Not even the pandemic could stop members of the volleyball team of the Faculty of Tropical Agriculture of the CZU in Prague from participating in a beach volleyball tournament in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Social responsibility is essential for us, which is why the CSR center has been operating at the CZU for a long time. That's probably why we won the National Award for Social Sustainability this year. For a long time, we are the most sustainable university in the Czech Republic and one of the most sustainable universities in the world.
"Of course, we were again fighting for SDG 4: quality education. Because ensuring equal access to inclusive and quality education and supporting lifelong learning for all is, of course, essential for us, ”says Hynek Roubík, team captain.
It is important to realize that access does not always mean the quality of education, or even the possibility of completing schooling. Even today, more than 100 million adolescents worldwide still lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60% of them are girls.
"Even at the end of 2019, millions of children and adolescents were out of the school system, and this was exacerbated by the advent of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has adverse effects on learning outcomes. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic affected at least 90% of the world's student population (approximately 1.5 billion children and adolescents),” says Hynek Roubík. In addition, at least 500 million children and young people cannot take part in virtual lessons.
According to a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is a great risk that so-called lost generations will emerge - whole classes of today's children who will be deprived of the future in some respects by the coronavirus. "And these are not exaggerated scenarios, literacy is a fundamental attribute of quality of life, especially in developing areas of the world," adds Hynek Roubík. For example, according to the Global Citizen study, children whose mothers can read have more than a 50 percent chance of living at least five years of life.
The crisis in education is also reflected in gender issues. Worldwide, for every 100 boys without education, there are 123 girls. In addition, from an early age, they are at risk of forced marriages and the associated unwanted pregnancies, which can endanger their health and life.
That's why we fought for SDG 4 again this year: quality education.
In addition, this year we had a team of faculty members from around the world - Eloy Fernandez Cusimamani from Bolivia, Kateřina Vihanová and Martina Klímová from the Czech Republic, Rohit Bharati from India, Eduardo Dussan Duque from Colombia and Charles Ogbu from Nigeria and finally, of course, Hynek Roubík also from the Czech Republic.
Check out the photo below or HERE.
Or watch the video HERE.
