The latest Supreme Court decisions regarding gun control, reproductive rights and the EPA are disturbing. Progress towards equity, peace and justice seems farther away than ever.
One of the ways to feel less helpless during times of confusion is to educate yourself and others. So this month, we are highlighting SDG 4 – Quality Education which promotes inclusive and equitable education for young people and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Ensuring young people have access to a quality education is essential to preparing the future generation. Lack of education and diminished literacy rates are linked to increased poverty, limited opportunities to participate fully in society and higher incarceration rights. According to the Governors Foundation, over 70% of inmates in America’s prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.
Minnesota has alarmingly high educational inequities. In 2019, we ranked 50th when it comes to racial disparities in high school graduation rates. (US Department of Education) Yikes. Yet, these inequities can be seen worldwide and have only gotten worse since the pandemic. Temporary school closures kept 90% of all students out of school and remote learning remains out of reach for at least 500 million students.
Sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenges in providing schools with basic resources and about one-third of countries in developing regions have not achieved gender parity in primary education. Globally around 5.5 million more girls than boys of primary school age were out of school in 2018.
All this to say, don’t take your education and opportunities for continuous learning for granted! Let learning fuel action.
Designed by Vittoria Catalfamo
