India will achieve universal primary education by 2050.
India will be half a century late in achieving its universal education goals if the country doesn’t make fundamental changes in the education system, said Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report published by UNESCO on Monday.
According to the report, India will achieve universal primary education by 2050, universal lower secondary education in 2060 and universal upper secondary education in 2085.
“This means the region would be more than half a century late for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline,” stated the report.
India needs to make fundamental changes in its education system if it has to achieve the universal education goals by the deadline of 2030.
India falls within the average of Southern Asia, where universal primary education goals will be achieved in 2051, lower secondary in 2062, and upper secondary in 2087.
Despite showing a better performance than India and Southern Asia, the world will also take 50 more years to achieve the commitments. On current trends, the world will achieve universal primary education in 2042, universal lower secondary education in 2059 and universal upper secondary education in 2084.
The report said that India is the country having the most number of out-of-school students in the lower secondary level. Over 11.1 million students in India do not go to schools in lower-secondary level. Over 60 million children receive little or no education.
“A fundamental change is needed in the way we think about education’s role in global development because it has a catalytic impact on the well-being of individuals and the future of our planet,” said UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova.
Another report titled ‘Education for people and planet,’ showed the need for education systems to step up attention to environmental concerns.
“While in the majority of countries, education is the best indicator of climate change awareness, half of countries’ curricula worldwide do not explicitly mention climate change in their content. In OECD countries, almost 40% of 15-year-old students only have basic knowledge about environmental issues,” noted the report.
“If we want a greener planet and sustainable futures for all, we must ask more from our education systems than just a transfer of knowledge. We need our schools and lifelong learning programs to focus on economic, environmental and social perspectives that help nurture empowered, critical, mindful and competent citizens,” said Aaron Benavot, Director of the GEM Report.