The benefits of education are many. Not only will you personally benefit from receiving education when it comes to income, career advancement, skill development, and employment opportunities, but your society and community receive benefits of education as well. Societies with higher rates of degree completion and levels of education tend to be healthier, have higher rates of economic stability, lower crime, and greater equality. For more surprising benefits of education, read on. Those who get an education have higher incomes, have more opportunities in their lives, and tend to be healthier. Societies benefit as well because of having sound educational system. Societies with high rates of education completion have lower crime, better overall health, and civic involvement. Without education, no social, health, economic and political progress is possible. Investing in education is therefore essential for the future of the world. For over last so many years, Action Education acts on the ground to promote access to a quality education for all, mainly for vulnerable and marginalized populations.
How Quality education is beneficial:
• Quality education prevents disease and malnutrition
• Quality education can prevent preventable diseases and improve treatment uptake. A child under the age of five is twice as likely to survive if his or her mother can read and write.
• Quality education also helps to limit the impact of major pandemics. Women with secondary education are 5 times more likely to be informed about HIV/AIDS than illiterate women.4
• Quality education reduces malnutrition. At school, children are introduced to good hygiene and nutrition practices. The canteen offers a complete and balanced meal.
Education is the real starting point for a virtuous circle whose impacts are visible in all aspects of daily life.
Quality education promotes the well-being of children
• Access to quality education enables children to develop and flourish.
• Educated children have more confidence in themselves and their abilities.
• They acquire the keys to solve everyday problems and to prepare their future.
Quality education is a key to women’s empowerment
• Girls who complete primary education are more likely to find employment and be financially independent.
• Educating girls has prevented more than 30 million deaths of children and under-fives and more than 100 million deaths of adults aged 15 to 60.
• Universal secondary education could virtually end child marriage.
• Quality education helps to promote peace
• Education provides a sense of stability and hope for the future and helps to heal the trauma of pandemic, natural disaster and conflict.
• Quality education to adapt to climate change
• Achieving universal access to upper secondary education by 2030 would avert 200,000 disaster-related deaths over the next 20 year
• Education is an essential means of raising awareness and adapt to climate change. It has the power to encourage changes in attitude and behaviour.
• To effectively accelerate adaptation to climate change, advocates integrate education for sustainable development and global citizenship into school curricula.
(The author is working as a teacher in J&K School Education Department. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
