EDITORIAL ANALYSIS : Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs

Source: The Hindu

• Prelims: Current events of international importance, SDG, covid-19, G20, G7, etc.
• Mains GS Paper II: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements involving India or affecting India’s interests, Significance of G20 countries etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals with 169 targets that all 193 UN member states have agreed to try to achieve by 2030

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs):

• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
• A universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
• It is a set of 17 SDGs which recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others and that development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
• Countries have committed to prioritizing progress for those who are furthest behind.
• The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women.
• The SDGs framework sets targets for 231 unique indicators across 17 SDG goals related to economic development, social welfare and environmental sustainability, to be met by 2030.
• The United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: It consists of 17 Goals and 169 targets as a plan of action for ‘people’, ‘the planet’, and ‘prosperity’.
• The resolution specifies mechanisms for the monitoring, review, and reporting of progress as a measure of accountability towards the people.
• Member-states submit a Voluntary National Review (VNR) to the UN’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF)
• VLRs is a means for driving and reporting local implementation of SDGs at the sub-national and city levels.

Reasons for slow progress in SDGs:

• Due to the prolonged effects of COVID-19
• impacts of the climate crisis
• Russia-Ukraine conflict
• weak global economy.

Impact on countries:

• It has been more pronounced in the Least Developed Countries.
• India: It has suffered a setback in achieving these goals.

NEP 2020 and SDGs

• SDG4 pertains to access to quality education.
• It is a prerequisite for the achievement of other goals.
• NEP 2020 has been prepared in tune with most of the SDGs.
• NEP 2020 calls for changes at all levels of education, priority should be accorded to higher education because:
  • It accelerates social mobility
  • Empowers people through creativity and critical thinking
  • Grants them employment skills.

NEP and higher education:

Impact of Higher education on SDGs:

• OECD report: People with a higher education degree are more employable
  • They earn an average of 54% more than those who only have completed senior secondary education.
• A university-inclusive education:
  • protects people against poverty (SDG1)
  • prevents them from hunger (SDG2)
  • supports them for good health and well-being (SDG3)
  • promotes gender equality (SDG5)
  • provides them decent work
  • Drives economic growth (SDG 8)
  • reduces inequalities (SDG10).

What steps need to be taken in Higher education?

• Universities should strengthen the research-teaching nexus in university education.
  • Students will become direct benefactors of the knowledge generated from research.
• Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary systems of education produce multitalented people who can pursue research
  • To find innovative solutions to global challenges such as
    • affordable and clean energy (SDG7)
    • sustainable cities and communities (SDG11)
    • climate change and global warming (SDG13)
    • studying their impact on an economy and the earth.
  • Radically change the way we produce and consume (SDG12).
  • Innovative solutions and start-ups (SDG 9) must be developed in collaboration with private companies.
  • Introducing Value-Based Education (VBE) will help citizens become responsible towards self, society, and the planet and help our nation achieve “Life on Land” (SDG15).

Way Forward

• SDGs are a matter of urgency, and actions by all countries, both developed and developing, to end poverty and other socio-economic and environmental problems
  • Countries should align with strategies that improve the standard of life and education, reduce inequality, and harness economic growth.
• NEP 2020 demands that Indian higher education be committed to mapping its day-to-day operations with SDGs.
  • Ranking universities according to the achievement of SDGs is a welcome move, but is still inadequate to meet the SDG deadline.
• To accelerate the progress towards achieving the 2030 agenda, stakeholders of higher education should be educated and oriented so that none of their activities leave any SDG behind.
• All higher educational institutions and universities in India should work together.
• Universities should come out reinvigorated and play a part in the education, innovation, culture, and civic life of their local communities.
• Community health, energy-saving measures, efficient resource allocation, waste reduction, development of local skills, as well as the sharing of services, infrastructure, and facilities with other universities or external partners should become a culture in universities.
• Universities should adopt sustainability as a mantra and incorporate SDGs into their institutional strategies, both in daily administration and in teaching and research.
• Higher education cannot work in isolation; It must be directly integrated with socio-economic development where each activity and transaction has meaningful and multiple impacts on SDGs.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Reforming the government delivery system through the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme is a progressive step, but it has its limitations too. Comment.(UPSC 2022) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)