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Dear All,
Welcome to the first of GCE's e-newsletters in 2009. The year started with a great moment of global hope and momentum for change, and good opportunities for achieving change for education in 2009. President Obama pledged $2 billion in aid to education, and reiterated his support to a new Global Fund for Education which he first announced in the run up to the elections. This was also re-iterated in Hillary Clinton's nomination speech for her new position as Secretary for State.
This year CONFINTEA will meet in Brazil to discuss the progress and what needs to happen to achieve adult literacy. The meeting only takes place every 12 years and it's crucial that we make it a moment to put real steps in place to address the lack of progress on adult education.
This year, GCE's Action Week is focusing on youth and adult literacy and lifelong learning and is using an innovative collection of heartfelt stories in the Big Read to draw in millions of campaigners around the world who will read and write on the 22nd April and demand literacy for all.
Amid the environment of change it is deeply saddening to share the news of the loss of Gorgui Sow's wife, Rama, who was a bedrock of support for strengthening the African and global education movement. The GCE Board mourns her loss and offers messages of solidarity and condolence to Gorgui, his family and ANCEFA.
With best wishes,
Maria Khan
(GCE board member and Secretary General of ASPBAE)
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CONTENTS
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| GCE NEWS |
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Board Meeting 20th – 22nd January |
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 The GCE Board held their latest face to face meeting in Dacca, Bangladesh last week. They meet every six months to discuss the strategy and management of the global campaign. They were pleased to be hosted by the coalition in Bangladesh, CAMPE who organised a high profile series of events including meeting the Education Minister and the over 100 people on the Global Action Week planning committee. The workplan for 2009 was agreed and several key decisions were taken as outlined elsewhere in the newsletter. |
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GCE Middle East Meeting |
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GCE is planning its first regional meeting in the middle east to take place at the end of March this year in Yemen. This meeting will bring together civil society and campaigner from across the Arab world to discuss and energise the education movement in the Middle East. To receive an invitation or more information about this meeting please send your details to
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World Social Forum in Belem |
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 GCE is attending the 2009 World Social Forum, that’s taking place in Belem, Brazil from January 27th until February 1st. The WSF is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to debate, formulate proposals, share their experiences, and network for effective action. Since the 2001 first world encounter in Porto Allegre, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies.
Many GCE members will be participating and organizing workshops, conferences, actions and events. In cooperation with other international and national CSOs CLADE for example will be holding workshops around the issues of education in prison, adult literacy (CONFINTEA) and the battle for meaning in development and education concepts. The Brazilian National Campaign for the Right to Education will be organizing two seminars on the financing of education by the Lula Government and the future of secondary education in Brazil. They will also host a presentation of this year's Action Week events as well as a festive gathering celebrating the right to quality education. GCE’s Policy Officer, Patrick Watkins is attending the meeting. For further information please contact
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World Economic Forum in Davos |
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 Kailash Satyarthi will be attending the WEF in Davos this weekend to talk to the business community about the importance of ensuring Education for All and how we need more pressure on world leaders to help achieve this. He will speak to a high level panel of CEOs from the private sector included Craig Barrett of INTEL, as well as the Director General of UNESCO at a special meeting on education. |
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GCE’s Verdict Statement on the last High Level Group |
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 “6 out of 10 for effort but High Level Group must do better in future years”, declares the Global Campaign for Education after attending the Eighth Meeting of the High Level Group on Education for All, in Oslo in December last year. Whilst there were improvements in the latest High Level Group, with the help of the Norweigan government’s efforts, the meeting still lacks the dynamic leadership and decision-making power to really drive international effort towards the achievement of Education for All. Read GCE’s verdict statement here |
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CSEF funding |
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After months of preparation GCE was finally able to present to the EPDF committee of donor countries to make an application for funding for Civil Society Funds. We’re pleased to announce a $6.5 million grant for 2009 and first half of 2010 for use in seventy plus FTI eligible countries was approved. These were agreed by the 14 donor countries at the meeting and we are now finalising the details of the transfers. Once the money has been received GCE and the regional organisations will be releasing details to the eligible countries in a couple of months time. |
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Planning for Action Week 2010 |
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Preparations for Action Week 2010 are already underway and we would like to take advantage of the World Cup to rally support for Action Week next year. GCE is therefore calling for any suggestions on what activities could be useful. We’d also like to know which of our members and national coalitions would be interested in being part of the Planning Group. Please get back to Muleya on
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by the 13th February 2009. |
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GCE’s condolences to Gorgui Sow |
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It is devastatingly sad that, Rama Sow the wife of Gorgui Sow (the ANCEFA coordinator) was involved in a fatal car accident in Senegal last week. The Global Campaign for Education reaches out to Gorgui and his family to offer condolences and our thoughts.
Mrs Sow provided on-going support and strength to her family and the education movement and will be sadly missed. |
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| CAMPAIGN NEWS |
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CLADE promotes activities in the World Social Forum |
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 The Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education, CLADE, is promoting one seminar and two workshops at the forthcoming World Social Forum between the 27th January and 1st February, 2009:
1 - “ Preparing for CONFINTEA VI- International Civil Society Forum” Thursday 29, 3:30 to 6:30 pm (Auditorium of the NAEA building - UFPA Profissional)
2 - “Education as a Human Right: School in Prisons” Friday 30, 8:30 am – 11:30 am and Saturday 31, 8:30 am – 11:30 am (Room Jp06 - UFPA Profissional)
3 - “The Right to Education Perspective: Social organizations and movements debate on meanings and directions”. Thursday 29, 8:30 am – 11:30 am ( Room MP09 - UFPA Profissional)
4 - “Global Action Week 2009: Youth and Adult Education and Lifelong Learning” Friday 30, 12 pm – 3:00 pm (Room H3 - Hb building - UFPA Básico)
Read the details about the meetings here
Read more about the World Social Forum and the goals on the website |
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BANGLADESH: Gender gap in schools |
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 19th January - Despite significant success in achieving gender parity in terms of enrolment and attendance at the primary and lower secondary schools in Bangladesh there are more than 2 million children still out of schools – half of them being girls.
