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Action card Briefing Jan 2004
Is the World on Track?
At the beginning of this new century, governments and the international community set targets to dramatically improve educational opportunity for children, youth and adults. They emphasised that education is vital in reducing world poverty and securing a more equitable, peaceful and sustainable future. The second of the millennium development goals was to ‘Achieve Universal Primary Education’, within this that by 2015, all children will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. By 2002, the Global Monitoring report ‘Is the World on Track’ warns that “almost one third of the world’s population live in countries where achieving the ‘Education for All’ goals will remain a dream unless concerted effort is made”.
In Thailand, 81% of children now have access to free Primary school education, although some children travel by boat, which reduces attendance in inclement weather. In Malawi where education is free for all, many cannot afford to pay for uniform, textbooks etc. In Palestine, curfews, roadblocks and closures in the West Bank make it difficult or, in some cases, prevent students attending school. In southern Sudan, of an estimated 1.06 million school age children, 75% do not have access to formal education. Schools and colleges have been destroyed by the fighting, primary schools are often no more than a group of children gathered under a tree. Teachers rarely have any qualifications and these 'schools' lack even basic equipment like desks and chairs
Please send a postcard to the Minister for International Development, reminding him of the Millennium development goal of ‘Achieving Universal Primary Education’ by 2015.
Hilary Benn, MP. House of Commons
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