As part of preparations for the 56th session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, an expert group meeting was held to discuss the theme of “Population, Education and Sustainable Development” (6-7 September). The purpose of the meeting was to review the latest evidence and analyses in relation to the theme, drawing from the experience of countries across all regions. SI Advocacy Advisor, Linda Witong reports:
“Experts from around the world discussed emerging trends and challenges in education as they relate to women and girls. While everyone agreed that education is a common good and that labour market integration and basic skills are important, given the growing challenges of societies undergoing wide sweeping transformation, these tools were insufficient to meet challenges presented by the 4th industrial revolution or the ongoing pandemics.
In 2022, trends in education show an increased demand for lifelong learning and regarding any type of education among School Age Populations (SAP).There is an increased demand for education among school age populations as this group is growing rapidly reaching nearly 1.7 billion in 2022.[1] This increased demand for education among School Age Populations is projected to occur predominantly in Sub-Sahran Africa as School Age Populations are projected to increase by greater than 99% between 2050-2100. This high rate of growth will pose a challenge to achieving SDG4 given the lower education in this region.
The demand for adult and life-long learning is also becoming increasingly relevant due to today’s fast-changing world where social, economic, technological and political norms are being constantly redefined. Lifelong learners are seeking to be better equipped to adapt to changes in their work as well as their economic, social or cultural environments. Lifelong learning also plays a vital role in empowering citizens and affecting a transition to sustainable societies. This type of learning should be provided as a supplement to formal schooling via non-formal pathways with adequate resources.
While it is recognised that Digital education is a change that is here to stay we need to create a new social pact regarding education with a long term and strategic vision including financial sustainability. Why? About 65% of children entering primary school today according to one estimate will end up working in a job that doesn’t yet exist (WEC 2018). The 4th industrial revolution is heavily reliant on digital technology including artificial intelligence, robotics, automation and big data. This reliance has led to a disruption in all industries as it is calling for reskilling and extra training at all levels. However, while an integral part of the right to education is ensuring that education is of a sufficient quality to lead to relevant, equitable and effective learning outcomes at all levels and in all settings, quality education now requires, at a minimum, that learners develop foundational literacy and numeracy skills as well as critical thinking as these are building blocks for further learning in order to achieve a higher level of skill which is required to be proficient in digital technology. The problem is that 1 in 2 children in school do not achieve minimum proficiency in reading and several countries are not even on track to meet minimum learning benchmarks by the 2030 Agenda.
In addition while girls have improved their relative chance of completion of their education faster, they still face a larger challenge in some counties as there continues to be a huge gap between girls and boys starting with lower secondary education.
Gaps in the development of cognitive skills, loss of learning opportunities and the risk of increased school dropout have also been generated by the COVID 19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the gap in the completion of secondary education between the richest and the poorest was 49% in 2019. In 2019 31% of children and youth in 10 countries within South America or the Caribbean lived without internet access.53% of people aged 5-20 in the lowest income quintile had access to internet at home vs 93% of those in the highest quintile. Studies also revealed that across 164 countries while schooling increased on average across all regions between 2000 -2017, outcomes were highly variable across countries and regions with Higher income countries outpacing other country groups. (Angrist et al 2021 ) These issues still present a challenge in 2022.
In addition, things did not improve during the pandemic. 437 million children never reached via emergency remote instruction (UNICEF 2020) 187 million of children missed over half of in-person instruction. (UNDESA 2022) Globally 53 out of every 100 children were either out of school or in school but not learning-an additional 10 of every 100 children may be added to this total. (Save Our Future 2020) Other Covid equity variables included low household income, immigrant status or parental education as having a significant effect on elementary school student’s infections.
In addition, investment in education is still low and similar in countries with both high and low youth populations; e.g. about 5% of the GDP. These gaps will become even more pronounced as the School Age Populations increase especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is unfortunate as students in that region will not be sufficiently educated to deal with the world of digital technology. Why? According to IFC, although there will be 230 million digital jobs in Sub Saharan Africa by 2030 and by 2035 Africa will contribute more to the workforce than the rest of the world, by 2050 1.25 billion people of working age in Africa which will need employment to absorb the growing workforce.
In order to meet these challenges, states must invest in human capital especially in disadvantaged groups such as women and girls and early childhood education to develop new skills that are increasing in demand in the labour market such as high order cognitive and socio-behavioral skills. Digital infrastructure must be available and affordable for all in order to close the digital infrastructure gap. We must also have complementary physical infrastructure such as reliable electricity.
Increased revenue mobilisation by upgrading taxation systems where needed must also exist to provide fiscal space to finance human capital development and social protection. Financial support is needed for investors and entrepreneurs to develop the tools to deal with these challenges. In addition, social protection must be expanded especially for workers to spur greater entrepreneurial and worker risk taking and to facilitate worker transitions between jobs.
States must also improve the quantity and quality of skilled digital workers including upskilling the stock of low -skilled workers in their current occupations such as those working in informal farms or firms for the new tasks that the adoption of new technologies will require. In addition, States must maintain face to face attendance learning recovery and student re-engagement, address inequalities in education, engage in greater articulation with other public policy sectors (social protection, health, transportation and nutrition) and build on lessons learned from the pandemic.
In focusing in on cognitive digital and socio emotional competancies, the most effective ways of improving access to education and learning outcomes are: Increasing participation by e.g. cash transfer programs, community based monitoring of schools, low cost private schools, new schools and infrastructure and school feeding. Improving learning outcomes must also be supported by appropriate information and communication technology as well as the creation of safe, healthy, gender responsive, inclusive and adequately resourced environments that facilitate learning.”
[1] 2.8 billion if you include those children who are below the age of the SAP group