The Reasons Why Education Is So Important

The importance of education is often overlooked in popular culture worldwide. Movie stars, moguls, billboard-topping musicians, professional athletes, and fashion models—some of whom freely admit that they didn’t graduate from secondary school or college—are often considered the brightest examples of human achievement. Meanwhile, the accomplishments of university professors, humanitarian foundations, and even Nobel Prize winners go relatively unnoticed. Yet education is vital for almost everyone, and millions of people don’t have access to the learning they actively seek. 

Why Is Education So Important?

In general terms, a high-quality grade-school education is essential because it gives students the cognitive building blocks needed for higher education, which provides tools for personal and professional success:

• Employment, salary, and health insurance. College graduates are significantly more likely to find employment, earn a higher salary, and obtain health insurance (typically through their employer) than high school graduates.
• Social bonds. Many students make lifelong friends with others who study or teach at their college. The more educated a social circle is, the more likely its members are to influence each other in making intelligent, healthy life choices.
• Personal growth. The more education someone has, the more contact they have with peers and faculty, which exposes them to a greater variety of cultures, skills, and experiences. These relationships foster healthy personal and intellectual growth.
• Superior reasoning skills. When educated people approach problem-solving, analysis of social and political issues, or teaching others, they are often equipped with superior understanding and critical thinking skills than people lacking formal learning.

In developing or low-income countries, however, it’s even more crucial that children and adults receive a high-quality education. This is because the needs of and threats to their communities are typically greater than is the case in wealthier nations.

The Importance of Education in Developing or Low-Income Countries

Education for students in developing countries offers many of the same benefits that it does elsewhere—and more as well. Because these children are more vulnerable in terms of overall health and safety, education has a direct life-improving or even life-saving impact on them. Benefits include:

• Protecting children from trafficking, child labor, and child marriage. Children who are in school are accounted for daily. Ideally, they learn about the dangers of general and sexual exploitation, and both of these factors make them less likely to be targeted. 
• Reduced violence. The more educated individuals there are in a community, the less frequent wars and other violent incidents become.
• Improving human and environmental health. Educated individuals are able to make better choices for their own health and are more likely to engage in pro-humanitarian and pro-conservation politics.
• Improving the economy. At the individual level, educated people are more likely to find employment and earn more. On a large scale, an educated population is one that develops more products, services, and infrastructure, which creates jobs and generates wealth.

Unfortunately, students in low-income countries also face additional obstacles to learning. Many lack basic utilities such as electricity and running water. The Elumis Foundation works to provide clean, safe solar electricity to countries in Asia and Africa through the delivery of solar kits. If you’d like to learn more about how to help them, visit the Elumis Foundation website today.

About the Elumis Foundation

The Elumis Foundation is a certified non-profit organization that was created in 2018 by siblings Eva and Michael Sakellakis (ages 15 and 13), looking to make a difference. Their father, who has his own successful solar business Elumis, helped and inspired them to form the foundation. Together they formed a Non-Profit 501(c)3 organization. This allows all donations to be tax-deductible by the donors. 100% of all donations received will fund the distribution of solar kits to be given to families who do not have electricity in impoverished areas of the world.

Elumis’ goal is to bring light to families and kids without that privilege through solar kits. These solar kits are powered through solar panels and can provide light and electricity for a family for up to 24 continuous hours. The Foundation has already made its first donation of 1000 solar kits in Vietnam and plans to distribute more kits to third-world countries throughout Africa, South East Asia, Central America, and India. Our goal is to distribute at least 100,000 kits to families in need.