Thoughts and reflection on Unit 1

1) What are the most urgent and important goals among 17 SDGs in your own community/region? And
why?

Goal 4: The Philippines must prioritize providing high-quality education. The Philippine education system
has many issues that need to be addressed, but our Department of Education should consider the
elements mentioned above when evaluating its existing policies. DepEd has already taken a number of
actions to address these issues. There are two programs: the K-12 program, which strives to produce
graduates who are globally competitive, and Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE),
which intends to employ the natural language of children in their early stages of education.

2) What are the most serious 'human rights' issues in your own community? Have you ever experienced
yourself or observed in terms of violation of human rights? Please describe your experience on the issues
and your reflection in it. Share your stories with us!

Grave human rights violations persisted in the Philippines in 2021. The International Criminal Court (ICC)
announced on September 15 that it would open a formal investigation into alleged "crimes against
humanity" that may have occurred between 2016 and 2019 as part of President Rodrigo Duterte's "war
on drugs" and between 2011 and 2016 while Duterte served as mayor of Davao City in the southern
Philippines. In October, Maria Ressa, the co-founder and executive editor of the news website Rappler,
received the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing media freedom, particularly for resisting the Duterte
administration's efforts to restrict the press. The Philippine government and the UN established a
cooperative "human rights program" in July to address human rights abuses and accountability
deficiencies in the country in response to domestic and international concerns.

3) Please describe the linkage between SDG4 and SDG16. How are they interlinked and connected? How
can these two linked goals create synergies?

Even while the general picture is complete, we still discover a few links that are not sufficiently covered
by the sum of the reports released by the UN system. Energy and education, water and urbanization, and
terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are a few examples of these relationships. We also draw attention to
the differential focus placed by various places on translating link evidence into policy implications. In both
cases, it would be important to ascertain if the gaps are due to insufficient analysis of these links in the
literature or the fact that the reports do not accurately reflect the available information and ideas. In the
first case, this would require research into these linkages using scientific methods; in the second case, it
would require more cooperation among UN agencies.

4) Why does education matter in achieving a more peaceful, just, inclusive and democratic society? Please
try to reflect on the speakers' presentations and lecture contents.
Formal, informal, and all three types of education are necessary for sustainable development. However,
the biggest barrier to education for peace and sustainable development is the current socioeconomic
structure. The discourse on education for peacebuilding and sustainable development needs to induce a
paradigm shift in terms of political ideologies, global economic structures, and our global cultural
dynamics because peace and sustainable development can only be achieved within the context of specific
communities working towards specific goals. This is not to imply that national or international
governments or peace are unimportant; on the contrary, they are crucial parts of a comprehensive
approach.