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Dear All
It has been a busy year for education campaigners around the globe. In April millions of us took part in the World’s Biggest Lesson with 8.8 million people in the official count. In September celebrities, corporate, faith and government leaders came together with GCE to join the Class of 2015 and make new commitments to Education for All. In December campaigners jointly put pressure on their representative attending the High Level Group in Oslo last week, not to mention the numerous other campaign activities that have happened throughout the year.
With these joint efforts by everyone within the GCE coalition and membership there is heightened attention to achieving the Education for All goals, and we should look forward to 2009 when we have the chance to get some real very commitments to Education for All. GCE will be putting full steam into the next Global Action Week activity – the Big Read, in which we hope millions will take part and campaign for literacy for all.
With best wishes going into the next year,
The GCE Secretariat
(Alex, Amy, David, Geoffrey, Khanyi, Lucia, Muleya, Michelle, Owain, Patrick, Taylor and Yunus)
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CONTENTS
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| GCE NEWS |
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Education for All: High Level Group - Oslo |
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For the first time ever the Education for All High Level Group took place in a donor country – Norway – one of the few countries that current meets the aid commitments to education. GCE campaigners attended the meeting, and lobbied other donor countries to re-think the way in which international aid is given to basic education in order to achieve the Education for All goals.
Kailash Satyarthi was joined with Hem Lata Parik an advocate against child marriages and child labourers in India, and Daniel Adzo, a former child labourer from Ghana. They addressed the opening ceremony and inviting Norway and Senegal government to sign into the ‘Class of 2015’. Presentations from Queen Rania, and Intel’s Craig Barrett helped get the attention t o the High Level Group, as did GCE’s jointly hosted breakfast meeting of Developing Country Education Ministers that was addressed by Angelique Kidjo and Kailash Satyarthi and Helge Hjetland.
Despite these efforts the meeting in Oslo did not deliver the effective global compact that is needed to make EFA possible. GCE will be working to ensure that all countries are aware of their responsibilities and that a truly global compact on education is delivered .
Read the full press release here |
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GCE’s Briefing Paper for the High Level Group |
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 GCE produced a new briefing paper ahead of the HLG: At the Crossroads – Reviving the global compact on education: what more could the international community do?”
The report outlines the situation of current global commitments towards Education for All, including the current financing from rich OECD countries. It also gives examples of policies that have hindered EFA including undermining teachers, decentralization, private and low cost schooling, and macro-economic polities.
The report ends by calling for donors to declare how many professional teachers they will assist countries to train, hire and retain, the re-orientation of policies and practices to support quality public EFA and a radical overhaul of the global system for financing education, to ensure timely and sufficient disbursement of predictable funds, supporting the whole EFA agenda. |
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New Website |
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 GCE has just launched a new website – now available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Explore the site on the usual url www.campaignforeducation.org Please continue to send through your news so we can keep this updated. |
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Big Read
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 Planning for the Big Read 2009 is well underway. Stories have been contributed by Nelson Mandela, Paulo Coelho, Queen Rania, Dakota Blue Richards, Michael Morpurgo and Devli Kumari. Register on the new Big Read website and we’ll keep you updating on the progress for the Big Read and Action Week 2009
www.campaignforeducation.org/bigread |
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New Right-to-Education Website Launched
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 This brand new website is an invaluable resource for education advocates around the globe. The Right to Education Project aims to promote social mobilisation and legal accountability, looking to focus on the legal challenges to the right to education. And is a continuation of some of the groundbreaking research of the former UN Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Katarina Tomaševski. The www.right-to-education.org website is housed by ActionAid International in partnership with GCE and Amnesty International, with the support of OSI. |
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| CAMPAIGN NEWS |
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Global March Against Child Labour: Children Missing from Class of 2015 |
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 A new report was produced in conjunction with GCE ahead of the EFA High Level Group. The report puts across the case for the needs of the world’s hard-to-reach children, in particular child labourers and includes a list of priorities to action. The report argues that cross-sectoral initiatives are needed to take an integrated approach in providing for child labourers, that countries should undertake mapping and assessments of where the hard-to-reach children are, and invest in services and sectors that best provide for these children – such as the provision of social protection, health and food for poor families. |
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Haiti, the right to education is not realized – new report from CLADE |
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 This new report from CLADE focuses on the status of education in Haiti. Little more than 50% of children attend school and only 50% of the youths and adults over 15 years of age are illiterate. Only 1% of the population attends university. 80% of children in school are in private education centers. The expense and unavailability of good free education has resulted in thousands of children and young people been marginalized from the education system.
