Education in the Developing World

By Kat



Education comes around pretty easy to countries like Australia. Instead of laws merely stating the right to education, and some minor text concerning curriculum or cultural studies, we have deadline-based goals such as this one- 'for Australia to be placed, by 2025, in the top 5 highest performing countries based on the performance of school students in reading, mathematics and science.' There are two problems with our global education today- education in developing countries, and what developed countries choose to do about it.
It's not as if we're that well of already. After all, around 250 million children of school age are illiterate worldwide, whether in school or not. Schools are created out of necessity, leading to the creation of non-formal schools as well as schools located- in all places- at a cyclone shelter.
Classes are often larger, teachers fewer, schools smaller, and many children walk an average of 5-6km each day to get to school, through treacherous terrain that is dangerous for any person, let alone a child.
External Influences like the war that is happening in Syria hinders the vast majority of out of school children from attending, in cases where despite the importance of education, there is no way to attend without endangerment. And even as education is likely one of the most important focuses in a developing country, a shockingly low amount is contributed to it. In 2012, only 1.4% of humanitarian funding was allocated to education.
What's even more shocking, however, is how much developed countries actually do to combat this. In 2014, Tony Abbott cut funding to foreign aid by 7.6 billion dollars, as well as cutting Australia's own education system. With the importance of education in a society becoming more prominent than ever, how come countries like Australia are the ones to fall behind? Even countries like Somalia offer free primary education, but due to the Civil War, less than half of children actually do attend school. Australia is a country that has pledged to support the Millennium Development Goals. We aim to provide a universal primary education by 2015. And yet in 2014, on the brink of the deadline, we find that support is diminishing. We need to rethink our budget policy- the government is not supposed to hinder the development of the wider world, nor the development of its own future. Education is the key to the future, and yet it is barred by unfounded restrictions- why, for instance, has the government invested money into military operations in Iraq? (clearly, ISIL is a problem that cannot be resolved by brute force, but that's a discussion for another day.)
It's time for a major rethink. Nelson Mandela once said that "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Yet, it is a change that clearly needs more value to its name in present day society. Education is the one factor that could majorly impact a global future. It is up to us to step up, and stop an era of ignorance that has gone on for too long.