Building Hope is a documentary that was
created by filmmaker Turk Pipkin. The documentary’s focus was on education in
Kenya. In the documentary it was found
that once the students in Kenya finished primary school, they had nowhere else
to go. It was stated in the article that instead of graduation being a
celebration for new beginnings it seems as though graduation is a bittersweet
ending. There are goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that
are set in place for countries to reach. They are goals that were set in hopes
for them to be reached by 2015. One of the goals does pertain to enhancing the
quality of education and it is clear that we are not close to reaching those
goals in some countries. Although we are not close there has been great
progress and that cannot be ignored because the progress is meaningful. We need
more options to provide meaningful education opportunities after primary
education so that it is ensured that there are skills that are provided so that
students can be prepared for the 21st century globalized workplace.
A
drafted policy paper titled Total Reach,
Total Learning: Education Beyond 2015 was created by the Education-US
Chapter. This paper has laid out the desired framework and evaluation procedure
for future education MDG. The paper identifies that getting students into
primary education is no longer the biggest problem the problem is what students
do after graduation. The reason that students have nowhere to go after
graduation is due to the issue that there are financial, learning, and
geographical barriers which block the journey from primary to secondary
education. This is an example of the
inequality among countries and education and the skills that students are obtaining
educationally. The article states that a universal quality education must be
inclusive of pre-primary, primary and secondary education in order to
successfully create a skilled workforce ready to take on jobs that are
available in the current and future economies.
According
to the UNESCO there are about 71 million secondary school age children around
the world who are not in school due to factors such as geography, quality of
teaching that is available, and the required employment to help support their
family. Many students are also dropping
out and this is also true for the United States as well. The U.S. Department of
Education released statistics on the graduation rates in 2012 for high schools
in the United States. Nationwide there were over 26 percent of students who
started high school in 2008 but did not graduate in 2012. This could be proof
that education is failing our secondary school students. There could be many
reasons why these students did not graduate but for many the argument could be
that the education that is available to these students is not of good quality
or it is not relevant or stimulating in respect to career opportunities.
It is
important that the young people are listened to because this is their future.
They are the ones that will be impacted by this global issue. In a recent
report it was stated that respondents across the world thought that quality of education
is a global priority and that quality of education should not end with primary
school.
Jennifer Aiken
2/14/2013 5:41pm
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