Literacy Numeracy

Many students complain about the stresses of studying and completing school assignments on time. Little do they realize how many other children and adolescents would jump at the opportunity to receive education. According to Wendy Kopp, the CEO and co-founder of a global network of organizations focused on educational expansion, 250 million children around the world are not likely to gain basic literacy and numeracy skills. This problem is not restricted to children, either. There are millions of adults - the majority are women - who are in need of education, whether it is literacy and numeracy or basic life skills. Furthermore, education was declared a human right by the United Nations in 1948 (“The Universal”). Although great strides have

Firstly, an education allows for better employment, as stated before. With a better income, people can escape poor living conditions. For example, less exposure to the elements or clean living spaces and plumbing because of good housing can easily improve an individual’s health. Education also helps a person to perform such a simple task as reading a medicine bottle so that they can treat their health problems correctly (“Empowerment of literacy”). Furthermore, the literacy provided by a basic education allows individuals to take better care of themselves by doing research on their own.

Education of adults on topics relative to their way of life can save lives as well. It is in this way that education reduces fertility rates and maternal deaths and combats HIV and AIDS (“Benefits of Education”). Another illustration lies in Zambia. Because of the education of health workers local to their communities, in the last six years, deaths from malaria dropped by sixty-six percent. “The same approach has halved malaria deaths in Ethiopia in just 3 years” (Education Counts 27). Educating people about disease prevention and treatment can radically change death

According to Paul Collier, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Oxford, “each year of education reduces the risk of conflict by around twenty percent” (Collier 5). On a similar note, having a secondary school enrollment rate just ten percent higher than the average decreases the risk of war by three percent (“The Benefits of Education”). In Sierra Leone, a Peace Education Kit was funded by the World Bank to help students “recover from the trauma of war, learn new and better communication skills, and understand how to negotiate non-violent solutions to problems” (“Building peace”). Schools that now use the kit cultivate forgiveness and compassion in their students in the hopes that upcoming generations will be able to rebuild peace and protect their individual rights. Some of the participants have already begun to apply the principles they have learned in their homes, suggesting solutions alternative to physical altercations when conflicts arise. The effects of the advocacy for peace like these are not limited to the nations from which they originate, and the same is true for their absence. “When educational disparities widen in one corner of the world, hopelessness festers and the whole world grows less safe.” (Kopp). Education has an influence that reaches beyond international