Put Education First, says UN Secretary-General

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012 BY MIKE KELLEHER 

250 million children cannot read, write or count well, even those with at least four years in school.

250 million.

This traps them and their communities in poverty, poor health, and sometimes violence.

That is unacceptable by any moral code.  The Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) partners have made tremendous progress over the past decade in getting children in school and learning, but much more needs to be done.

Today GPE is joining with dozens of other organizations to endorse and help implement the Education First initiative by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, which will attempt to get all of those children in school and learning.

The Chair of our Board of Directors, Carol Bellamy, is on the Steering Committee for Education First, along with U.N. Special Envoy for Education Gordon Brown, and other global leaders from government, international agencies, teachers, civil society organizations, private sector, and faith organizations.

What does Education First do?

Education First affirms the fundamental right to free, quality primary schooling so that every parent can give their child an opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

Its goals are to:

• Put every child in school
• Improve the quality of learning, and
• foster global citizenship

Take a look at this infographic GPE produced to help explain the initiative.

These ambitious goals will require an investment of $24 billion. Developing countries will need to commit 5-6% of their national GDP to education spending, and effectively execute education plans in partnership with all development actors on the ground, local national and international.

That’s a big commitment in cash, but the returns on these investments are substantial:

Education improves health and saves lives

• Over the past four decades, the global increase in women’s education has saved the lives of more than 4 million children. In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 1.8 million children’s lives could have been saved in 2008 if all their mothers had at least secondary education.
• Across South and West Asia, 44% of women with no education give birth without receiving antenatal care. The figure was just 9 % among women with at least secondary education.
• Education is a social “vaccine” against HIV, TB, Malaria and other diseases. Women with secondary education are more likely to know how to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, an infection that contributed to 260,000 fatalities in 2009 alone. In Malawi, 60% of mothers with secondary education or higher knew that drugs could reduce transmission risks. The figure was just 27% among women with no education.

Education lifts people out of poverty and boosts economic growth

• Some 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty—reducing the global rate by 12%—if all children in low-income countries acquired basic reading skills.
• Getting all children into basic education, while raising learning standards, could boost growth by 2% annually in low-income countries.

Education empowers women and girls

• One additional school year can increase a woman’s earnings by 10 – 20%.
• Educated women are more likely to have decent working conditions, delay childbearing, resist violence, denounce injustice, and participate in political processes.
• Some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys.

GPE’s partners will be working closely together to keep the world’s attention on these children, and to help implement the Education First agenda in their daily work.

As U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said, “Education is the single best investment countries can make towards building prosperous, healthy and equitable societies.”

Please take a look GPE’s written commitment to help the UN Secretary General reach the ambitious goals of Education First.

Source for Statistics: U.N. Secretary General’s Education First Initiative

By Mike Kelleher