Angelika Sharygina
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very excited to welcome you to the very first World Higher Education Ranking Summit. And today's panel is very different because today you will hear the voices of change, voices from leaders in their community with student leaders. People that shape a better world through their actions. Young, entrepreneurial, and really passionate students from all over the world.
Today, there are more than 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24. This is the largest generation of youth in history, close to 90% of them live in developing countries, where they make up a large proportion of the population. These numbers are expected to grow between 2015 and 2030 and almost 2 million young people are projected to turn 15 years old, so connected to each other like never before young people want to contribute to the resilience of their communities, proposing innovative solutions driving social progress, and inspiring political change. Today, I'm really honored because today we are joined by amazing students that are contributing to the development of a better, more sustainable world.

Angelika Sharygina
I would love to introduce you to Richmond Fosu from the University of Energy and Natural Resources, who is currently working with the United Nations Development Programme in Ghana. Welcome, Richmond.
Richmond Fosu
Hi, thank you very much, Angelika. It's so nice and thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak passionately about the sustainable development goals, and more specifically about SDG 4, which talks about quality education. I'm very happy to share my experiences with you. I hope, I could make a good impression. Thank you very much.

My name is Richmond Fosu, and I completed my bachelor's from the University of Energy and Natural Resources. I'm currently working with the United Nations Development Program in Ghana. I'm so passionate about quality education because I believe, and strongly know that the youth today are the drivers of action tomorrow. If we are able to give them quality education, we will be able to force their hands and will be able to ensure global effects and produce a global impact in the future. And that is why I'm so passionate to talk about SDG 4.

SDG 4 Targets and indicators
I'll be speaking in two forms, I'll be speaking in quality education in terms of pre-secondary, and also quality education in terms of post-secondary. These are some of the SDG 4 targets that I am passionate about. I find it very interesting. Target 4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university. It is quite surprising when you see vocational schools, you will find more men than women which is unequal. We should ensure this equilibrium or balance.

Target 4.4 By 2030, we should substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship. If you don't have relevant skills, you cannot make any global impact in the world. I'm very particular about the number of youth and adults who should be well equipped with the requisite skills to face the corporate world or to face the working world. And lastly, by 2030, we should ensure that all learners acquire knowledge and skills. Not only knowledge, not only book theory, but also skills to promote sustainable development.

These are some of the educational challenges in Ghana and out of the main problems or the larger context of problems in the educational sector in Ghana. The school environment is usually not conducive to learning. I know we can all attest to the fact that in Africa, we have schools under trees. Just imagine a student learning under a tree. The in-comfort, the kind of inconsistencies, how is education being facilitated. How is that has been facilitated, these are problems that need a solution. These are some problems that need attention.

Classes are overcrowded, even in these dilapidated structures and hot weather. I would like to tell you that people are ready and eager to learn, but there are not enough facilities to accommodate them. We have water and sanitation problems. We have an inadequate supply of schoolbooks and trained teachers. Shortly, teaching and learning materials are also minimum.

Higher Education
So, what is higher education? I would like to quote that higher education has now been integrated into the wider globalization process, which means that whatever globalization in higher education comes hand in hand. For us to enjoy the full efficacy of globalization, we should be able to triumph over higher education. And due to this globalization, the internationalization of higher education is regarded as one of the leading trends. So, we cannot omit globalization without talking about higher education, and this also determines the value foundation of the functioning of most modern universities in the world, nonetheless, Ghana. These are the core functions of higher education.

Core functions of a higher educational institution
After passing through higher education, it should be able to give you the requisite or good quality of education. You should enjoy that part of education to its maximum. You should be able to come out to do the full research and come out with research projects, which are going to change the world.

And lastly, you should be able to contribute to society. This is something that's rare, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. People go through investments for four years, six years, and five years and they cannot contribute to society. Why? Because they lack the skills. And that is why I'm so passionate and I hit on that key issue that necessary skills don't only impact us with the book knowledge or the theory but give us also the skills to also impact society. And these are the challenges of higher education I said earlier. I'll be also talking about tertiary institutions.

