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G8 SHOULD EDUCATE GIRLS TO END POVERTY, SAYS NEW YORK TIMES
"The wish list of the world's poorest families is long," says the New York Times in an editorial published on 25 June. "They need to grow more crops and start more businesses. They need to have smaller families, healthier and better educated children and safer pregnancies and births.
They need to fight AIDS and protect women and children from domestic violence. There is one program that will help achieve these goals and more: educating girls. When officials of the richest countries meet next month at the Group of 8 summit, they should strongly consider a large investment in schooling for girls."
Click here to read the full article
28 June 2005
GCE HEARING IN EUROPEAN PARLIMENT
GCE members in Europe are organising a hearing in the European Parliament on 22 June to examine the EU's role as a funder and promoter of Education for All. Speakers include the EU Development Commissioner, Louis Michel; the Minister of Education for Burkina Faso, Mathieu Ouedraogo; African teachers' union leader, Assibi Napoe; and Amina Ibrahim, a member of Jeff Sachs' Millennium Project expert taskforce. The hearing provides 'a golden opportunity to see Europe re-affirm its commitment towards the reduction of poverty and the support for quality education,' said Claire Tenderlin of Actionaid on behalf of the organisers, who also include Education International, Oxfam, Plan, and Save the Children.
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03 June 2005
G8 CRITICISED FOR DEBT "STOPGAP"
The Group of Eight rich countries' summit ended without real help for Africa or for children, said GCE member agencies. Meeting on Sea Island, Georgia earlier this month, the rich country leaders extended by another 2 years the deadline for poor countries to apply for HIPC debt relief, and gave finance ministers the go-ahead to cost proposals for full bilateral debt cancellation. But Oxfam said the announcement was "only a stopgap measure and won't do enough to lighten the burden on poor countries." African NGOs and trade unions, in a statement issued by MWENGO, said "The HIPC initiative is not deep or fast enough, leading to the State failing to provide basic social services - a clear violation of human rights." Eveline Herfkens of the UN Millennium Campaign, David Morrission of NetAid and Peter Bell of CARE drew attention to the rich countries' paltry record on aid for basic education, reminding the G8 that education is critical to global security because "peace begins in the mind of men." . "Developed countries need to give $5.6 billion more to make education a reality for all children-this is just slightly more than what the U.S. spends each month on war and occupation of Iraq," said David Morrison, president of NetAid.
DATES AND THEME ANNOUNCED FOR 2005 ACTION WEEK
The GCE Board has agreed that next year's Action Week, set for April 24-30 2005, will focus on the education Millennium Development Goals: universal primary education by 2015 and gender parity by 2005. Special attention will be given to women's literacy and empowerment, which is a crucial but neglected ingredient for development and poverty reduction.
GCE MEMBERS ADDRESS UN AGENCIES ON AIDS AND EDUCATION
GCE members from around the world addressed UN agencies, the World Bank and bilateral donors during a recent meeting of the UN Inter-agency Task Team on AIDS and Education in Canada, May 12-14. They were invited to the conference to share the initial findings of an ongoing GCE action research project, funded by CIDA and coordinated by ActionAid. The project's aim is to encourage civil society to engage more actively in shaping Ministry of Education policies on AIDS. Juliana Adu-Gyamfi from Ghana, Joe Makano from Zambia and Tania Boler from the UK made presentations on the role of civil society in HIV/AIDS education. The participants, who also included Rameshi Joshi (India), Adam Diaou (Mali), Elizabeth Baroudi (Sudan), and Wouter vanderSchaff (Education International - Belgium), also spent several days meeting with Canadian GCE partners and analyzing the results of the action research, with the aim of publishing a final report by the autumn. Linking unions and NGOs for more effective lobbying on AIDS policies was identified as a priority for future action.
FIRST-EVER CHILDREN'S CONGRESS ON CHILD LABOUR ATTRACTS HIGH-LEVEL SUPPORT
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/PersonofWeek/pow_Kailash_Satyarthi_040514-1.html
http://globalmarch.org/index.php
Around 200 children from across the world took part in the first ever Children's World Congress on Child Labour, organised by Global March in Florence, Italy last month. Through participation and discussions, children from different parts of the world made declaration on issues and problems affecting them. The Pope sent a message of support calling for an immediate end to child labour and ABC News ran a feature on the founder of the Global March, who is also the chairperson of the GCE.