"Only 50 percent of children enrolled in grade six reach grade 10, and only 40 percent of girls pass the secondary school final exams," Tasneem Athar, deputy director of the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE)
The major challenges confronting Bangladesh in bringing children to school and retaining them particularly for girls is poverty, poor quality of education, inadequate budget, poor benefit package for teachers and a general feeling of insecurity within the family and community.
Read the full article here
Read more about CAMPE: www.campebd.org
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GCE-Netherlands: Princess Laurentien launches Book of Interest |
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 On January 15 Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands handed over the Boek van Belang (Book of Interest) to the President of the Dutch House of Represenatives in The Hague, Mrs. Gerdi Verbeet. The “Boek van Belang” is a common initiative taken by Amsterdam Wereldboekenstad (Amsterdam World Book Capitol/a Unesco initiative), de Stichting Lezen & Schrijven (Reading & Writing Foundation) and the Global Campaign for Education Netherlands in line with the international Big Read action. In the coming months a variety of prominent Dutch writers, actors, politicians, TV presentors and sportsmen have confirmed their contribution to the Book. The Book will be presented to the Dutch audience on the international action day (April 22).
In her speech the princess stated the importance of reading and writing in both our own country and worldwide. She mentioned the importance of language for identity and for expressing yourself. Mrs. Verbeet referred to the unique experience of seeing your own children starting to become able to read and write. She also referred to the importance of literacy for a well-functioning democracy.
Read the Full Press Release Here |
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GCE–USA: Calls for A Global Education Fund |
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 Gene Sperling has written a working paper entitled : “A Global Education Fund: Toward a True Global Compact on Universal Education” The paper urges the United States to take the lead in launching a major global education initiative. "A U.S. commitment to quality education for all could be the primary means to win the hearts and minds of the global community", comments Gene Sperling coordinator of GCE-USA.
Read the paper here |
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| EDUCATION NEWS |
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USA: Hillary Clinton’s support for a Global Education Fund |
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 On January 21, 2009, Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State by a Senate vote of 94-2. A longtime champion of basic education rights, Mrs. Clinton said during her nomination hearing "we can generate even more goodwill through other kinds of social investment, by working effectively with international organizations and NGO partners to build schools and train teachers, and by ensuring that children are free from hunger and exploitation so that they can attend those schools and pursue their dreams for the future. This is why the president-elect supports a Global Education Fund to bolster secular education around the world."
Read her full speech here |
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Solomon Islands: Fee Free Education |
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 On the 16th January Prime Minister, Dr. Derek Sikua, made the statement at the launch of the "Fee Free Education" policy in Honiara: "... my government has made it one of its flagship policies to provide fee free education in the Solomon Islands [and] today marks the implementation of this historic policy initiative." The Government has made an initial payment of SBD$19,798,712 to support the implementation of the policy initiative.
Read the full article in the Solomon Times |
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Afghanistan: Girls terrorized in school
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 Girls are being terrorized in Afghanistan for going to school: Ms. Husseini is a student at the Mirwais School for Girls outside Kandahar. Two months ago, as she was walking to school with her sister, a man on a motorcycle sprayed her with acid, burning her face and eyelids. Fourteen other students and teachers were attacked that day in an attempt to shut down the school. The attempt failed - today, nearly all of the wounded girls are back at the Mirwais School for Girls, including even Shamsia, whose face was so badly burned that she had to be sent abroad for treatment. Perhaps even more remarkable, nearly every other female student in this deeply conservative community has returned as well — about 1,300 in all.
Building new schools and ensuring that children — and especially girls — attend has been one of the main objectives of the government and the nations that have contributed to Afghanistan’s reconstruction.
Read the full article in the New York Times here |
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Togo: School Fee-Waiver Creates Budget Shortfall |
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 This year’s first-time fee waivers for primary and pre-school students in Togo have swelled enrolment, raising questions about how schools will fund additional classroom space, teachers and school supplies. Education experts said the government should have planned better before lifting school fees. Until this year, male students paid up to US$4 per year and female students about half that.
Read full IRIN article here |
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Strauss-Kahn: IMF as Protector of Safety Nets for Poor |
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 A recent article by Christopher Swan of Bloomberg News should attract the attention of GCE members. Given that the IMF has long imposed low inflation and deficit spending targets on developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Indeed, one of the primary reasons governments cannot hire enough teachers to scale up the education sector and achieve EFA goals is exactly due to these restrictive monetary and fiscal policies which reduce the budget available for public spending on education, including teachers´ salaries.
The IMF is blowing its own horn and garnering some praise, especially from spokespeople with current or recent links to the IMF, for “insisting that countries boost spending on social safety nets as a condition for aid. To secure a $7.6 billion loan, Pakistan in November agreed to triple funding for programs that include cash handouts and electricity subsidies.” These new loan conditions are presented as IMF “focusing on people instead of big investors and multinational companies” without being viewed critically as palliative aid in the midst of structural impoverishment.
Read the article here
Read GCE’s full analysis here |
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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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Find out more about GCE on our website www.campaignforeducation.org
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