Read CLADE’s December issue of Primera Página, that features articles and interviews on the issue of education in Haiti.
www.campanaderechoeducacion.org |
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CLADE presents panel on the Convention against Discrimination in Education to the Latin American Parliament |
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 12th December: Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE) launched its campaign for the ratification and implementation of the Convention against Discrimination in Education, the IX Meeting of the Culture, Education, Science, Technology and Communication Commission of the Latin American Parliament, held in Panama City. Which was attended by parliamentarians present from Aruba, Chile, México, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Camilla Croso, CLADE’s Coordinator, presented the campaign for the ratification and implementation of the Convention against Discrimination in Education, a tool promoted by UNESCO and approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1960. In Latin America, the Convention has not been ratified yet by Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay. “The objective of this ratification campaign is to ensure education in human rights education as the pivotal point of Latin American and Caribbean education systems, fostering conditions to overcome the manifold discrimination in our societies.”
Read the full article here |
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FENU: Uganda Education Act |
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 The Uganda Education Act highlights the issues that have been unclear in Uganda. The new act states that it is clear that education is compulsory and is a valuable advocacy tool for the national campaign FENU on which to base the national campaigning.
Read the Uganda Education Act here |
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ACRPC: Armenian Human Rights School Building |
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 The ACRPC has initiated a five month international fundraising marathon under the motto My share of stone to the Armenian Human Rights School Building. The school has become a leading institution for Human Rights Specialists in Armenia and abroad, and the Local Administration and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are helping support this fund-raising marathon to keep the school alive.
Read the press release here |
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Kailash Satyarthi and the Global March Against Child Labour receives the 25th International Alfonso Comin Award |
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 Kailash Satyarthi, received this award for his unique efforts to end child labour, condemning systems that require children to work, both at the global, national and regional levels, and exerting pressure to achieve political changes and jointly developing policies and actions to achieve a unified response to child labour, illiteracy and poverty.
The 25th International Alfonso Comín price-giving ceremony took place on 18th November 2008 in Barcelona, Spain. Ignacio Ramonet, Director of Le Monde Diplomatique Chief Guest of the ceremony said that there are 218 million children who are being exploited trafficked as child soldiers, child labour, prostitutes across the world but yet there are people like Kailash Satyarthi who are building this hope and who are there to acknowledge the problem and have shown the solution to world that the change is possible. This award is an effort to highlight such efforts.
Read the full article on the Global March website |
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Save the Children launches ‘World first child development index’ |
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The Child Development Index has just been launched – with the aim of holding governments to account for children’s wellbeing. This is the first-ever global index comparing countries' performance on child wellbeing. It uses child-specific indicators in health, education and nutrition to rank countries in every region of the world. It is a vital tool for policy-making and development analysis worldwide.
Read the report and find out how your country is doing in terms of child wellbeing here
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ANCEFA & MEPT host Lusophone Meeting in Mozambique |
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 ANCEFA held a Lusophone meeting of coalitions in Maputo from 25th to 28th November. The meeting was held to address the gaps in information and documentation between Lusophone countries and to support campaigners in Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, and Mozambique.
Obstacles that were identified as obstacles in achieving EFA included the lack of political will, insecurity, poor infrastructure, poorly trained teachers, poor budgetary allocations and over dependency on external funding. On a campaign level participants asserted that they could not assert fully in GCE due to the language barrier. A resulting loose network or Lusophone coalitions has been formed to help future joint advocacy/campaign strategies. |
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Education International on World Aids Day |
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 Teacher unions involved in the EI EFAIDS Programme undertook campaigns on the 1st December – World AIDS Day. The Nepal Teachers’ Association (NTA) and the Nepal National Teachers’ Association (NNTA) created a radio jingle on HIV/AIDS that was played on radio stations throughout the country during November and December. In Uganda, UNATU published an issue paper highlighting the national Policy on HIV/AIDS in the Workplace.
