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New Education Donor League Table Report names and shames countries’ aid to Education |
27 June 2010 Today the 1GOAL campaign released its Annual “School Report” which showed that while donors such as Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom lead the way on aid for education, many of the key donor countries were reneging on their aid commitments with the worst offenders being Japan, Germany, Italy and America.
This comes as the UN confirmed that in 2010 African countries may be facing education cuts of up to $4.6 bn from their budgets as a result of the financial crisis.
The report by 1GOAL, part of the Global Campaign for Education, came ahead of a unique Education Summit which is being hosted by President Zuma on July 11th and will give Heads of State the opportunity to set out a road map and pledges from several countries to ensure further financing is provided to pay for all 72 million children to go to school. Heads of State from Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have already confirmed their attendance and others are set to follow.
1GOAL ambassador Shakira said: “I’ve seen for myself just what a startling difference education can make to young peoples’ lives around the world. The children I’ve spoken to have a brighter future before them, simply because they have been able to go to school. It is unacceptable that 72 million children are denied an education simply because politicians haven’t delivered the resources that are required. The next few months are crucial to making Education for All a reality, and starting this Sunday at the Leaders’ summit in Pretoria we’ll be watching to make sure there is significant action from all countries to deliver this aim.”
The “School Report” which comes from data provided in 2008 contains a league table of how donors are being rated on their funding for education. In the top three donors are Netherlands, Norway and Denmark
and at the bottom of the list is Italy followed by Japan and then Australia.
Aaron Mokoena, captain of South Africa’s national football team, said: “Without an education children can be left with little more than hope to get them through life and the fact that today, in 2010, millions of children cannot go to school due to grinding poverty shames us all”
1GOAL has created huge momentum across South Africa with the world of football and millions of fans supporting the campaign. We have the Summit in a few days where we will have the chance to lobby World Leaders to commit to putting education at the forefront of their agendas.”
A number of western donors including France, Germany and the US give almost two-thirds of their aid to
basic education in advice, consultancy and bureaucratic support rather than paying for teachers, classrooms, and children going to school. Not only is the spending directed in the wrong areas, a huge
funding gap remains from donors with many not paying their fare share. The cost of paying every child to go to school is just 0.2% the estimated $8 trillion that was spent on bailing out the banks could have paid
for every child to go to school.
The report shows that in the past ten years there has been huge success across Africa with 40 million
children being able to school in the past ten years. There have been some notable country success stories with the number of children out of school in Tanzania decreasing from 3.1 million to 100,000 and in Zambia decreasing from 600,000 to 100,000 and a 36% increase enrolment for primary education.
1GOAL is calling on poor countries to increase their spending on education to 20% of their national budget and for a roadmap for all African children to be in school by 2014. The real challenge is to ensure that once the basics of education are in place that children are able to leave with an education, for example:
- In Malawi, Uganda and Chad less than 40% of children that enrol complete primary school
- In Central African Republic, Rwanda, Malawi and Mozambique there are more than 65 pupils for every teacher.
- In Togo currently only 15% of primary school teachers have received appropriate training.
The major breakthrough on education funding is set to come at the UN Summit in September where 1GOAL is calling on donors to quadruple funding on education from $4 billion per year to $16 billion per year.
Along with new money, 1GOAL is calling for donors to prioritise the poorest counties and aid to cover the basic costs of schooling – teachers salaries, books and school buildings – are prioritised.
Over 12 million people have signed up to show their support for the 1GOAL campaign which is urging
people to show their support by texting or emailing into 1GOAL. The campaign is supported by over 160
of the biggest names in football such as Zidane, Pele and Ronaldo and is working closely with FIFA to
ensure the legacy of this world cup is further funding for education.
Download the report and summary here
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