Social / Solutions / Education

There is no way any solution, improvement, or prevention measure can work without awareness. The public has to be informed of the rationale behind every measure and to understand the full implications, they have to comprehend the issues behind sustainable development. Education in this case does not solely refer to the formal schooling that most undergo in developed first world nations; it also refers to the various media and means through which messages can get through, such as advertisements and the like.

To quote UNESCO, "The goal of education is to make people wiser, more knowledgeable, better informed, ethical, responsible, critical, and capable of continuing to learn. Were all people to possess such abilities and qualities, the world's problems would not be automatically solved, but the means and the will to address them would be at hand."

Education imparts the ethics that fuel sustainable development, and the knowledge also serves as assurance of sustainable development's long term benefits. Social values imparted via schooling and other forms of education promote responsible citizenry. This, as previously stated, provides the will that will propel sustainable development.

Also, in a modern knowledge-based economy, nothing is more important than education. Alvin Toffler terms knowledge the ultimate substitute, and it ensures long-term competitiveness and thus sustained economic growth.

Education is what impacts the youth the most, and it is the youth and future generations that will be benefiting from sustainable development. Education thus has to fulfill its role of positively influencing youth such that they appreciate what their forebears have done for them, and continue in their footsteps. Recycling campaigns, phasing out of disposable cutlery, conserving energy by turning off devices not in use, can all be enforced easily in school such that students may continue these habits.

Education is not a cheap process, but for the developing nations, there is nothing more important than it. Thus, state subsidies and free education are quintessential in the process. Education cannot be made optional as families would rather keep their children at home, actively working to bring in the bread. In the progressing from an economically backward agrarian society to a more advanced one, schooling is indispensable.