THE Philippines scored nil in educating its citizens about global citizenship, according to the first Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The report said the Philippines failed to promote key issues in its national curricula framework, like gender equality, human rights, sustainable development and global citizenship, although the country scored comparably with neighboring countries in other aspects of its educational system.
But the situation in the Philippines was overshadowed by the main finding of the study that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 193 countries pledged in September last year will not be achieved until very much later.
The report said “universal primary education will only be achieved in 2042; universal lower secondary completion in 2059; and universal upper secondary completion in 2084.”
These dates are far later than the 2030 deadline for global commitments outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals, Unesco said in its first report in a new 15-year series and the first official monitoring report for SDG4.
Other key findings include :
• Even at the fastest rate of progress ever seen in the region, 1 in 10 countries in Europe and Northern America would still not achieve universal upper secondary completion by 2030
• The world’s poorest countries are projected to achieve universal primary education more than 100 years later than the richest countries,
• In low income countries, universalizing upper secondary completion by 2030 would increase per capita income by 75 percent by 2050 and lift 60 million out of poverty,
• Universal upper secondary education completion by 2030 would prevent 200,000 disaster-related deaths in the 20 years that follow,
“One of the reasons that children aren’t learning is not just because they are poor but because they are systematically discriminated against,” said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, chief executive of Save the Children.
“Because they are girls. Because they are from certain ethnic groups. Because they are refugees. Because they live in rural areas. We have to address the systematic discrimination,” she added.
Unesco said the report shows that chronic under-financing for education is holding back progress and to cover the US39-billion annual financing gap would require a sixfold increase in aid.
We need a radical break, especially in low- and middle-income countries, to mobilize domestic resources, to build on education across the board, to tackle challenges urgently and holistically.
It also shows the need for education systems to step up attention to environmental concerns. Half of countries’ curricula worldwide do not explicitly mention climate change or environmental sustainability in their content.
“The power of education is our message today. Education saves lives, education is the path of sustainability,” said Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova.
“This is why we need to act in new ways, to put education first. People do not live their lives in silos—their education is not separate from their health, environment, jobs, sense of security. We need education to be at every table, in peace-building, in urban planning, in healthcare,” she said.
“We did research in 18 countries where school systems had addressed sustainability as a core way to deliver the curriculum. This led to a tremendous increase in quality,” said Dr. Charles Hopkins of York University in Toronto, Canada.
