Community Learning Centre as a Promising Medium for Promoting Sustainable Development Goal 4: Lifelong Learning

Kurawa, Gwadabe

Abstract

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 aimed at ensuring an inclusive, equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for children, young persons and adults. However, these aims may not be effectively realised, as shown in this chapter, through formal education alone. Rather, a mixture of non-formal education, informal education and formal education is more likely to support local people to bring about sustainable social change in their society. The chapter therefore analyses the concepts of Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goal 4 and argues that the community learning centre is a promising medium for the promotion of Sustainable Development Goal 4: lifelong learning. The chapter also considers participatory communication and adult education and learning philosophies and their importance in the Sustainable Development Goal 4 discourse. Good and promising practices in promoting Sustainable Development Goal 4 at the community level are presented through examples from Tanzania and Thailand. This is followed by comparing the ways in which these two dissimilar countries, from Africa and Asia, are promoting Sustainable Development Goal 4: lifelong learning for all. The chapter then concludes that the implementation of SDG4 policies and strategies across Thailand—particularly in areas occupied by vulnerable and marginalised communities—can be regarded as a positive vehicle for sustainable social change relative to the country. The promising practices of widening participation of adults and disaffected youth in alternative education programmes in Tanzania can serve also as an example of a possible course of action to reduce the rate of illiteracy and develop soft and practical skills related to SDG4

Citation

Kurawa, G. (2021). Community Learning Centre as a Promising Medium for Promoting Sustainable Development Goal 4: Lifelong Learning. In M. J. Yusha’u, & J. Servaes (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development (171-191). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69770-9_8

• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2021
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 6, 2025
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 171-191
• Book Title: The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9783030697693
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69770-9_8
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4920571