A good school education is the gateway to a meaningful and successful life. Sadly, education has become a luxury many cannot access or afford. Worldwide more than 250 million children do not attend school, 617 million children cannot read or do basic maths and in sub-Saharan Africa, less than 40% of girls manage to get into high school.
These numbers are alarming, and they underpin the reason for the United Nation’s International Day of Education commemorated on January 24.
This year’s International Day of Education will be a platform to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realise everyone’s fundamental right to education, and to build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful future, explains SPARK Schools High School Product Manager, Khomotjo Mashele.
She says the debate around how to strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, how to steer the digital transformation, support teachers, safeguard the planet and unlock the potential in every person to contribute to collective well-being, is more important than ever before.
“Education lies at the core of every human’s path in life and their success. Education also determines a country’s place in the world, well-educated citizens make for a successful country.”
One of the major issues facing South African education is the scarcity of real-world education, which prepares children to take on the challenges of work in the 21st century and the implications of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
“At SPARK Schools we take the UN’s education debate very seriously. In fact, most of the issues they highlight have already been addressed and implemented in our network of schools.”
“Beginning with education in the country – we operate from the firm belief that education is a sector that will benefit from having both public and private contributors. We know that our government cannot do it alone. It is incredibly expensive to build a new high school and, with the growing population, there is a severe shortage of high schools in the country. We all have a part to play. That is why will be growing our existing high school, SPARK Randburg High by a grade in 2023 and, expanding our network of high schools to educate over 600 more scholars with the opening of SPARK Blue Downs High, SPARK Riversands High and SPARK Rivonia High.’’
