A Brief Perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals

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WRITTEN BY: Asanya Boluwatife Ndidi The unanimous agreement of the 193 member states of the United Nations General Assembly to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in 2015 produced one of the most ambitious and inclusive global aspirations in history. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Targeted at committing members states to ensure greater inclusivity, end poverty and push the world to a more sustainable path. The SDGs are broad and interdependent thus begetting the question as to how well these broad global aspirations are likely to result in implementable developments especially in developing countries. The inclusion of so many goals without a hierarchy of priority and without reference to inherent contradictions that are likely to result in conflict between the goals may have unintended negative consequences which may inhibit the timely/e
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THE CONS AND EFFECT OF INFORMAL EDUCATION IN AFRICA

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The cons and effect of informal education in Africa
What is Informal Learning?
Informal means something casual, natural, easy-going, or unofficial. Informal learning is also known as informal education. It is the kind of knowledge someone gains from the Internet, browse it on their own, or register for online training. In other words, things you learn outside the formal environment are called informal learning. Such knowledge is gained under the influence of society or surroundings without any theoretical practices like cooking, swimming, or driving.

Another example of informal learning is your mother tongue because you do not need an academic institute to learn ‘how to speak’ this language. You adapt the knowledge of language from your surroundings. But to learn how to write it, you are moved to a formal learning technique. Some of you might know the concept of informal learning or education as ‘asynchronous,’ in which students are not restricted to time and place. They are free to learn or attend the class on their own, anytime and anywhere. Moreover, it is the learning method that everybody is a part of daily, knowingly or unknowingly.

Informal education in many ways had an effect on Africa values and of which are:
°It promotes self-learning as it is mainly unplanned with no fee structure or definite syllabus. It is total, gained through practice in a natural way.

°Do not demand high expert skills to make use of a technique or stick to a strict period.

°Free from rules and regulations, it means one can choose any source of gaining an education.

°The nature of informal learning is stress-free.

°It is more accessible and democratic, offers unlimited research and knowledge via the Internet.

°It encourages one to learn more by themselves and practice the gained knowledge in daily life.

°It makes the learner vulnerable to share their information with others and gets valuable returns. 

°It help individuals learn to react to and control different situations and settings. In addition, it combines social entities that are important for learning. 

° Informal type of education  helps people to learn information in a new way. It helps to cultivate communities, associations and relationships that make for a positive learning environment.

°Informal education looks to create or deepen situations where people can learn, explore and enlarge experiences, and make changes.

°It provides an environment where everyone can learn together and can scaffold off of one another.

°It bridges the gap between school and life.

°Make learning accessible in every day life and in the future.

For everything that has advantage, it surely would have a little fault and flaws and informal education is not left out. The shortcomings of informal education in Africa values are:
°Its undisciplined nature makes the learner less immersed in other fruitful learning methods.

°The Internet is also filled with plenty of misinformation. Sometimes the informal learner gains the wrong knowledge, which causes trouble later.

°It doesn’t give its learner enough self-confidence to stand in a group of well-disciplined people. It does not provide an atmosphere to help one improve their communication, social interaction skills.

°This learning method comes with a flexible schedule which makes its learners challenge with procrastination.

°Here, lessons are learned through experiences or practices only; until then, one must face unpredicted results quite often.

°It is considered chiefly less effective because of the unreliable learning resources it has offered.
°The motivation of learning and sticking to the lesson or anything is lower.

°It mostly comes with no instructor or guidance to help improve the mistakes. 

The shortcomings of informal education in Africa cannot be compared to its importance,  therefore,  informal education to Africa values cannot be overlooked or underemphasize. 

 

References
(March 2016). "The Organization of Informal Learning". Review on research in education. 
Loomis, Molly (2011). "Informal Learning". WIREs Cognitive Science. 
Omolewa, Michael (2007). "Traditional African Modes of Education: Their Relevance in the Modern World". 

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