In September 2015, the United Nations launched a revolutionary agenda of such a number of development goals-said to be seventeen-in a commitment with all of its Member States. Most of them addressed the call for a paradigm change to bring about a remolded world by 2030 to address stubborn issues like poverty, hunger, health care, education, gender equality, clean water and access to sustainable energy, enhancement of economic growth, and promotion of peace and justice along with other critical objectives.
What is SDG 4?
Sustainable Development Goal Number Four (SDG 4) is one of the 17 important Sustainable Development Goals laid down by the UN. The title of SDG 4 is —“Quality Education” and the main theme is “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Among the above-mentioned goals, it principally mentions the urgent need for education to be inclusive and of high quality. By that, it means quality education available for everyone, who is monochrome to gender, culture, race, ethnic background, or any kind of condition.
Limitations to celebrating SDG 4
SDG 4, despite its ambition, has some limitations in the very nature of global disparities in education systems and vague measurement methods. The vagueness itself over measuring goals and targets of SDG 4 can lead to diverging interpretations by countries and organizations, creating a mess in tracking the progress. Most specifically, it does not directly address or tackle root causes, for instance, poverty, discrimination, and conflict. Some areas of greatest concern are lack of funding, inequality in education, conflict-created disarray, and various standards of education.
Restrictions of funding are considerably the greatest constraints to this expansion and enhancement of educational systems in conjunction with enhanced better quality in the Bangladeshi context. These constraints, often termed budget limitations, frequently give two results: classrooms that are not only overcrowded, but have dilapidated infrastructure and the use of outdated learning techniques.
Electorates that are marginalized, such as girls and children with disabilities who come from poor and remote settings, tend on a slightly higher trend to be excluded from educational opportunities with limited access to quality education.
Conflict and political instability displace millions of children with Educational Emergency. Poor supply of qualified teachers, more importantly, in remote and other underserved areas and it has always been a very similar barrier. In 2030, should sufficient measures not be taken, it could be very doggish. It foretold that 84 million children would be out of school and 300 million would be unable to achieve the basic mastery of numeracy skills. The statistics cast a long shadow over attaining the objective of universal secondary school completion. However, there are predictions of only one in six countries managing to accomplish this important educational milestone. Besides, lower- and middle-income countries project an annual financing gap of $100 billion in their quest to achieve targets on education. Such limitations, meanwhile, make it more adamant to respond.
The way to overcome limitations
The government of Bangladesh should prioritize funding education, ensuring enough funds for school construction, infrastructure development, and teacher training. The government should develop policies to provide free and compulsory education for pre-primary, primary and secondary education. Such opportunities, however, exist to motivate learners toward post-secondary education by lowering access barriers through the provision of scholarship opportunities and subsidies. Investing in sustainable infrastructure, embracing information technology that also caters to an increasing student population and develop a relevant curriculum.
Also, it is imperative to create pathways for inclusive education for people with disabilities. By formulating a comprehensive set of policies and programs that have concerns for children with disabilities, Bangladesh can make an equitable opportunity for quality education, through the universalization of personalized curricula and different kinds of accessible infrastructure.
The solution towards achieving SDG 4 lies in such a collaboration inside one inclusively built system where all the forms of education and service delivery come together under one world, one education system!
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Writer
Jeba Anika Chowdhury
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE