Stichting International Sustainable Education Foundation (ISEF)

According to the 2020 UNESCO report, 258 million children and youth were entirely excluded from education, with poverty as the main obstacle to access. The key factors that cause the exclusion of learners in education systems worldwide include background, identity and ability (i.e. gender, age, location, poverty, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, language, religion, migration or displacement status, sexual orientation, incarceration, beliefs and attitudes). The educational exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic worsened as almost half of the low and lower-middle-income countries have not supported disadvantaged learners during the temporary school shutdown. Disparities exist even within a particular country. In Nigeria, for example, 71% of the most impoverished children and over 50% from the North have never been to school. In comparison, only 3% of the children from wealthy families do not attend school only on other than financial reasons (ethnicity, religion, disability). In the South region, 5 % of children are out of the school system. 40% of the excluded are from rural areas while 10% from urban ones. The problem of exclusion and lack of sustainability of educational systems is not just about transferring the necessary expertise and resources from privileged communities to the ones that are not in a position to take care of their young talent. The actual challenge is to re-design the relationship between education and entrepreneurship stakeholders globally. We at ISEF believe that nobody should be excluded from the benefits of self-directed learning, primarily based on their geography or inherited poverty. We also believe that education and growth are most transformational when based on the dialogue of equals. We envision sustainable training and empowerment programs or projects that can either self sustain themselves from the project’s onset or after initial capital investment.