Globalization has proved that countries did establish a level of interdependency, showing how the flap of a butterfly that happens anywhere in the world, has huge consequences somewhere else, and let me say education is no exception. The whole world is currently experiencing a global pandemic as well as the challenges it represents; and an aspect that has been deeply affected has been education, losing both its reach and quality. As we are highly aware, most of the classes have been moved to an online modality becoming a great advantage for those who have the necessary technological resources, as well as a peaceful and secure home environment that allows them to attend a class without going to the classroom.
I am thankful to say I am one of those few lucky people that have these advantages. In fact, EAFIT University has been supportive in several aspects. For example, it has offered services on physical and mental health which I believe were essential in those times of uncertainty and absolute quarantine. The situation seems better around the world, people are starting to receive the vaccines with high expectation, and still, the University has been supportive on both points of view, whether you do not feel comfortable with classes at the campus, you can receive virtual classes; and whether you want to have an academic environment to study you can even go to the library and spend time on the campus.
Although not everyone has the same happy ever after story. According to the World Economic Forum (2020), 95% of students in Norway, Austria, and Switzerland have a computer to perform academic activities; compared to 34% in Indonesia; even 25% of high-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the US do not have a computer. Let's not go too far, let's talk about our country, Colombia. Personally, I can not believe that while 62,5% of the household do not have a stable internet connection and connectivity is only 6,2% available in rural areas, required for this era of virtual education (La pulla, 2021), the president is investing over 6,3 billion pesos in a television program where he portraits himself talking about the pandemic, the orange economy (one of his campaign proposals) and doing interviews (Avila, 2020); money he should be investing in education which, from my point of view, is the key to most of the Sustainable Development Goals.
I have to admit, I have always thought the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals seem a little idealistic for our current global situation. I believe countries are starting to give up on International Cooperation; since armed conflicts, corruption, narcotraffic, violation of human rights have become a landscape for both governments and International Institutions, where they are used to those kinds of news and their involvement seems lower every day. Clearly, lack of education around the world is one example of those rights been violated; and we are still very far away from reaching even a decent goal, in fact, remote learning remains out of reach for at least 500 million students around the globe (UNSD, 2020). It seems there is always an excuse to providing quality education around the world, especially to those that are in most need of it.
References:
Ávila, J. (2020). Duque haria programa de entrevistas y destinara $6000 millones a producciones de TV sobre Gobierno. Retrieved from: https://www.bluradio.com/nacion/duque-hara-programa-de-entrevistas-y-destinara-6000-millones-a-producciones-de-tv-sobre-su-gobierno
Li, C. & Lalani, F. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how. Retrieved from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/
UNSD. (2020). Goal 4: Overview. Retrieved from: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4
EAFIT. (2021). Retrieved from: https://www.eafit.edu.co/
UN news. (2020). Uno de cada tres niños en el mundo no puede acceder a clases a distancia si su escuela cierra. Retrieved from: https://news.un.org/es/story/2020/08/1479572
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