EDUCATION EMPOWERMENT TO PROMOTE POST MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)

A.     Introductory

Millenium Development Goals program will be finished in 2015. Eventhough there are many achievements in this global program, some weaknessess also arises. Several critics comes from experts, for instance: MDGs don’t have sustainable program after the period ended. Furthermore, the lack of empowerment of local people has been also considered as a factor why MDGs can be attained effectively.

A study done by Kim (1998) showed that Korea was able to grab amazing economy development within limited investment. The key was the government paid more attention to the education. Specifically, the primary and the secondary level of education were the main target. The reason to did this was the effectiveness and efficiency in the education investment.           

This paper tries to elaborate a program that might be considered as a continuance program after MDGs. The eight goals of MDGs seems very important to be implemented, even in the future. However, the author think that leaders of countries should be more focus on education. Why is education so important? History recorded that most developed countries were starting to build by strenghtening their education system.

             

(source: United Nations. The Millenium Development Goals Report 2010)

From the graph above, we can see that from all over the world, there were many children in Sub-saharan Africa did not attend scholl, 43 % in 1999 and 46% in 2008. Meanwhile, in Southern Asia 34% in 1999 and 27% in 2008 children who didn’t go to school. If we notice the whole part of graph, we may say that from 1999 to 2008, the percentage of out-of-school children in Sub-saharan Africa was increasing 3% while other region like Southern Asia was decreasing from 34% to 27%.

            The following graph elaborates the comparation between boys and girls in enrolling their primary school.

(source: United Nations. The Millenium Development Goals Report 2010

            The above table classifies education into three parts, they are: primary, secondary, and tertiary. For primary education, girls are less in most regions. However, it didn’t happen in Eastern Asia. Next, in the secondary level, Many girls in Sub-Saharan Africa didn’t go to school. In contrast, Girls in South-Eastern Asia, Eastern Asia and Latin America & the Caribbean seems already fulfil the MDGs’ requirement. Finally, in the tertiary level, there were some regions that couldn’t achive the MDGs, like: Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia, Oceania, Western Asia, and Northern Africa.

Based on the elaboration above, the author argues that there are several factors affect or influence the quality of education itself. There are at least three condition should be fulfilled in order to establish effective education system, they are: implementing culture approach, empowering society, and Allocating effective and efficient fund.

B.     Implementing Culture Approach

Each countries or regions has its own folkways and culture. The culture influenced people’s daily lives from hundred or thousand years ago and became part of their acitivities. Swartz and Jordan and Konai Thaman (in Teaero, 2002) defined that culture can be regarded as a set of shared prescriptive understandings because it provides specific guidance for expected behaviour, values and worldviews of a particular group of people at a given period of time.

            Gorsky (2008) argued that in order to erradicate poverty, education should be relied on suitable culture. It means that the the children’s environment should be eligible. In technical way, the habits could be: giving support from parents to their children, establishing a good mindset, and so on. In common sense, we can consider that better atmosphere of learning or studying will give better impact instead of bad condition.

C.     Empowering Society

The next step to promote sound education system is by empowering the society. Why should so? In fact, government and or international institution should treat people as the “object” and the “subject” as well. It is important because the society will get both advantages and disadvantages as Deneulin and Shahani (2009) explained that one of the MDGs’ weaknesses is the lack of people participation and empowerment.

            Therefore, involving society in this program will be wise. People will consider that they’re also needed and can be beneficial for others. Moreover, society will also work hard to establish a better education system because they already have “sense of belonging”.

D.     Allocating Effective and Efficient Fund

Facilitating the education system need a lot of money. However, not all countries have the amount. That’s why we recognize aids or fund-favor from several donors countries like Japan, european countries, USA, etc. In addition, those aids should be maintained well. If we go back to previous years, Meiji Restoration in Japan succeeded in improving their education system. This opinion is also supported by Fredriksen (2010). He argued that to promote well-education-aid, government should consider fund allocation and global coordination mechanism among donor countries.  

E.     Conclusion

After the end of period of MDGs program, there will be homeworks for all stakeholders like international institutions, United Nations, donor countries, and governments to do to continue the objectives of MDGs. One of the efforts is throughout establishing good education system. Of course, this job can’t be done without cooperation and synergies from all stakeholders including people or society.

F.      References

1.      Deneulin, Séverine, and Lila Shahani. 2009. An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency. Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

2.      Fredriksen, Birger. (2010). Enhancing the Allocative Efficiency of Education Aid: A Review of Issues and Options. CICE Hiroshima University, Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol.13 No.2 (2010) pp.11 ～ 29.

3.      Gorski, Paul. C. (2008). Peddling Poverty for Profit: Elements of Oppression in Ruby Payne’s Framework. London: Taylor and Francis. ISSN: 1066-5684 print / 1547-3457 online.

4.      Kim, Woo-Tack. (1998). On the Role of Education and Culture in Economic Development: The Comparison of Korea and Latin America. (http://www.ajlas.org/v2006/paper/1998vol11no201.pdf).

5.      Teaero, Teweiariki. 2002. The Role of Indigenous Art, Culture and Knowledge in the Art Education Curricula at The Primary School Level. Working Paper. UNESCO (http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/9199/10542967713paper_Teweiariki_Teaero.pdf/paper%2BTeweiariki%2BTeaero.pdf)

6.      United Nations. The Millenium Development Goals Report 2010.