Press Release
25 September 2008
Free education for all boosted by $4.5 billion pledge
World leaders, FIFA, corporations, faith leaders and education advocates launch Class of 2015 to educate 15 million children over the next three years
New York, NY, United Nation. Today, the "Class of 2015: Education for All" launched a new effort to build the political will to achieve education goals and remind world leaders of their promise that every child will get the opportunity of an education by 2015.
A remarkable line up of supportive governments, faith groups, NGOs, sports, private sector organizations and education advocates registered their commitment to action on education, announcing pledges of $4.5 billion towards the achievement of education for all, over the next three years - two-thirds of this for basic education.
When delivered, this money will be
enough to educate 15 million children, including those struggling to stay in
school as well as new entrants.
See
the Class of 2015 website for more
"I am proud today to help launch the Class of 2015 - uniting governments, faith
groups, the private sector, civil society organizations and football as never
before," said UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"As part of the UK's commitment to spend £8.5 billion on education in the 10 years to 2015, I can announce today a further contribution of £50 million to the Education For All Fast Track Initiative and £5million to match funds raised by Comic Relief with UK schools. Together we can help make education for all a reality for the 75 million children out of school."
Immediate impact
Joining together at the United Nations High Level Event on the MDGs, the "Class
of 2015" pledged to provide global leadership in the fight to fully fund and
achieve the education goals. In 2000, world leaders pledged to ensure that by
2015, there would be Education for All. Eight years later, the MDG of gender
parity in education has already been missed and the world is far off track for
making the other education goals a reality. Experts agree that the goals are
achievable - but much more needs to be done.
"Children are waiting at the school gates, despite repeated promises from the
international community. G8 countries and other donor nations are behind on
their commitments and today is a rallying call to work together to address the
gaps," said Kailash Satyarthi, President of the Global Campaign for Education.
"$16 billion per year must be committed and mobilized in a predictable way by
2015 to achieve education for all. The pledges made today, if delivered, will
make an immediate impact in developing countries and build the political will in
donor countries to make good on promises for funding."
Since 2000, increased funding has yielded results with 41 million more children
in school, yet 75 million children of primary school age are still not in
school, with many of them working in factories, on farms or caring for their
sick parents instead. For those fortunate enough to make it to school, millions
struggle to learn, as they share teachers with up to 100 other students, have
few or no textbooks and receive only a few hours teaching a day. As generations
before them also failed to have the chance at school, today 774 million adults
are unable to read and write.
By working together at key moments and mobilizing
people in developed and developing countries, the "Class of 2015" will work to
help achieve the education goals and ensure that every child has a chance to go
to school.
FIFA announced a new commitment to mobilize support from millions of World Cup
fans with its "Football for Hope" movement. "Together we can make universal
education in Africa a reality and raise awareness on the challenges and needs of
the continent, not only in the lead-up, but long after the final whistle of the
2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa," said Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA. "We
call on all governments to be accountable for their promises on education and
every sector of society should also join in and concretely contribute."
"Next year on behalf of the school children of the UK, Comic Relief will commit
to spending £5 million, including the money raised by the school community, on
projects across Africa helping the hardest to reach children get an education,
with the British government matching that money for a total of £10 million,"
said Kevin Cahill, Chief Executive of Comic Relief. "Through its innovative
Schools Choose programme, we will help UK school children understand the
barriers faced by children across Africa in getting a good education, with the
schools that get involved helping determine which particular work they would
like their money to contribute to."
Back
to top
Achieving targets
Prime Minister Brown, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso
and Satyarthi were joined by President H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone,
Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg, World Bank President Robert Zoellick,
Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, as
well as private sector leaders John Chambers, CEO of CISCO, Intel Chairman Craig
Barrett, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu and representatives and leaders
from civil society including Action Aid, Comic Relief, Education International,
FAWE, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision.
"Teachers are the foundation of Education For All," said Assibi Napoe, Chair of
the Global Campaign for Education. "18 million new teachers are needed between
now and 2015 to guarantee that each classroom has a qualified teacher and many
happy, healthy children."
Education is a critical piece of the development puzzle. For an individual,
education can offer a pathway to escaping from poverty, to finding a good job,
and to becoming an active and valuable contributor to the social and economic
health of our communities. For a country, expanding good quality education for
all is a big contributor to economic growth.
"To help meet the serious challenges that remain, the World Bank is projecting a
target of $1.5 billion per year for education through the International
Development Association, in 2008 and 2009, subject to country needs," said World
Bank President Robert Zoellick. These funds will help governments in over 30
countries achieve quantitative targets such as reducing the number of out of
school children globally by at least 3.5 million per year, and improving school
quality and learning for over 150 million children each year."
Momentum is growing and supportive governments and organizations are leading the
charge. Countries such as the Netherlands and Norway have been at the forefront
of the effort for a number of years and the UK has recently taken a leadership
position by giving long-term predictable aid to enable the world's poorest
countries recruit more teachers, build new classrooms and provide basic
materials like books and stationery.
Earlier this year, France and Britain also
each agreed to commit to supporting eight million children in school in Africa
by 2010. In June, the EU committed to a plan with an ambition of increasing aid
to education to $4.3 billion per year by 2010, which would almost double the
money currently available to ensure universal primary education.
Back
to top
Key commitments
Today's event included the following key commitments:
- Bilateral and multilateral pledges of $4.5 billion over the next three years
- FIFA announcement that a lasting legacy of the 2010 World Cup will be helping get all children in school in Africa and to mobilize support from an estimated 30 million fans
- The Global Campaign for Education committed to mobilize 20 million people to campaign on Education For All.
"The current economic slowdown and financial crisis cannot be a pretext for
reneging on the fight against poverty," said UNESCO Director-General Koichiro
Matsuura. "Today must go down as a day of real commitment for the education of
the world's children."
"Significant progress can be made towards the Education For All goals over the
next 7 years if those working towards these goals combine efforts to see the
universal right to quality education realized," said David Archer, Head of
Education for Action Aid International. "As we reach the half way point, GCE
welcomes the reaffirmations of this commitment and the new promises to ensure
that Education for All by 2015 moves from being a slogan to a reality.
"However governments have to be the prime players in this effort and it will
only happen if they follow through on the promises they have made. GCE urges
that today's commitments are followed by action to ensure that today is not just
a day of hollow promises but a day that truly marks the next push towards
achieving the education goals of 2015."
The Global Campaign for Education, founded in 1999, brings together major
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and teachers' unions in more than 120
countries. GCE promotes access to education as a basic human right and raises
public awareness to create the political will for governments and other leaders
in the international community to fulfill their promises to provide at least a
free, public basic education for all children.
www.campaignforeducation.org
Notes to editors
- Contact: Pippa Ranger, DFID UK, 020 7023 1607
- Meighan Stone, GCE (202) 538-9143
- Justin Mckenzie Smith, UK Mission (212) 745-9394