MDGs: HAVE YOUR SAY
The UN's Task Force on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has produced two draft reports on the education and gender goals, which will be key inputs to the Heads of State MDG summit in September 2005. The reports present some controversial proposals, such as adding new targets, and shifting the goalposts on existing targets (e.g., away from primary schooling). To seek civil society's views on the draft reports, the UN Task Force has mandated an e-consultation, which will take place through the Education Rights and Realities forum (a partnership between GCE and OneWorld South Asia) between 15 June and 30 July. The consultation is moderated by ActionAid's Akanksha Marphatia.
To join the discussion, send an email to join-right2education@dgroups.org or go to the home page http://www.dgroups.org/groups/right2education/ where you can also download the draft reports and other resources.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS: ASK AFRICAN GOVTS TO RATIFY PROTOCOL
Physical violence; vulnerability to life-threatening diseases, most notably HIV/AIDS; poor educational opportunities; and lack of property rights combine to keep women in Africa second class citizens, as well as inhibiting their ability to contribute fully to the prosperity of the continent. One year ago, the African Union (AU) adopted a new protocol on the rights of women. NGOs including FEMNET, Oxfam and Equality Now believe the protocol is an important step forward. However, it needs to be ratified by at least 15 states to come into force, and so far only one (Comoros) has done so. The NGOs are circulating a petition to ask all African countries to ratify now. Signatures will be presented at the upcoming AU summit in early July, so don't delay in adding your name at http://www.pambazuka.org/petition/petition.php?id=1
BRUTAL ATTACK ON GCE CHAIR SATYARTHI
Eminent child labour activist and Chairperson of Global Campaign for Education and Global March Against Child Labour Kailash Satyarthi, was brutally attacked while leading a raid to free child labourers in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh last week. Although still recovering from serious injuries, Satyarthi has gone on indefinite hunger strike until all of the children are released. Police forcibly admitted Satyarthi to hospital on Tues, 22 June.
Following complaints from parents that children were being exploited and abused by the owners of a travelling circus, Satyarthi approached the district administration which sent police and officials to conduct a raid on the circus camp. However when the raid started, the circus owner threatened Satyarthi with a pistol while his henchmen started attacking the team. The authorities stood by and did nothing to stop the attack, said Alok Vajpeyi of Global March.
The National Human Rights Commission is investigating Satyarthi's claims that several of the children are still being held captive in the circus. The GCE joins Global March in demanding the immediate release of all the children and parents kept in captivity, police protection for Mr Satyarthi and a government probe into child labour in the circus industry with special reference to Uttar Pradesh. Those who wish to support these demands should fax a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh: Fax +91 (11) 23018668, 23015470, or 23015603. For more information contact Alok Vajpeyi: alokvajpeyi@globalmarch.org
ACTION WEEK YIELDS FREE TEXTBOOK PLEDGE IN BANGLADESH
Following lobbying during the Global Action Week, the Prime Minister asked national education coalition Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) to establish the costs of extending the free textbook policy to NGO-run nonformal classrooms. CAMPE immediately followed up by distributing a survey questionnaire to all of its 500 member organisations to find out how many books would be needed. The PM promised to include free textbooks for NFE schools in the 2004-05 budget that has recently been introduced for debate in parliament. Education receives 13.4% of the budget, the single highest allocation of any sector and a move that Abu Ahmed, professor of economics at Dhaka University, praised as "revolutionary". In addition to more textbooks, the government plans to spend more on teachers and on stipends to attract girls to schools. Meanwhile, children who participated in a special session of parliament during the World's Biggest Lobby were asked to draft a resolution summarizing their concerns and recommendations, which will be adopted by parliament. For more information contact Rasheda Chowdhury: Rasheda@campe.bdcom
INDIA'S GOVERNMENT PLEDGES MORE EDUCATION SPENDING
In a major breakthrough for civil society campaigners, India's new Congress-led government has pledged to increase public spending on education to 6% of GDP in order to achieve universal schooling. The announcement revives a promise made the last time Congress was in power. If the promise is kept this time around, it will benefit close to 30 million Indian children who are still out of school. Suman, convenor of India's National Coalition on Education (a GCE member), said NCE and other civil society networks have been campaigning for eight years for universal education and 6% of GDP to go to the education budget. "This is a major feather in our caps," she said. In other news, the World Bank announced a new $500m credit to help underwrite India's $3.5bn EFA programme. The funds will be used to build more schools and train and pay more teachers.
IMF PUSHING ZAMBIA OVER THE BRINK - UN ENVOY
IMF policies are crippling the country's ability to cope with the raging AIDS epidemic, a senior UN spokesperson has charged. "The damage to the social sectors is staggering," said Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa. "The Ministry of Health can hire no more staff, and fully twenty per cent of the municipal districts have no doctors and no nurses. There is a shortfall of 10,000 teachers, and there are 9,000 newly trained teachers who cannot be hired. Average pupil-teacher ratio is approaching 56:1." Zambian civil society welcomed the announcement yesterday of USD$300m in IMF financing - seen as a signal that the IMF will soon grant the country long-delayed HIPC debt relief - but said it was not enough. "As CSOs and Zambians we feel the need to be included in the Goverment- IMF negotiations at all times. By so doing then we will be able to establish who is behind the unemployment of the 9,000 teachers in Zambia," said Joe Makano, Executive Director of the Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC), a GCE member organisation.
For more information contact zanec@zamtel.zm
17 June 2004
DRC: CHILDREN ARE PROMISED BOOKS INSTEAD OF GUNS
Children extracted several promises from politicians as a result of the World's Biggest Lobby. On 20 April the President of the National Assembly promised the child lobbyists that government money would henceforth be used for books and pens, instead of weapons. On 26 April, the Minister of Education told children that starting from next term, he would abolish the system of teachers' salaries being paid by parents.
GUINEA-CONAKRY: PRIME MINISTER JOINS LOBBY EVENTS
The Prime Minister and First Lady as well as the Minister of Education took part in the children's lobby on the 24th of April at the People's Palace. The event attracted 1000 participants and gave center stage to youths who are excluded from education as well as to students. Many politicians went back to school in Conakry and 850 messages were collected to be sent to the President of the Republic.
CONGO: GOVERNMENT DECLARES ITS COMMITMENT TO EFA
Following a national lobby event, the Minister of basic education made a special declaration on radio and television on behalf of the government committing itself to the EFA goals and notably implementing the national action plan for Education for All by 2015. Fifteen hundred children took their seats in a lobby inside the national parliament of Congo in the presence of the Minister of Education, congress people and senators and the President of Parliament. Representatives of UNESCO,UNICEF,UNDP, and the World Bank were also present. The message to the President was read out by the President of the youth parliament Miss Ntar.
SUDAN: POLICY CHANGES PROMISED AFTER ACTION WEEK
The World's Biggest Lobby has already resulted in new commitments from the Sudanese government. The Ministry of Education has promised to keep education free, and advocated that parent-teacher bodies should not impose additional charges or 'donations' on parents. The Federal Minister announced he would rethink his closure of boarding schools, as children claimed it was keeping them from school. The girls education unit promised to undergo a review, and pledged to include civil society in monitoring their work. Finally, the GCE coalition has been promised greater recognition overall.
ETHIOPIA: GOVT TO INCREASE BUDGET FOR EDUCATION.
As a result of Global Action Week activities this April, the government has agreed to raise the amount of money going to education and has also pledged to try to link formal and non formal education so as more children can access schools. Parents in several villages where GCE member organisations are active have promised to try to send their children to school, and communities are to work together to improve educational facilities.
NIGERIA: PLANS FOR FOLLOW-UP AT ALL LEVELS
Following a very fruitful Action Week, there will be a special session of the House Committee on Education to review policies on out-of-school children. National education coalition CSACEFA, a GCE member, will use Missing Out Maps made in several states to assess progress towards getting more children into school between this Action Week and the next. CSACEFA will also compile photos of Action Week events from all states to assess participation and impact.
LESOTHO: GCE WELCOMES NEW MEMBER
The Global Campaign for Education is proud to announce the formation of a new civil society coalition in Lesotho to campaign for the right of all to free quality education. Following outstanding efforts during the Action Week, the coalition has been accepted as a GCE member.
SIERRA LEONE: CALL FOR BAN ON UNDERAGE MARRIAGE
http://allafrica.com/stories/200406141122.html
A local organisation in the coastal West African state of Sierra Leone called Katanya Women's Development Organisation is mobilising support for the banning of marrying underage girls. The organisation says the practice has deprived many girls of education or achieving statuses that would have enabled them to make meaningful contribution to the development of the country. Source: Pambazuka News
MALAWI: EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE QUALITY AFFECT PREGNANCY OUTCOMES
http://www.id21.org/health/h8nb1g1.html
Some 99% of maternal deaths are in the developing world. Why do so many mothers die in pregnancy or childbirth? Research by the Malawi College of Medicine and the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine studied this issue in a rural community in southern Malawi. Mothers' education and access to medical care had a strong influence on pregnancy outcomes, they found. Source: ID21
AFRICA: CHURCH LEADERS TO GET MORE INVOLVED IN FIGHTING HIV/AIDS
http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=3513
African church leaders said on Friday that they would make available in church-supported health facilities, drugs used to lessen the severity of HIV/AIDS infection and become more involved in fighting the stigmatisation of those living with the virus. "We will make treatment available at church-supported mission hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and health posts," the Rt Rev Nyansanko Ni-Nku, the president of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), told a news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, following a three-day meeting of 200 Protestant church leaders from 39 African countries. Source: Pambazuka News.
LIBERIA: SCHOOL'S OPEN, BUT BRING YOUR OWN CHAIR
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41595
Following the arrival of UN peacekeepers, schools in northern Liberia are finally starting to reopen, reports IRIN. But many classrooms are dilapidated, with no roof to keep out the rain. Children have to bring their own chairs from home to sit on. And their teachers have yet to receive a salary. Authorities have managed to reopen a few primary schools with unpaid volunteers.
NAMIBIA: MURDER HIGHLIGHTS NAMIBIAN GIRLS' BATTLE TO COMPLETE THEIR EDUCATION
http://www.learningchannel.org/article/view/87601/1/
The odds remain stacked against many girls in Namibia when it comes to getting an education, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a report last year. But an upcoming murder trial reveals how extreme these difficulties can be. The man is accused of killing a young female relative - all because of her wish to get a school education. Source: Pambazuka News.
KENYA: PTAs 'UNDEMOCRATIC'
Nairobi: Head teachers and school boards are imposing unaffordable levies at "dictatorial, undemocratic and stage-managed" PTA meetings, says a Kenyan think-tank.
NGOs PUSH US TO GIVE $1 BILLION FOR EDUCATION
http://www.netaid.org/groups/news/news_item.pt?article_id=1306&group_id=848
Washington, D.C. In testimony to a key Congressional committee today, Stephen F. Moseley, chairman of the Basic Education Coalition and president of the Academy for Educational Development, called upon the United States to lead a new, reinvigorated approach to "Education For All" by committing to spend $1 billion per year by FY 2006 for basic education in the developing world.
20 May 2004
SWEDEN: GOVT PLEDGES MORE AID FOR EDUCATION
Following lobbying by GCE members in Sweden during the Global Action Week, the Development Cooperation minister Carin Jamtin has pledged to increase Swedish aid to education. Jamtin's pledge came in response to a letter sent by GCE members following a seminar where some 100 participants from Sweden and other Baltic countries met to discuss Education For All in their own region as well as overseas.
LATVIA: TEACHERS BECOME EFA CHAMPIONS
LIZDA the Latvian teachers union used the Global Action Week this April to train teachers to become active lobbyists for education for all. Over 160 teachers attended workshops and seminars, where they learned more about the problems facing children missing out on education and were encouraged to organize their own local sessions and activities.
US ANNOUNCES MCA COUNTRIES
Countries selected for extra US development assistance through the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) were announced last week. They are: Benin, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Mozambique, Mongolia, Vanuatu, Sri Lanka, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Armenia, Georgia. Now is the time for groups in these countries to lobby their governments to make education a priority for MCA funding, says George Ingram of the Basic Education Coalition in the US. For more information contact Kate Conradt: kate@basiced.org
11 May 2004
OPINION FT: EDUCATION COULD BE AMERICA'S BEST DEFENSE http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/Page/GenericPage&
c=Page&cid=1012571727285&p=1012571727126
America's current strategy for supporting education in poor nations is inadequate and fundamentally reactive, writes US GCE Chairperson Gene Sperling in the Financial Times. The total annual US contribution to education in poor countries would not be enough to build 20 American high schools. The only time the US has taken bold steps on education has been after it has invaded or bombed countries - such as the effort to get girls in Kabul into school for the first time - or has identified a security threat - as in Pakistan, where weak public school funding provided an opening for fundamentalist Islamic schools.
WHEN IS A CHILD NOT A CHILD?
http://www.right-to-education.org/content/age/index.html
Covering 125 countries, this report is a handy starting point to research the basic legal framework affecting children's right to education. Summary tables in French, Spanish and English list the legal minimum ages in each country for leaving school, starting work, getting married and criminal responsibility. In at least 25 countries of the world education is not compulsory. In some countries, compulsory education laws are contradicted by other laws that allow children to be married or go out to work at a much younger age.
HEADS OF STATE SUMMIT TO REVIEW MDG PROGRESS
The UN will convene a high-level meeting in September 2005 to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and agree further actions needed to achieve the goals, which include universal completion of primary education by 2015 and gender parity in primary and secondary education by 2005. " If we are not on track by the end of next year, all hope of reaching the goals by 2015 will soon vanish," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in announcing the summit.
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