The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 is Quality Education. Further, the UN indicates that the 17 SDGs serve as a guide for countries, organizations and individuals to work collaboratively toward a more sustainable and equitable world. It is the aspect of individuals working collaboratively that draws me to share my contribution, albeit in a small scale, to SDG 4.
In the past few decades, global attention has been on the education and support of girls. Consequently, boys have been left behind in many ways. In one of my audiovisual production classes in 2018, I asked the students to produce a five minute documentary. Whereas all the documentaries were unique in their approaches, one pricked the heart of the entire class. It was titled: “The Cry for the Boychild.” The video highlighted the plight of boys, where literally every sphere of society had shifted attention and support to girls. From then on, I resolved to always include both boys and girls in my campaigns or projects. So therefore, I would like to share on a project I’ve been involved in since 2020 that has contributed to the attainment of SDG 4.
I serve in a higher institution of learning and research and teach units in communication, ethics, research, media, and theory, to mention but a few. The lock-down in 2020 gave me a chance to implement my desire to support both boys and girls in the area of education. In March 2020, the then-president of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, announced a lock down to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.
Before the COVID-19 and its related restrictions, like any other supervisor, I would meet my graduate students in a face-to-face setup and guide them on their thesis and dissertation writing. But with the COVID-19 lock down, supervisor and supervisees were forcefully separated. To cushion the students and enable them complete their studies and research online, I began an online session for two hours every Saturday, from 4:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m. EAT, to take them through writing the various sections of their thesis/ dissertation.
The students were hardly 20. But with each Saturday, the numbers increased. I came to learn that word had gone round about my pro bono research sessions. We welcomed them to be part of the journey. One of the disturbing realities was (and still is) that most of those students complete their course work in record time, then get stuck at the thesis / dissertation writing stage. Developing the research problem is tough for them. As the numbers grew, I came to realize that the challenge is a global issue. The students are from every corner of the earth. Time-zones notwithstanding, some students stay awake too early or too late to fit within the 4:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m. EAT lesson. And on Fridays, from 7:30pm – 9:00pm we hold mock defenses to guide the students to build confidence and focus in preparation for their defense.
The students are both male and female. I currently have them in two WhatsApp groups of 1,025 each. As many of them graduate every year, new ones come on board. I am sharing my story because it is my hope that the message can get to the UN, so that the emphasis on quality education also puts deliberate effort and resources on research. If the young men and women in universities struggle with research, then the quality of education will begin to be questioned too. This is because students who find it difficult to write their own thesis/dissertation sometimes hire people to write it for them. The disconnect arises when a student has an excellent grade on thesis/dissertation but can hardly formulate a research problem. It is to be appreciated that these are the same men and women who are then hired to continue teaching research and supervise theses/dissertations in universities. The problem, in short, is in perpetuity and transferable from the supervisor to the supervisee.
Pursuing More Integrated Approaches to Development
Since March 2020, the Saturday Research Remedial Series has been running. I set up the link, teach, respond to questions, and then conclude class. I was initially doing the planning by myself. But touched with the service I was offering, one student (from a University where I don’t teach), volunteered to coordinate. He is good at organizing activities: sharing zoom details, sending reminders, planning for mock defenses and even offering support to others. Moreover, other students on the platform are willing to perform a task if called upon, because they have seen others volunteering and asking for no pay. I therefore believe that contributing to the attainment of the UN SDGs does not require a lot of money. Good will, determination, sacrifice and commitment can be a catalyst that rubs off on anyone.
How can faith actors contribute to more inclusive models of progress?
I am a religious woman. And I’ve shown the more than 2,000 students that it is possible to do much with little. This has, in return, made some of them volunteer to serve in various capacities. But, a number have said that in the larger society, when they find a need they can address, they proceed to help without counting the cost or expecting a pay because they have been helped to succeed in their own studies, without pay. This is critical because initially some of them paid huge sums of money in Cyber Cafés to have their work done for them.
What lessons can be drawn, more specifically, from initiatives that link spiritual leadership with efforts to promote women’s empowerment?
Primarily, the only reason that I did not turn away the additional students who joined my remedial sessions is because of who I am and what I am. I am a religious woman. And my training and life has affirmed the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, that when you give without counting the costs, you will never lack. Additionally, the contemporary world is a world where many men or women want to serve in return for some form of compensation. Our two remedial groups (more than 2000 graduate students drawn from across the globe) have demonstrated the opposite.
The other motivation is that research informs quality education. And society needs a constant supply of credible researchers. This is our contribution. That men and women graduating from universities are confident with research and can support others in the same field. This is also a constant guarantee of researchers getting into various fields. This is critical because education and research are fundamental drivers for achieving the other SDGs. Thus, as Pope Leo XIV pronounced during his first greeting after being elected Pope, “let us move forward…together” in attaining SDG 4.