And when I got the invitation to this program, I also sent Google Forms around to let students state some of the challenges they face in higher education. And out of the many, these are some things I see prominent in our life to share. The inadequate teaching and learning materials, laboratories, projectors, and equipment. Just imagine someone learning a science, and practical something, and the person has never been in the laboratory before. The person after completing the four-year degree comes out to do nothing for society, which is very disturbing.

We also have frequent strike actions by teachers who complain about lower salaries. And I think in Ghana, students were stranded, and we're left rested because teachers went on a month or two strike and also lack practical training. As I said earlier, some of the courses we study under our program are way more related. You can see someone studying science and a cause being given to the parents who study. It's also not related. It doesn't help ensure conformity and uniformity.

And lastly, we have also poor educational structures. I also solicited from people who have been affected by COVID 19 pandemic, people in higher education, and ask them, "How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you as a student?". And 48% of them were saying that they were really affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. First of all, the educational structure is not good. They are not well, and we can see from this case that COVID-19 also really affected them, both as students and individuals. You can see the gap we need to fill in terms of higher education. A lot of work needs to be done around this sector. One recommendation, I would like to focus on is integrating the sustainable development goals into the educational curriculum, and positively enough when you ask students about the Sustainable Development Goals, 8% of them were like, yes, we heard about the Sustainable Development Goals, which is a good thing. But the question we should ask ourselves is, "How to frequently advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals?". How do you practically use the Sustainable Development goals? And that's why, I'm so passionate and I would like it very much if world leaders could come and look at us Africans and change their educational curriculums such that these sustainable development goals can be integrated.

And from the onset of education, or after completing secondary education, you know what the SDGs mean. You know what you can do to help us realize some of these SDGs and a continuation to what I'm saying, the SDGs is a universal call to end poverty, protect our planet, and ensure that by 2030, all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

If we are even able to integrate this into the educational curriculum, as a matter of increasing quality education. We are also making sure that agenda 2030 is being realized to its full efficacy or potency. And as a result, if someone is well informed about the SDGs, someone can come up with nice policies to even tackle SDG goal 7, affordable and clean energy, a young professional can come out with something nice to tackle the situation, sustainable cities, and communities.

I'd like to say that quality education shouldn't normally be based on theory, we should provide infrastructures, we should provide facilities. And most importantly, we should provide the youth and young enthusiasts with the requisite skills to face the world. Thank you very much for listening to me.

Angelika Sharygina
Richmond that was an excellent presentation. It's truly admirable global and amazing what you're doing to promote sustainability goals to create change in your community and to inspire others. Thank you so much.

Angelika Sharygina
Ladies and gentlemen and now we are joined by someone extraordinary a leader in his community Yash Sehrawat from the University of Delhi in India. Yash has been working on SDG quality education since 2014 by providing education to the more vulnerable section of Indian society. Pleasant to meet you, Yash, and really excited to learn more about your work and how you advocate for UN goal number 4.

Yash Sehrawat
Thank you for such a kind introduction. I would like to start my presentation by just saying that education is a fundamental right, and everyone must have access to it. It is the foundation for children, for youth, and for our entire communities to reach to their fullest. It not only just improves our career, but it also improves confidence, and it helps the personal development of our lives. Unfortunately, in our society, we don't have the equality of education that we all expect. We have societies as haves and have-nots. And unfortunately, it is true that not everyone has the fundamental right to gain an education. I would just like to state an example, I would say that I'm the one who is privileged enough to get the education, but not my maid. So back in 2014, when I started my "Step For Change" journey of just educating my maid. It was just a step that I thought that I could do in just my summer vacations but in reality, it was not. Her peers in our community were all going to schools, except her because her financial aid was not able, and her family was not able to support her to go to school. I just started to teach her in a better way so that she can just enroll herself in a government school.

