Our #TOGETHERBAND Voices mini documentaries, created by ‘The True Cost’ filmmaker Andrew Morgan, take a closer look at the stories behind the UN’s 17 Global Sustainability Goals. At the heart of each film are extraordinary people making it their priority to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing planet Earth. 

As we focus on Goal 4: Quality Education, Andrew travelled to Ahmedabad, India, to meet Gitaban Gita Pasi, a teacher of 6-14 year-olds at Gyanshala School. Gita’s own childhood was difficult; after her father became ill, her mother took her and her sisters to live with their grandfather, where her uncle raised them and paid for them to go to school.  

‘When I see kids in the slums I see my own struggle for education’, Gita says in the film. Her sisters studied until 7th grade but she was keen to continue her studies further, and is now also a supervisor for other teachers at the school, helping them, as well as the students, to reach their full potential. Although India has made great progress in education, with a 99% success rate of children attending primary school, a typical student in India is at least two grades behind the level of literacy and numeracy expected for their age. 

Our UBS Optimus charity partner for Goal 4: Quality Education is DIBS (Quality Education India Development Impact Bond) uses the Global Goals to focus attention on improving the quality of children's learning, something Gita is passionate about. ‘If good teachers are not available then how will kids learn?’, she continues. ‘We really need good teachers in India, kids need good teachers and so does the whole country. When we train good teachers our children in turn get a good education’.

DIBS supports education providers like Gita to do their vital work in schools. Watch Gita’s story in the full film below.