International Education Week: Why Education is so Important

Education is a process of providing structured information. It is accessible to every child for free in the developed world, so much so that it's almost taken for granted. The developing worlds are still striving to gain easily attainable education systems like ours, because education is seen as a platform whereby children can greaten themselves.

Education is a process of providing structured information. It is accessible to every child for free in the developed world, so much so that it's almost taken for granted. The developing worlds are still striving to gain easily attainable education systems like ours, because education is seen as a platform whereby children can greaten themselves. This week celebrates human diversity being bought together through the universal process that is education.

Image courtesy of Frontier's Madagascar Teaching project.

It's vital for youth to succeed, whatever their cultural background or ethnicity, it's a fact that the international community needs to be educated. In the developing countries, each additional year in school can increase an individual's income by an average of 10 percent. International education week is extremely important then in raising awareness to how crucial the accessibility of education is to every single child and teenager on the planet.

There are hundreds of projects globally that help provide education to those who are less fortunate, these include teaching abroad and helping out at an orphanage. Developing countries are in desperate need of English teachers who are able to volunteer. By giving back through voluntary English teaching you are providing a service which should already be in place; unfortunately it's not in some parts of the world and that's why volunteering is such a crucial process which needs to be put into practice.

According to BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) 4 out of 5 children who do not attend primary education is because they live in rural areas and school's are not accessible to them. Also, in these developing countries war and human conflict restrict children from attending school. It should be no surprise then, that around the world nearly 776 million people between the ages of 15-24 are illiterate. Nearly two thirds of these are women.

Education is a luxury that many in the developed world take for granted. Children in less well established states, more often than not, have many obstacles to climb before they're able to reach school. Schools are sometimes not well located and cars and bicycles are not affordable to the average parent, therefore, children often walk for miles if at all.

With education comes extreme happiness and gratitude. It provides children, who may not have been as fortunate in the past, with a future; a future, which will tower over their previous prospects. However, who are we to judge and tell them how to live? We should though, accept that all children and adults should be entitled to an education no matter how rich or how poor you are. No matter where you live in the world, whether you're black or white. Education is a necessary process needed in order to prosper. Without it we are denied a future, we are denied the right to have prospects. Where you're born in the world is a game of chance, why should location predominantly be the reason by which your fate is chosen. Education, therefore, is more important than some may think, it is a universal essentiality which every single child on the planet should be entitled too. That is why teaching abroad is such an important process; you can give life to a child.

Author Ed Hawes is the Online Journalism Intern for Frontier, an international non-profit volunteering NGO that runs 320 conservation, community, and adventure projects in 57 countries across the globe. Find out more about Frontier's volunteering opportunities and teaching abroad projects. You also can read more articles on Frontier's Gap Year Blog and get the latest project and volunteering news from the Frontier Official Facebook page.

Follow Ed on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ed_hawes

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