Education International produced and sent the ‘One Hour on AIDS’ activity kit to teacher union offices around the world, to help teachers get involved and mark World AIDS Day.
Find out more here
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| EDUCATION NEWS |
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EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009 Overcoming Inequality: Why Governance Matters |
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 The latest Education for All Global Monitoring Report was recently released by UNESCO.
The report includes new statistics on the global state of EFA including the fact that one in three children in developing countries reaching primary school age, having had their brain development and education prospects impaired by malnutrition.
The report highlights some of the biggest challenges in meeting EFA including private partnerships in schools, decentralisation and devolution of managing schools in poor countries, the need to focus on education in countries of conflict, and the need to progress and get aid quicker to national education plans.
Download the latest EFA-GMR here
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Education for All Fast Track Initiative Annual Report
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 15th Dec: The EFA FTI Annual Report 2008 was launched in Oslo. Entitled "The Road to 2015: Reaching the education goals" notes that a large majority of the 36 FTI countries have met an important target of getting almost all children into the first grade of primary school by 2010 – a vital step towards the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. However the GCE remains deeply concerned at the lack of disbursement by the World Bank and the failure of donors to mobilize the necessary resources into FTI despite various promises to the contrary.
Read the FTI’s press release
Read the annual report |
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Right to Education Consultant |
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The Right to Education Project (hosted by ActionAid) is looking for an experienced human rights consultant to produce a draft set of indicators on the right to education. This will involve about 35 days work between 30th January and end-April ‘09, as well as attending at least 2 meetings in London. It will be paid at a daily rate of £200 per day = approx. £7,000. Please send CV, cover letter and any shorter published pieces of writing (in soft-copy), by Sunday 4th January ‘09.
Click here to find out more |
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ABOUT THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR EDUCATION (GCE):
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE)is a movement to end the worldwide crisis in education. Thousands of development charities, trade unions and child rights groups make up the national coalitions in over 100 countries. Together we campaign and lobby governments to make sure they act now to deliver the right of every girl, boy, woman and man to a free, quality education.
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GCE’S MEMBERS:
Regional & International Organisations: ActionAid International, ANCEFA, ASPBAE, CAMFED, CARE, CEAAL, CLADE, Comic Relief, Early Childhood Care & Development, Education International, FAPE, FAWE, Fe y Alegria, Fundacion Ayuda en Accion, Global March Against Child Labour, Ibis, IDAY, Inclusion International, Leonard Cheshire Global Alliance, Light of the World: Christoffel Development Organisation, NetAid, OEB/CEDEAO, Oxfam International, Plan International, Public Services International, REPEM, Save the Children Alliance, SightSavers International, VSO, World Alliance of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, World Vision International
National Civil Society Coalitions: Albania: ACCE, Argentina: CAPDE, Armenia: ACRPC, Bangladesh : CAMPE, Benin: CBO-EPT, Bolivia: FEB, Brazil: CDE, Burkina Faso: CCEB, Cambodia: NGO Education Partnership, Cameroon: EFA Network, Canada: Canadian Global Campaign for Education Chile: FECPT, Costa Rica: MERCC, El Salvador: CIAZO, France: Solidarite-Laique, Gabon: SENA, Gambia: GEFA, Germany: GCE, Ghana: GNECC, Guatemala: CETT,. India: NCE, Indonesia: E-Net for Justice, Ireland: GCE Coalition, Japan: JNNE, Kenya: Elimu Yetu Coalition, Lesotho: LEFA, Liberia: LETCOM, Malawi: CSCQBE, Mauritius: DCI, Mexico: ICE, Mozambique: MEPT, Nepal: GCE, Nicaragua: Foro Net, Niger: ROSEN, Nigeria: CSACEFA, Norway: Union of Education, Pakistan: PCE, Peru: MPDEP,Philippines: E-Net, Romania: GCE, Senegal: CONGAD, Sierra Leone: EFA Network, Solomon Islands: COESI, South Africa: GCE-SA, Spain: GCE Coalition, Sri Lanka: CED, Sweden: EFA Forum, Tanzania: TEN/MET, The Netherlands: GCE, Togo: CNT/CME, Uganda: FENU, UK:GCE-UK, Vietnam: GCE, Zambia:ZANEC, Zimbabwe: Teachers Association
To apply for membership please contact
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