Importance of Education

 Warm greetings to all!

What is sustainable development? According to the United Nations, it is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we look at this closely, it is basically highlighting the fact that it isn’t only about issues related to the environment, but social, cultural, and economic concerns. On top of that, attaining education has been acknowledged as an important part of our journey in achieving the other sustainable development goals. This goes to show that quality education is a crucial instrument for attaining a better and more sustainable world.

Academic Institutions like universities have a very important responsibility when it comes to attaining education. Since a university's main role is to be an educator, they can really have a positive influence on young people around the world to implement a more sustainable future. In recent times, the idea of ‘education for sustainable development’ has formed to be an integral part of the educational initiatives to lend a hand to many of the issues related to human development. Academic institutions will take on a very important role in creating a more sustainable future as the world grows. 

Universities can start by giving support to student discussions. When students are engaged in group discussions, this gives them the opportunity to support their fellow classmates so that the feeling of overload is gone. It most importantly helps develop the student’s critical thinking and leadership skills by giving them the opportunity to solve problems, debate amongst their peers, and have teamwork. This can help the students to face huge and complex problems with more ease. 

When universities pressure students about the urgent action needed and that we are in a major environmental crisis can bring students down to earth when they see how difficult it is to fix these issues humanity faces. This then leads to the students demotivated, demoralized, and even irritated. All those can lead to the teaching and learning process to ruin bit by bit. On top of this, these academic institutions should make sure to also talk about the environmental success stories in classes so that students see it in a good way. 

Our university campuses tend to create a lot more waste compared to other places, this is simply because of the high number of students going in and out of campuses every day. Tiny things such as encouraging students to stop using disposable items, to start recycling, and to go digital when it comes to writing notes can really help students to be more disciplined about taking care of their environment. 

Even though it may appear that the effects of climate change is a great distance away, the world is already racked up with pain. The way we treat the world can heavily impact our daily lives and for it to be impacted in a good way, we must take matters into our own hands and start educating ourselves on matters like these!