When I started teaching her, I just realized that society is so vulnerable right now and people don't have the access to education. I thought that maybe it was the right time to just start. Just take a step forward and just to jump toward the conclusion and start teaching. This global pandemic has taught us that education in the global world is lacking a lot. We have online tutoring which is not beneficial. I think that even if we, as students, even if we as people just take a step forward to teach someone in our society, in our locality, it can make a huge difference.

Education is not only the knowledge of knowing everything. It also helps us in social development. It helps because people will have the right to know about their rights, especially among women who don't have the privilege of getting the sanitation of themselves, who are now also forced for going to the grounds for open defecation. I think that providing just 30 minutes every day, we can spare 30 minutes every day and take a step forward to just go in our locality, just teach a child, just provide him a pen or a pencil, just give them some basic education, just teach them their rights, so that they can stay on their legs, or they can just support their families so that they can have a brighter future just like us.

At last, I would just like to say that the only thing that matters is accountability. The civil society and other stakeholders, including us, the young people need to just take a step forward. We need to push ourselves. We need to engage ourselves in the betterment of our society. And yes, we can believe it, I have achieved that. And I think that you all have the potential to achieve it. So, by that, I would like to just say that, yes, we have the potential of making a brighter future for everyone. So why don't we take it, we need to take just one step. Just provide them with one book, just give one pencil. And yes, it can make a huge difference in our society. Thank you.

Angelika Sharygina
Yes, this was brilliant. Your work towards making education accessible to promote this sustainability development is beyond the novel. I wish you great success in the implementation of all your initiatives and it's amazing to see leaders like you, Yash, that care about society, and that our young leaders nurture new generations themselves. Wonderful to see you here. We're really looking forward to your extraordinary, inspiring solutions that will target SDG goal number 4, and your implementation of the sustainable solution in your society, and then globally. Thank you so much.

Yash Sehrawat
Thank you so much.

Angelika Sharygina
I like to introduce you to the next generation leader, Prosper Atiah, a graduate of the University for development studies, who is now working with the United Nations Development Programme in Ghana, and he will speak on SDG number 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth.

Prosper Atiah
Thank you very much. Firstly, SDG 8 seeks to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, which is employment and decent work for all. It is estimated that about 172 million people worldwide are without work. It is also estimated that about 700 million workers worldwide are living in extreme or moderate progress. In the context of the least developed countries, Ghana to be specific. The Ghana economy has a diverse and rich resource base, including the manufacturing and exportation of technological goods, with a population of about 82 million people and a GDP of $74 billion, the Ghanaian economy is largely dominated by small or medium-scale enterprises, which we call them SMEs. These SMEs represent 80% of the business in the country and contribute to 70% of the GDP which I mentioned earlier.

A large population of the labor force of Ghana is largely in agricultural production, which represents 44% of the total population. The recent research carried out by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank showed that during the COVID-19 lockdown period, a lot of businesses shut down because of the lockdown. It has also been seen that 44% of these businesses converted have reduced the wages of 65% of their employees. This is sad and in addition to that, some businesses have also reduced the working hours of their workforce.

Moving forward, somebody might ask SDG goal 8, what can I do? If somebody asked that question, I will be delighted to tell this person that this is what you can do to achieve the SDG's goals. We should encourage various governments to be committed politically to improve or enabling the environment for businesses to increase. It is important that the government must make a suitable environment for all businesses to carry out their day-to-day activities in order to promote employment for everyone.

As an employer, too, it is good to provide decent working conditions for your workers to ensure that productivity is at its maximum. If you are a business owner, register your businesses, pay your taxes, and then you can demand quality public services from the government. Policymakers should also make youth employment a priority. Making the transition from education to a decent job easier but investing in education and training. Also, we should enforce laws to stop child and labor force abuse. Everyone must contribute to decent work and economic growth. You can help your colleagues or the workplace by dealing with harassment or with abuse. So done with these collective units to move forward and can attain SDG Goal 8: Decent work and Economic Growth by 2030. Thank you very much.

Angelika Sharygina
This was a brilliant example of how a young leader is creating a shift in his society. And it's a great honor to have you here at WHERS Conference, and see your incredible solutions that shape a better, more sustainable world. Thank you so much for your work.

