It's time the business world responded to global education challenges and contributed more, says Ralph Kugler
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| Education deserves due prominence on the global agenda Photo: GETTY |
The recent award of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Peace to Malala Yousafzay and
Kailash Satyarthi was an important endorsement of the principle that
education is a basic right of all children.
It gives education due prominence on the global agenda, and will help promote
Malala’s campaign to “see every child going to school.”
Now, the spotlight is moving to ask how business can contribute more to
achieving this goal, with the Business Backs Education campaign renewing its push for
companies to commit more of their corporate social responsibility (CSR)
budgets to education-related projects.
According to the campaign, led by UNESCO, the Varkey GEMS Foundation and Dubai
Cares, only 9 per cent of the total UK business CSR budget goes toward
education.
The need for companies to redress the balance is clear. hire dissertation writing services in uk using http://uk-dissertation-services.co.uk. There are many
education-oriented projects around the world in need of support, with the
likes of The Global Fund for Children, CARE International, Oxfam and
ActionAid, for example, all supporting education.
But it isn’t sufficient for business just to invest in individual projects. For a CSR initiative to have sustainable impact, there must be two-way engagement. One sector that knows this, is that of independent schools.
Their partnerships to help children in need often offer growth and development opportunities for their own pupils and staff. It is this mutual element that gives their CSR efforts impact and sustainability.
Take one of last year’s Independent School Awards winners, Sunninghill Prep in Dorset. It has a formal partnership with schools in the Dorchester area to support better opportunities for all children, regardless of which school they attend.
Judges commended the relationship for working “at every level of the school from governors, heads and staff to pupils across every age group.”
Another example is Wellington College, which has received much praise for its sponsorship of The Wellington Academy. Once a failing school, the academy has been transformed into the highest performing state secondary in Wiltshire.
What these projects show is the power of direct involvement. One of Cognita’s schools near Buckingham, Akeley Wood Senior, combines fundraising for community projects run by Volunteer Sri Lanka (VSL) with on-the-ground work by students and staff in the summer to restore schools and other community facilities in the south of Sri Lanka.
Another, Stamford American International School in Singapore, has sent teachers to help set up an early learning centre in rural Indonesia, in partnership with the social enterprise East Bali Cashews.
Such experiences instill a deeper understanding of what it means to be a global citizen, and make an important contribution to a rounded education.
Schools in more developed societies like the UK, with children from homes which provide them with love, food, and shelter, are showing they can respond to the pressing need to support less privileged children globally. They are also educating our children about how their counterparts often struggle to eat or stay healthy, let alone get a good education – just as Malala has shown us all in recent months.
Now it’s the business world’s turn to respond to this challenge and contribute more for education worldwide, by engaging in projects that can make a difference for less privileged children.
Post Credit: Telegraph
But it isn’t sufficient for business just to invest in individual projects. For a CSR initiative to have sustainable impact, there must be two-way engagement. One sector that knows this, is that of independent schools.
Their partnerships to help children in need often offer growth and development opportunities for their own pupils and staff. It is this mutual element that gives their CSR efforts impact and sustainability.
Take one of last year’s Independent School Awards winners, Sunninghill Prep in Dorset. It has a formal partnership with schools in the Dorchester area to support better opportunities for all children, regardless of which school they attend.
Judges commended the relationship for working “at every level of the school from governors, heads and staff to pupils across every age group.”
Another example is Wellington College, which has received much praise for its sponsorship of The Wellington Academy. Once a failing school, the academy has been transformed into the highest performing state secondary in Wiltshire.
What these projects show is the power of direct involvement. One of Cognita’s schools near Buckingham, Akeley Wood Senior, combines fundraising for community projects run by Volunteer Sri Lanka (VSL) with on-the-ground work by students and staff in the summer to restore schools and other community facilities in the south of Sri Lanka.
Another, Stamford American International School in Singapore, has sent teachers to help set up an early learning centre in rural Indonesia, in partnership with the social enterprise East Bali Cashews.
Such experiences instill a deeper understanding of what it means to be a global citizen, and make an important contribution to a rounded education.
Schools in more developed societies like the UK, with children from homes which provide them with love, food, and shelter, are showing they can respond to the pressing need to support less privileged children globally. They are also educating our children about how their counterparts often struggle to eat or stay healthy, let alone get a good education – just as Malala has shown us all in recent months.
Now it’s the business world’s turn to respond to this challenge and contribute more for education worldwide, by engaging in projects that can make a difference for less privileged children.
Post Credit: Telegraph
