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Essay / Importance of School Environment in Light of the Sustainable Development Goals
Table of ContentsSchool EnvironmentIndia and Educational TransformationDiscussion and ImplicationsConclusionDespite the growing interest in research on school environment globally, research in India has not received much attention. The document attempts to emphasize the importance of the school environment by understanding it in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are of critical importance and will play a major role in achieving quality education globally. They set clear objectives for all stakeholders, including researchers, to ensure that everyone is moving in a common direction. The paper discusses the role of the school environment in achieving Goals 4, 5, and 10. Additionally, research on the school environment is reviewed and gaps are identified. The paper highlights India's current progress towards educational goals and offers implications for their improvement. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay Three years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. These included a new set of goals, set collectively, which we identify as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus, the 2030 Agenda serves as an overarching framework and, together with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 169 targets of these Goals, they form the overall framework for global cooperation. The idea of sustainable development was established in 1987 with the creation of the Brundtland Commission. They defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of subsequent generations to do the same. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2015-2030, cover an incredibly diverse range of areas mainly categorized into 3 dimensions: economic, social and environmental goals. These 3 dimensions are then prorated into 17 goals such as eradication of poverty and hunger, good health and well-being, clean and affordable energy, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, climate action, peace and justice, among others, with education being one of the most important goals. them. These focus on development for the period 2015 to 2030. Education is affected by Goal 4 of the SDGs. The SDG targets to be achieved under Goal 4 list the deconstruction of educational facilities and in particular effective, inclusive, non-violent and safe learning environments. He advocates that these facilities be sensitive to children, disabilities and gender. School Environment There is colossal variation in the definitions and sub-dimensions of school. There is also a great degree of confusion and back and forth regarding the use of terminologies to address the school environment, including school climate, school culture, and school ecology. This question has been raised by many researchers (Houtte, 2005). Attempts to address this confusion, however, are more widespread in the field of organizational psychology, of which school climate is a product, than in the educational field. Nevertheless, such attempts have been useful in bringing some clarity to the great confusion (Denison, 1996; Schneider, Ehrhart., Macey, 2013). However, when seen from a bird's eye view, the essence of it all carries the same thought. They all talk about improving the overall experiences of school lifethat a child is likely to experience and which can thus shape their development and outcomes. School climate is considered the quality and character of school life (NSCC, 2007). The importance of school climate research has increased exponentially over the past three decades. Early attempts to conceptualize school climate used Halphin and Croft's (1963) model, Moos' (1974) framework, and Taguiri's system to understand school climate (Anderson, 1982). With the growing number of researches, conceptualization has become a daunting task, however, these names remain pioneers in the study of school climate. The effect of school climate corresponds to all phases of a child's development, whether physical, cognitive, emotional, moral or social. The school environment is researched from a multitude of perspectives such as academic outcomes, mental health, well-being, and safety, among others. Thapa, Cohen, Guffey and Alessandro (2013) actually identify five dimensions from which school climate is essentially perceived. These are safety, relationships, teaching and learning, the institutional environment and the school improvement process. Under this umbrella of dimensions lies a range of specific outcome variables, namely academic achievement, equality, awareness, attitudes, bullying, school dropout, school connectivity, violence which have been observed with the effect of the school environment. The most studied is the role of the school environment on the academic success of students. The empirical relationship between them has also been proven through several meta-analyses (Bektas, Çogaltay, Karadag, Ay, 2015). Another interesting fact related to school climate research is that the empirical body remains largely supportive of correlational methods as opposed to experimental methods when studying school climate (Thapa, et. al., 2013). The review of research on school climate highlights the need for research in the Indian context to align with the depth of research on school environment globally. Aligning with global trends in school environment research would not only help in understanding the school environment holistically, but also in effectively identifying context-specific problems and solutions. This would put us on track to achieve the SDG targets related to the learning environment. India and the transformation of education All 193 members of the UN have adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, with India being one of them. Data suggests that no country has fully achieved the targets, but India is far behind. According to the 2018 Global SDG Index ranking, India is ranked 112th out of 156 countries, still lagging behind countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and African countries like Ghana and Tunisia. India performs moderately poorly on education (SDG 4) and extremely poorly on gender inequality (SDG 5) and social inequality (SDG 10) among seven other categories. India has performed poorly in other international studies like PISA and OECD, the results of which are in line with the above indicators. Government organizations around the world place importance on improving school climate as a way to improve the quality of education. For example, the U.S. Department of Education launched a program in 2007 called Safe and Supportive Schools. The UN Child-Friendly Schools Handbook (UNICEF, 2009) addresses the school environment in many ways..