Entrepreneurship Report: Quality Education Challenges and Solutions

This entrepreneurship report addresses challenges within the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4, focusing on quality education. The report identifies key problems such as lack of student proficiency, limited access to schools, inadequate teacher capabilities, and insufficient educational opportunities for women and girls. It proposes solutions including improved teacher training, large-scale awareness campaigns, parent-teacher meetings, increased opportunities for women and girls, enhanced student motivation strategies, and the conversion of traditional classrooms into virtual learning environments. An action plan outlines specific steps, stakeholders involved, and timelines for implementing these solutions, aiming to improve educational outcomes and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The report emphasizes the importance of addressing these issues to achieve the goals of quality education by 2030.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Description of problem........................................................................................................2
Lack of proficiency in students........................................................................................3
Lack of opportunities for students to go to school..........................................................3
Lack of teachers capabilities............................................................................................4
Need for better educational opportunity for women and girls.........................................4
Potential solutions................................................................................................................4
Improving training of teachers responsible for primary and secondary education and
for improving their technical capabilities....................................................................................4
Organizing campaigns on a large scale...........................................................................5
Conducting teacher and parents meeting.........................................................................5
Improving opportunities for girls and women.................................................................5
Improving student’s motivation.......................................................................................6
Changing traditional classrooms into virtual classrooms................................................6
Conclusions and proposed action plan................................................................................7
Action plan.......................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
United Nations Sustainable development Goals includes all the global goals that had been
adopted by the Member States of United Nations in the year 2015 in form of a universal call for
taking appropriate actions for ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring that all people
can enjoy prosperity and peace by 2030 (Ali 2019). Moreover these goals are of great importance
because they can help in acting as a powerful platform for supporting the monitoring and
implementation for Rights of Persons with disabilities. There are 17 Sustainable development
goals as identified by the United Nations including- Zero hunger, good health and wellbeing,
quality education, gender equality, reduced inequalities and similar others. One of these goals
includes quality education (Chin and Jacobsson 2016). The main aim of the 4th sustainable
development goal of the quality education is to ensure equal opportunity and equal quality of
education for promotion of lifelong learning opportunity (Biermann, Kanie and Kim 2017). The
main aim of the paper is to propose a solution to the challenge identified by one of the UN
sustainable developmental goals. The paper will therefore discuss about a problem statement for
showing the problem that is being faced by one of the UN sustainable developmental goals,
identify possible solutions, and to provide a proposed action plan.
Description of problem
Some of the major goals of the United Nations Sustainable development goals 4th goal
that is quality education includes- Ensuring that all the boys and girls get access to equitable free
and better quality of primary and secondary education by 2030 for the purpose of leading to
effective and relevant learning outcomes (Bouwma et al. 2018). It also has the objective of
ensuring that by the year 2030, all the boys and girls will have access to high quality early

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childhood development for the purpose of preparing them for primary education. To ensure equal
access to quality and affordable vocational, technical and tertiary education. The UN sustainable
development goals of quality education also has the objective of improving the skills of adults
and youths for making them employable (Costanza, Fioramonti and Kubiszewski 2016).
Irrespective of these goals and objectives there are a number of problems that are being faced by
the 4th sustainable development goals of united nations such as- lack of proficiency skills in
many of the students, still many students are not getting an opportunity to go to school, rapid
technological changes are taking place that are bringing a number of challenges and
opportunities, and improved educational opportunities for girls, women and other people
belonging to the vulnerable settings (Ferguson et al. 2018).
Lack of proficiency in students
According to the research conducted in the year 2015, about 617 million adolescents and
children or about 50 % of the adolescent and children are not achieving minimum levels of
proficiency in mathematics or reading (Dahlmann et al. 2019). It was also found that out of the
617 million children about 1/3rd of the children and adolescent were not going to school that was
affecting their proficiency (Franco and Derbyshire 2020). By developing proficiency of students,
they can become more employable because it can help in providing strength to an individual in
relation to particular skills.
Lack of opportunities for students to go to school
It was found that in many developing countries, there is a lack of infrastructural facilities
that provide for effective learning environments. Many countries still face the problem of lack of
electricity, computers, lack of internet and other basic necessities in school providing primary
and secondary education (Haddad 2018). And although the total amount spent on scholarship

