Education For All — The Quality Project
If we could sum up what 2018 felt like, we would probably describe it as the year of controversy, but also the year of social movements. A year of change. This semester, in our class we have been given the opportunity to take a thesis on social issues that have occurred. Social innovation and corporate responsibility, things us as millennials and generation-Z should live constantly thinking of.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals provide a clear view of the worlds’ main challenges. The one that spoke to us most was the issue of gender equality (goal n5) and gender equality comes from how people treat each other. How we behave towards each other closely relates to our education or lack thereof. This is how The Quality Project came about. A project about adding quality in peoples’ life through equality.
Our first goals is to spread the word around regarding issues of education [As we have stated, education plays a major role in changing peoples’ perspective]. After some research, we concluded that developing countries should be our goal and specifically Niger. Niger is a county in West Africa, where total years of schooling add up at a mere 1.5 years (U.N.’s Education Index). In Niger, only 15 percent of adults can read and write, nearly 31 percent dropout of school and 70 percent of the poorest girls of Niger have never attended primary school.
Upon learning such important facts, we specified our goal and decided to gain some inside on what people thought of this issue. Would we have some supporters in making a change?
Our first interviewee knew there was an education problem in developing countries. Not the exact facts of education in Niger though. When we stated some facts he admitted he didn’t know the lengths of this problem. He said; its’ important to change this. How do situations like this occur in 2018?
However, though he feels this should not be happening, he himself doesn’t take action. When asked why he admitted; Its’ both a lack of means to do something and a lack of personal research about issues like that. We know people need our help but need a constant reminder, or platforms/organisations that make it really easy/ simple to take action. Platforms like funding ones, donations, volunteering!
As long as the efforts actually went to those in need he would definitely volunteer, donate, add to the cause.
The second person was aware of the problem in general. She knew that girls in Niger do not have access in education but she did not know that this issue still exists.
She believes it is a crucial issue that everyone should care about and get informed. She said that even though the problem is important, the majority of people can’t do anything drastic to change the situation because they don’t have the power to.
In order to alter this reality we need funds that will come from governments which are determined to improve the educational system for girls. So money is the basic factor in order to solve this problem. She herself would donate an amount of money or volunteer in a way that she could. She would volunteer from here because she wouldn’t be able to travel to Niger.
Then, we asked some more people
The next person we came in contact with, did not know about this education issue in Niger. We explained the situation and the response was immediate. She cares about this issue and believes everyone has a right to education. She characteristically said she feels bad that kids in Niger don’t have the ability to have an education nor are given enough years to actually learn.
She feels like the goals should be to expand the mere of 1.5 years of education. A solution would be for the government to offer some school supplies to those in need, so that more kids attend school. Donating to Nigers’ government would be the kind of act that seems suited, both with an open conversation about what are the current needs and possible solutions.
She would also volunteer, aiming to help kids attend school.
Another interviewee was aware of this issue. When asked if she cared about it she replied that of course she did and she believes that everyone in this time and age should have a right to the education that the majority of us take for granted.
The reason why she can’t be an active participation in helping those kids go to school is that she doesn’t have an income of her own to give. She believes that the government should provide schooling materials in order to give many children a chance of going to school without paying extra money for the basic stuff.
First of, she would hire construction workers to build schools in different areas and then raise money through charity to give the children school supplies. She would also volunteer.
We conducted one more interview,
This person was not sure that she knew a lot of things about Nigers’ educational problem in particular, but expected, because we are talking about Africa that most of the people have a lower level of education. It seems strange to her that young people are unable to go to school. The quality of their lives depends on the quality of their education. So it goes without saying that an educated race can react more clever and more correctly when problems occur.
She said; There is always something that can be changed. If you ask me, I would say that educating people is a must. The Nigerian people should have the benefits of education as the people of westerners’ societies.
Furthermore, she would focus in building schools and providing school supplies and materials. On a personal level, she doesn’t believe that she is able to bring change alone, but she could provide financial support in NGOs. She also feels that at this phase of her life she can’t possibly volunteer, maybe later on, but she is certainly willing to provide financial aid.
Given the answers we got while conducting these interviews, we realized people are willing to help! They care about this issue and in general think providing funds, giving school supplies, building schools and volunteering for a shared cause would help.
With those insides, The Quality Project continues.
The Quality Project is a project by
Eva Vasiou ,Vasilis Vasilopoulos ,Konstantina, Amelia K. , Dikibo Kwnstantina
This is an article about our progress in the course of Social issues, social innovation and corporate responsibility. Prof. Betty Tsakarestou
