Quality Education: UNSDG #4 by Madeline Beerman, Gabriella Carvalho, and Jenna Harker, Bristol County Agricultural High School

1. No.4 Quality
Education
Madeline Beerman, Gabriella Carvalho, and Jenna Harker
Stone Soup Leadership Institute
Sustainability Summit at Bristol County
Agricultural High School
June 5 - June 9

2. Facts Addressing ‘Quality of Education’
The United Nation’s describes their goal of Quality of Education as ensuring, “...Inclusive
and equitable quality education and (promoting) lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
● Barriers of a young girls education are poverty, child marriage, and gender bias
privilege (UNICIEF)
● 600 million children and teens across the world are unable to maintain a passing
score in reading, maths, and science (UNICEF)
● 147 million children missed In Person Instruction in 2020-2021
● 546 million children are affected by school lacking basic utilities

3. How has Climate Change Affected This Issue?
Climate change creates extreme weather events that can affect people’s
access to education. This is more prevalent in lower income communities where
there are other issues also affecting student’s access to education such as lack of
resources, food, and the absence of a safe and comfortable environment to learn
and live in.

4. How Does This issue Affect Our Community?
This problem affects everyone. Without a good education climate change cannot be
addressed and the information regarding climate change cannot be passed onto younger
generations. Additionally:
● People with more education are more likely to land higher paying jobs with good
benefits, and have higher overall health.
● People with less education are more likely to have high-risk jobs with low benefits
These communities have higher risk factors such as less access to green space, high quality
schools, and quality jobs. With higher levels of toxins, and less effective political influence.

5. How Does This Issue Affect the World?
Education affects the world is so many ways and is required for every wake of life.
● Lowest ranked countries to education are: Mali, Ethiopia, Guinea
● Compared to the US, many countries in South America and the countries recorded for
education in Africa have very low test scores
● Out of the 224 millions kids with no access to education, 129 million are young girls.
● 49% of countries have succeeded with gender equality in primary schools and 42%
of countries have succeeded with gender equality in secondary
● 123 million children teens and young adults lack basic reading and writing skills, with
61% being young women

6. How Does This Issue Affect the World?
Don’t have access to school.
58.4 million students
Are unable to get secondary education
39% teenage girls
Are able to attend secondary school, worldwide
42% of young girls

7. Potential Projections for 5, 10, and 20 Years
Outreach to grade
schools on the basis of
environmental topics.
Ensure teachers are well
trained and treated.
Ensure that schools have the
tools and resources that
they need to succeed.
Increase test scores by 1-
2%. Increase girls’ post-
secondary education 1-5%
A 5-10% increase in girls
enrolled in post-
secondary schools
globally. Increase test
scores in U.S. by 5%.
5
10
20

8. What are Sustainability Innovations in the
World That are Addressing This Issue?
Some examples include:
● The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which promises equal opportunity to every
student.
● The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (NESCO), which
promotes peace through globally teaching science, arts, and culture.
● The Foundations for Environmental Education (FEE), the largest Sustainable
Development Education Program
● Stone Soup Leadership Institute, offers educational opportunities to young people
around the world on the basis of sustainablilty

9. Leaders and Innovators on This Issue
Malala Yousafzai:
Malala is a woman from Pakistan who was targeted by the Taliban for speaking up for a woman’s right
to education. She was shot on a bus ride home from school one day. After she recovered, she
continued her work helping to ensure all women have access to quality education. She won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2014, and now the Malala Fund strives to help girls everywhere get quality education.
“Education is one of the
blessings in life- and one of the
necessities.” ~Malala Yousafzai

10. Leaders and Innovators on This Issue
Geoffrey Canada:
Geoffrey grew up poor in South Bronx, and when a teacher took an interest in him his life turned
around. Canada is the founder and CEO of Promise Academy, a charter school in in Harlem that is
dedicated to helping at-risk kids. The school is a huge success. In 2004, only about 11% of Promise’s
kindergarteners were testing above grade level, but today, that number is around 80%.
“Education is the only billion
dollar industry that tolerates
abject failure.” ~Geoffrey Canada

11. Leaders and Innovators on This Issue
Wendy Kopp:
When Wendy was an undergraduate at Princeton, even though she wasn’t an education major, she
wanted to establish a program where professionals and recent graduates could help disadvantaged
youth. She started Teach for America, which is one of the most successful teaching programs in U.S.
history. She recently started Teach for All, to place teachers around the world.
“My hopes for our kids growing up
today is that they’ll expose themselves
to the biggest problems in the world
and figure out where they want to make
the biggest difference.” ~Wendy
Kopp

12. Potential Career Pathways to Pursue to
Implement These Sustainable Innovations
● Environmental Reporter, educating the world on the issues of climate change- Education
doesn’t just stop with school, this job aims to inform the general public of environmental
dangers and success. The average salary is $50,000+.
● Environmental Professor, educating college level students. This academic occupation
teaches potential students biology and geology as well as natural history and medicine.
The average salary in Massachusetts is $103,000+.
● Environmental Lawyer, these lawyers specialize in topics such as clean energy, climate
change law. This job educates the court and the general public on the topics of sustainable
energy and could be the difference between and environmental disaster and a huge
environmental success. The expected pay is $60,000+.

13. Thank you !
“One child, one teacher, one book
and one pen can change the world.”-
Malala Yousafzai