Prosper Atiah
Thank you very much.

Angelika Sharygina
We are excited to welcome Elizabeth Araba who is a student at the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana. Your goal is gender equality. I really looking forward to hearing you, Elizabeth, thank you.

Elizabeth Araba
Thank you, Angelika. I'm talking about SDG 5, and it talks about quality education. Women are not really given much representation. They are not really noticed when it comes to decision-making in politics, economics, own properties, and all that. This SDG seeks to bring a hold to all these things. When we come to our school settings in Ghana, for instance, when we look at the SRC, which is the student representation Council, women are not really given much representation. When a woman stands for an SRC position, you see that students will not really vote for the woman. But when it comes to a guy, the students who choose the guy and they end up criticizing the woman. They consider women to be weak and cannot hold high positions and all that. And then people also think that women should not have a higher education than men. Men are supposed to have higher education and then women are supposed to stay more in the kitchen and all that.

When we look at our political system, we just have one female in the whole West Africa. Women are supposed to be given equal opportunities just as men. When it comes to representation in higher institutions, you see that the men are more represented than the women, and the women are not able to hold higher positions. It's assumed that women are weak and fragile, and women cannot hold high positions, but then the men can do all these things. The aim of this SDG is to bring equality to gender. Women can also have high positions. Women can be educated just like males. Women should be acknowledged. Women should also be able to hold higher positions. They should be able to do things that men can do. They should own properties and get higher positions in higher institutions and all that. Holding leadership positions, taking part in decision making and then owning properties directly, thank you.

Angelika Sharygina
Thank you so much, Elizabeth. This has been a very thought-provoking and very important issue that you addressed. I know that you're advocating for this in your environment in your society. This is really important you're doing and everyone who's watching us right now understands that women ought to be given more voices, more opportunities, more empowerment opportunities. Thank you so much, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Araba
Thank you.

Angelika Sharygina
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very excited because we see windows from all over the world. We see students that care about issues of sustainability in their community. And I'm very honored to be joined by Fatima Ahmad from the University of Energy and Natural Resources. Her favorite SDG that she's focusing on in her work is SDG number 8, Decent Work, and Economic Growth. Fatima, thank you so much for joining us today. Looking forward to hearing your insights.

Fatima Ahmad
The aim of this goal is to ensure that decent jobs are created, and then people are employed to improve the living standard of the people including their livelihood so that the economic growth of that community or that country will be improved. Looking at the research I did, I saw a report from the ILO (International Labor Organization) reported 2021 and in 2019, that the least developed countries are not able to achieve the GDP of 7%, which is the first target for this SDG 8. I will link that to the fact that people are not employed, and people are not getting jobs and then the COVID-19, which terminated the job of so many people. Their service was no longer needed. Money wasn't in the system when you look back.

Due to this the economic growth of the country, especially Ghana, and other developing countries reduce. And as a result of this, I will say that we students who are graduating these days or are yet to graduate are not fully updated with the skills that are needed to be competitive in the job market because our courses are not preparing us effectively enough. Measures like entrepreneurship courses are not being offered. The universities must promote entrepreneurship courses. If students are graduated and there is no job acquisition for that person, the person isn't able to employ themselves because of no entrepreneurship skills.

And then the second thing is the universities are not able to organize employability seminars and learn new things like speaking in public interviews, and practical skill gaining. When we graduate and then apply for a job or position, and we go for interviews. We lacked the courage to face the people. We are not able to express ourselves well. We may have first-class degrees, but we are not able to pass the interview.

Another thing is training programs to run different programs according to market needs. We do not even know how to prepare presentation slides and have deficient knowledge of using these tools and design. It makes us vulnerable when we come out, we are not competitive to meet this job market requirement. If we want to really achieve this SDG 8, which is to promote the descent work and then achieve economic growth, then we should instill these measures like entrepreneurship courses, software programs, and then employability comes to prepare the student very well to be more competitive in the job market. Thank you.

