Childfund calls on world leaders to increase commitment to education
11 February 2012
•By childfund
With 67 million children out of school, ChildFund Australia is calling on world leaders to renew and increase their commitment to education. The Global Partnership for Education Pledging Conference on 8 November in Copenhagen will be attended by government ministers, heads of UN agencies, CEOs, civil society organisations, teachers' unions and development banks from over 40 countries. The Australian Government through Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is playing a leading role as co-sponsor of the event. Considerable progress on education has been made by the Partnership but with world leaders focusing on European debt, the importance of investment in children's education is being overlooked. ChildFund is urging leaders to adopt the ten point plan recommended by the Global Campaign for Education and to pledge $2.5 billion over the next three years to achieve the following objectives:
- an additional 25 million primary school children enrolled in school;
- halving of the population of out-of-school children;
- a 7.5% increase in primary completion rates;
- 50 million new textbooks in classrooms;
- address the global teacher shortage by training 600,000 new teachers.
Nigel Spence, CEO of ChildFund Australia: "The Australian Government is playing a vital role as co-sponsor of this summit, and financial donor to the Partnership. We want to see our Government and other world leaders endorse the Global Campaign for Education report, which sets out a ten point plan for financing good quality education for all. "As a child-focused development organisation, we are acutely aware of the importance of education in breaking the cycle of poverty for children, their families and communities."
