe to a local town, or to one of the larger cities where the likelihood is that they will live in substandard accommodation and contribute to the urban sprawl that is taking over the cities of developing countries (n.b. – one thing that I have noticed here is that there a relatively few people of my age). If they get a job, they may or may not send money back to their family, and may or may not return to the area in the future. So who are left in the area they grew up? Women and people who have a lower education level who then have increased pressure on them and thus negatively impacting on other areas of ‘development’.
Tell me, is this development? It’s a complex issue, but I don’t think education alone will make a difference. Of course everyone has a right to education, but as far as development goes, if there is no other infrastructural or economic development in the area the change it brings about will be negligible.
This may also sound pessimistic, and again that is not my intention and maybe I should have more hope or ‘faith’, but you can’t deny what you see taking place right in front of you.
The weather is beautiful and the monsoons seem to have ended. I can’t believe that it is October already! The days seem to be flying past very quickly at the moment.
I’ve been getting going with developing some kind of a fundraising strategy for the organisation and it’s going OK, the main obstacle being differences in understanding about fundraising between myself and the people who run the show. As you may expect, not much is planned and so it’s a bit of a shift for them to think about running an active programme. Those of you I used to work with will also appreciate my frustration when I mention the word ‘budget’ too….I’m sure you can imagine my problems there! It’s nice to consolidate everything that I have been doing however. I’ve also been doing a lot of learning and planning for my work on nutrition and growth monitoring of children – falling under the umbrella of their community health programme. I’m planning some fieldwork for later in the year – GEOG ON! :)
Also, as so many of you have been asking, here’s a picture of my living abode - enough of a hut for you S? The majority of time is spent on the balcony which looks out onto the hills, and on a good day you can see the peaks of the Himalayas. Lovely.
Sorry for the length and will update you all again soon!
Lots of love
B xxx
