Sheikha Moza in major education push

Gulf Times

10:19 PM

20

April

2013

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser updates other members of the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) Steering Committee on progress achieved by her Educate A Child programme. PICTURE: AR al-Baker/HHOPL 

QNA/Washington

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser participated in the second Steering Committee meeting of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative, held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington.

The members reviewed the actions they have pledged to achieve the second goal of the Millennium Development Goals on education, and the plans they have adopted to take further individual and shared actions.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the meeting by making a special reference to HH Sheikha Moza for the efforts she exerts to promote education inside and out the State of Qatar.
HH Sheikha Moza informed the other members on the progress achieved towards the second Millennium Development Goal by her “Educate A Child” initiative, which managed in just a few months to support education for more than half a million children.
Sheikha Moza pointed out to the upcoming important meeting of the “Educate A Child” initiative in Doha in late April which aims to accelerate progress in the out-of-school children’s issue, and to facilitate taking concrete commitments to achieve quality education.

Sheikha Moza urged further co-ordination and advocacy among the Steering Committee members, and said that the top priority in the near term is to enroll all children to schools.

Sheikha Moza also took part in the ministerial roundtable on education challenges, held at the World Bank headquarters in the presence of UN Secretary-General ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Kim.

“What I hope to see resulting from these meetings is a holistic approach to getting children into schools. A comprehensive approach that tackles the obstacles that prevent children from learning. An approach that is not only focused on education, but also tackles poverty by creating job opportunities and the economic foundations that will enable education to be sustainable,” Sheikha Moza said.

Sheikha Moza set out her vision of what it will take to get all of the 61mn children deprived of their educational birthright back into school.  

She expressed hope that legal protection will be provided for the right to education in situations of insecurity and armed conflict through clarity, optimal monitoring mechanisms, effective methods of reporting, investigation and prosecution. To this end, Sheikha Moza added, the final report of a series of monitoring reports entitled “Education under Attack” will be issued in December this year. These reports have become a reliable source in monitoring and reporting the attacks on education.

The meetings reviewed the obstacles to the provision of quality education for children in eight countries: Nigeria, Haiti, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, which constitute more than 50% of children not enrolled in schools in the world.