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was 1.3 billion dollars in the year 2017, about 2/3rd of this was mainly used up by developed
nations such as United Kingdom, Australia, and various others (Ferguson et al. 2019).
Lack of teachers capabilities
From a study, it has been found out that primary school teachers lack proper training and
the training that is provided to them has remained stagnant around 85% in the year 2015.
Moreover the proportion of training provided to teachers is even low for sub-Saharan African
locations. Moreover, it has also been found out that though there are a number of rapid
technological changes taking place but the teachers are unable to cope up with the technological
changes due to lack of training that ultimately affects the students skills and abilities.
Need for better educational opportunity for women and girls
Although the educational opportunities to women and girls have increased however the literacy
rates among women is still very low throughout the world. According to the report of 2016,
about 750 million adults remained illiterate of which 2/3rd were women
(Sustainabledevelopment.un.org, 2020).
Potential solutions
Improving training of teachers responsible for primary and secondary education
and for improving their technical capabilities
Teachers play a very important role on improving the quality of education because they
are the ones who deliver services to the students. Moreover they are the ones with whom
students spend most part of their lives and therefore they play a very important role in motivating
the students to study and help them in acquiring all those skills that can make them employable.

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In order to ensure better quality of education at primary and secondary levels it is necessary to
provide better training to all the teachers such that their skills and knowledge can be improved.
By improving their skills and knowledge they will be able to deliver betters services to children,
Moreover better training should also be provided to teachers such that they can cope up with the
technological changes taking place. It had been found out that the technological changes brings a
number challenges and opportunities and therefore in order to take advantage in such scenarios it
is necessary to train the teachers properly. Moreover it is only when the teachers are trained
properly that they will be able to support the same among students and they can help children
acquire a number of skills and qualities by developing better relationship with them.
Organizing campaigns on a large scale
It is important for government to organize campaigns on a large scale such that everyone
can understand the importance of education. There are still many people who lack the awareness
about the importance of education and therefore do not support the education of their children.
Conducting teacher and parents meeting
Schools and colleges should organize for regular parents teachers meeting as this cam
help the teachers in knowing what all factors motivates the students and can also help in
improving the communication between the students and parents. Through these meetings,
teachers can also educate the parents about how they can help in developing the interest of the
students in education. Both the teachers and parents together can ensure that the students
proficiency skills are improving by keeping a regular track of the same and also by the
monitoring the same (Svensson and Fabeiro 2018).

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Improving opportunities for girls and women
It is necessary to improve the educational opportunities for girls and women such that the
gaop in the literacy rates between the genders can be overcome. For the purpose of improving
the same, first of all the awareness of the female children and adolescent needs to be improved
such that they can understand why education is important for them. Secondly government and
educational ministry should provide a number of incentives for helping female children and
adolescent be motivated for education. The educational ministry can provide for more
scholarship programs for women and girls for improving their education.
Improving student’s motivation
Children need to be motivated such that they do not attend school but start learning at
school. It has been found out by a study that students are lacking proficiency because wither
some of the students are not going to school or on the other hand those who are going to school
are not learning due to lack of interest or motivation (Webb et al. 2017). This motivation and
interest needs to be generated by the teachers and also the head of schools by offering a number
of rearwards. These rewards may include scholarship programs and also by making education
fun by developing better relationship between the teachers and the students. Moreover teacher
should adopt mentoring and coaching approaches towards their students. Students should be
allowed to voice their opinions and other concerns related to the education rather than just
listening to their lecturers.
Changing traditional classrooms into virtual classrooms
School, college and various other educational institution should try to covert the
traditional classrooms into virtual classrooms by integrating technology in education (Hák,
Janoušková and Moldan 2016). It can help in improving the learning of the students by providing

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them a personalized and customized experience of education through virtual education.
Moreover students will be able to take control of their education and they will be able to learn
according to their own convenience and as a result they will acquire better skills and knowledge
(Griggs 2018). Moreover by integrating technology in education, the relationship between the
teachers and students can be improved, further students can be engaged in their lessons with the
help of educational technologies. Further teachers can remain connected with the students even
outside school premises. Moreover with the help of educational technology students can learn
faster teachers can help in mentoring the students (McCulloch 2018). Moreover technology has
got a major role to play in improving the self-learning and encouraging collaborative learning
between the students (Gladstone 2018). This is so because people learn more when they learn
together and with the help of technology the connectivity between students within and outside
school and other educational premises improves. Moreover by converting the traditional
classrooms into a virtual one, even teachers can take advantage of a number of opportunities.
The opportunities include- the quality of teaching improves as teachers are saved of much time
and effort with the help of online assessment and virtual lesson plans and that time can be used
by them for helping the students who are struggling with their tasks.
Conclusions and proposed action plan
Action plan
Identified problem Proposed alterative or
activities that can be
undertaken
The major
stakeholder
involved
Time frame
Lack of training to
teachers
Improving training of
teachers for helping
them cope up with the
technological change
taking place
Head of the schools
or other
educational
institution
At least 6 months
period of time is
required

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For explaining the
importance of
education to the public
at large
Organizing campaign
for at a large scale with
the help of government
intervention
Government
authorities
At least 3 months
period of time is
required
Lack of awareness
among the parents
Conducting parents
teachers meeting for
improving awareness
Head of schools
and various
educational
institution
At an interval of 2
months
Improving the
proficiency of students
and making them more
employable
Converting traditional
classrooms into virtual
classrooms
Ministry of
Education of
different locations
At least 1-2 years
period of time is
required
Lack of interest among
students
Providing different
rewards to the students
for motivating them to
complete their
education with the help
of various scholarship
program
Education ministry Scholarships need to
be provided on a
regular basis to the
students
Lack of opportunities
for girls and women’s
The education ministry
can undertake different
activities for providing
equal educational
opportunity for girls and
women
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the sustainable
development goals of United Nations is facing a number of challenges. Similarly the quality
education goals or the 4th sustainable development goal is facing a number of challenges such as
rapid technological advancements are bringing a number of challenges and opportunities for the
education sector but the teachers are incapable to adapting to the same, there are still many
students who do not go to schools, students are still lacking proficiency in a number of subject
and the refocus is required in the education sector across the world for also improving the
participation of women and girls in education. From the paper, it has been understood that in

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order to cope up with these challenges and to improve the education quality there are a number
of alternatives that can be adopted. Some of these includes- the need for converting traditional
classrooms into virtual classrooms, teachers need to be given regular training such that they can
adapt themselves to the changing technological scenarios in education sector, moreover
awareness is still lacking in many areas therefore government support is required for the same.
Moreover from the paper the action plan has also been understood that needs to be undertaken
for implementing the different alternatives identified in the paper.

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References
Ali, M., 2019, May. Education Quality Improvement from The Perspective of Sustainable
Development Goals Achievement. In Proceeding International Seminar on Education (Vol. 2).
Biermann, F., Kanie, N. and Kim, R.E., 2017. Global governance by goal-setting: the novel
approach of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Current Opinion in Environmental
Sustainability, 26, pp.26-31.
Bouwma, I., Veldhuizen, L., van Vugt, S., Gil, J.D.B., van der Sluis, T., Booij, J., Jetten, T.H.
and van der Togt, P.L., 2018. Research and the UN SDGs: Contribution to the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals through research funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture,
Nature and Food Quality. Wageningen University & Research.
Chin, A. and Jacobsson, T., 2016. TheGoals. org: mobile global education on the Sustainable
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Costanza, R., Fioramonti, L. and Kubiszewski, I., 2016. The UN Sustainable Development Goals
and the dynamics of well-being. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14(2), pp.59-59.
Dahlmann, F., Stubbs, W., Griggs, D. and Morrell, K., 2019. Corporate actors, the UN
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Anthropocene Review, 6(1-2), pp.167-176.
Ferguson, T., Iliško, D., Roofe, C. and Hill, S., 2019. Prelims', SDG4–Quality Education
(Concise Guides to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals).

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Ferguson, T., Iliško, D., Roofe, C., Hill, S., Ferguson, T., Iliško, D., Roofe, C. and Hill, S., 2018.
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