Angelika Sharygina
Thank you so much. It's been a very hard opening presentation. I believe that the challenges that you've addressed that are there in the educational system in Ghana, and around the world are really vital to be addressed. As we are joined by academics, and global changemakers, I do believe that they can listen to your voice and can create the solutions that will help here. Thank you so much for your initiative, for your bravery, for your resilience, for everything you're doing to remain eager to study no matter what and remain the person you are to fulfill your mission and help in your community. It's really incredible, which we're doing for sustainable development. I'm really honored to have you here. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very excited to welcome you to WHERS Conference. Today we have Lina Hussein, who is a young leader in her community. She's from Jordan from Princess Sumaya University. She's a student there. And the goal that she's advocating for is a goal for quality education. I'm very excited to welcome you Lina here. Please share your insights with us and your work.

Lina Hussein
The fourth goal of the SDGs is a goal that really focuses on education. The goal of quality education is not a goal focused on literature or numbers, but it is a goal to ensure that all individuals are able to discover their full potential and therefore their role in the community. The curriculums that most schools and universities have to offer are focused on our test scores. They're focused on how many words per minute a student can read, and whether or not they can find the derivatives of all existing equations. And as soon as we are finished with the subject, we forget everything that we have learned. It's unuseful simply because it's not practical.

Most of the time, graduates enter what the adults called the “real world”. They're completely shocked because they have to learn how to do taxes and how to buy a house and how to make a bank account and all of these things. We never had to worry about these things because our parents or guardians had those things handled. It's not just about the process of these tasks, but it's also about our jobs and the careers that we choose to follow. Most students studying majors related to programming will know how to develop a program that prompts the user to enter what kind of mathematical operation they want to have done. But will they be able to develop an actual website or app? Engineering students will be able to know what Pythagoras's theory is, but they'll never know how to design a foundation of a building. And then the student becomes demotivated. They keep asking themselves, why am I doing this? And what am I doing this for?

But we can't exactly blame the teachers because they don't even know what this practical knowledge is. And even though they can't really offer this practical knowledge, what they can do is they can offer support. The time we spent studying in schools, and universities shouldn't be the time where we try to get the highest average. It should be the time where we get to discover who we are, and what our potential is, what our passion is, what we want to do with our lives. Universities can help us with that, by getting the most successful people and having us hear what they did, for us to be able to do what we want to do.

There has to be cooperation between academia and industry to better understand and have an insight into what the future may look like if we choose to become experts in these fields. If we can create this community where everyone is doing what they want to do, then we would have teachers who teach, not because they have to, but because they'd love to. And this kind of energy, it's contagious. The students seeing that this teacher that has such passion and love for the subject, will be able to have that same passion and love. And they will study it because they want to, not because they have to. The idea of just getting it over with will evaporate.

And in the end, if we all support and work together, we will be able to create an education system that ensures that the community grows and that each individual in that community is a productive individual. What we lack in our education system is not in knowledge and it's not in books, but it's in love, passion, and support.

Angelika Sharygina
Wow, that's amazing. Thank you so much, Lina, that was really amazing, especially within your community in Jordan, advocating for quality education, but most importantly advocating for understanding the pressure that young people face when they are trying to enter this new and very alienated world after graduation. It's super important that you've addressed these challenges. And I'm really looking forward to hearing more from you at our next conferences. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lina Hussein is working very hard on the implementation of the goal number 4 in her community. Thank you, Lina.

Lina Hussein
Thanks.

Angelika Sharygina
Today, we heard some extraordinary solutions, and some really pressing challenges from young people all across the globe. My attention went through different presentations today and one thing that I've noticed is that young people, students, young graduates, and people that are really passionate about creating those sustainable changes in their communities need our support. They need academic support as guidance. They need academic and professional support as mentorship to fulfill their full potential, to make those challenges addressed in real-time effectively with the help of those who are already an expert and a leader in their field. Today, we heard some extraordinary solutions. But we need to work collaboratively with those who have experience in that. And I'm really grateful to everyone who joined our discussion today. Every student, leader, has been very passionate about advocating for UN Sustainable Development Goals for a better world by 2030. Thank you very much.