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Education for all is an important global issue because a lack of education can affect future generations and even start a poverty cycle. Not only does it affect poverty, but it is also the underlying factor for many other global issues. “If the world were a village of 1000 people: Of the 670 adults in the village half would be illiterate” (Meadows). Meadows is trying to show us that many of the adults in the world are illiterate. This could affect future generations because adult literacy has a strong/firm influence on a child’s education and health. For example, if a mother didn’t know how to read or write, her child would pick up this fact and decide that it isn’t important in his/her life to learn it either. Then the child’s child would probably think the same thing and a cycle would start, causing more and more people to suffer from illiteracy. Another cycle education can start is the poverty cycle. A poverty cycle can be explained like this: “Official explanations are difficult to find but it is common knowledge that the illiterate are more likely to remain poor, and the poor are more likely to be illiterate (or uneducated and unskilled). It is a vicious cycle. The poor cannot afford education, and the illiterate cannot hope to earn enough to overcome poverty"(Hanru). As you can see, Hanru takes notice that education plays a big role in starting the cycle and continuing the cycle/keeping the people illiterate. When a cycle like this isn’t stopped, it can cause a huge amount of damage and can keep going for generations and generations, just like the other one. Like I said, poverty isn’t the only global issue that is affected by a lack of education; other issues such as illegal immigration are affected too. Many of the people who illegally immigrate immigrate because: a. they do not have a job or b. they don’t have the money they need to survive. “The main reasons why illegal immigrants come to America are family and jobs connections” (Illegal Immigration in USA). If this is true, it relates to education because the immigrant probably had a poor education and because of that they couldn’t get a good job. Links like these can all point back to education for all global issues. This proves that education for all is a global crisis and if we don’t solve it now while we can, it will only grow larger and more unrestrainable in the future.

Sources:

Hanru, Zou. "Education can break vicious poverty cycle." __China__ __Daily__. Sept. 8, 2005. China Daily. 21 Jan 2008 <[|http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-09/23/content_480262.htm>.]

"Illegal Immigration in USA." __USA__. 22 Jan 2008 

Meadows, Donella. "State Of Village Report." __The Donella Meadows Archive__. Substainability Institute. 22 Jan 2008 <[|http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn338villageed>.]




 * ==Why is this issue a global one? What is the main problem?==

Education is a global issue because without a proper education, an individual cannot interact with his/her community or surroundings. A proper education is an education that teaches a person their basic requirements to live and help them gain knowledge. The main problem is that a lot of people around the world can’t access or don’t have the resources to have an education. This can create a cycle of poverty and widen digital divide.


 * ==How is this issue affecting the world?==

This issue is affection the world because it helps create other issues such as poverty, digital divide, labor rights, peacekeeping, etc. If everyone had an education then the world would be a better place and help resolve some problems countries have such as war. If the poor people that are dying in wars had an education, then they would have more knowledge on how to fend themselves


 * ==What is being done to stop, prevent or fix this issue?==

Organizations such as [|EFA/UNESCO], [|UNICEF], and [|UNLD] all have goals to help children get an education, provide literacy and help funding for external financing for basic education. Other companies like Nike are donating money and helping get children into school free of charge. EFA is also doing everything they can to achieve their goal of having education for all by 2015 .