Why Educators Should Get Serious About Free Universal Education
As educators, we're optimists by nature, and we believe the global goals adopted by the United Nations late last month will be achieved by the 2030 target date, including free quality education for all. What gives this particular goal the best chance of success is how the U.N.-identified "sustainable development goals" are interrelated—the success of one requiring the success of others. The elimination of poverty and hunger and the ensuring of healthy lives and gender equity, to name a few, are all benefits of quality education.
Why the optimism? Start with the people who were not in New York City to attend the United Nations but who dominate global attention—the millions around the world displaced and on the move because of natural and man-made disasters, and the parents who are risking everything to give their children a quality education, a healthy start, and an upbringing free of violence. We can see this most recently with the tens of thousands fleeing war-torn Syria and Afghanistan and the mounting human toll of that exodus.
No single goal's success will end this misery. Teachers in Lebanon working double and triple shifts to accommodate Syrian-refugee students without extra pay are part of a comprehensive solution only when we add meaningful civil society and governmental interventions. The inclusion and accountability that link our challenges together will drive a new definition of success that leaves Why Educators Should Get Serious About Free Universal Education - Education Week: