Quality education

Going to school is not so obvious. What it does in the Arsenals The fourth goal of the 2030 Agenda aims to ensure that all boys and girls can attend preschool and that all boys and girls complete a free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education that brings to relevant and effective learning outcomes.

Compared to about 50 years ago, the levels of education in the world have improved significantly: it has gone from almost 30% of children without access to education, to about 9%. Access to school remains critical for children living in poor rural areas or areas of conflict. However, it is not enough for children to cross the threshold of a school to be sure that they will receive quality education.

Sometimes there is a lack of trained and qualified teachers, the absence of safe facilities, the scarcity of sanitation facilities. Other times it happens that children arrive at school, but cannot benefit from the education they are offered because they are hungry, tired from work or from domestic tasks. These critical issues therefore make it necessary to further emphasize the need to work so that the right to education is fully implemented for all.

In any case, the aspect of the quality of education is fundamental for all countries, even for those where being able to go to school seems almost a given. It is no coincidence that in one of the paragraphs of the 2030 Agenda that further specify what is meant by quality education, it is stated the importance of the school working to ensure that students are educated to become citizens who support sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles. , human rights, gender equality, the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and the enhancement of cultural diversity.

Sermig also questioned these issues and gave answers that were expressed in many different ways: from the Italian course for guests of the Arsenale della Pace, to the literacy course for street men in São Paulo; from after school for the children of the Arsenale della Piazza, to the nursery and kindergarten in the Porta Palazzo district or to the school for children with disabilities at the Arsenale dell’Incontro in Jordan. In all these paths, the primary objective was not only to give an education as an end in itself, but to accompany the person, the child and his family to discover or rediscover their own value and talents, to be spent in their own life, but also to be trafficked in the world, as an added value to be shared in society.

The statements in the 2030 Agenda underline the fundamental role of education for all, summarized very well by a famous sentence from the Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela: "Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world".

Valentina Turinetto
NP March 2021