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The EFA Working Group calls for more resources for education

July 21, 2005 - As the world pledges more development assistance in 2005, the 6th EFA Working Group, meeting in UNESCO from 19 to 21 July, called for greater resources for education for all. "It was an extremely successful meeting," says Peter Smith, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, "and we are on track to have the most significant global meeting on education in recent history (the EFA High-Level Group)in Beijing next November. The post-Gleneagles environment demands a strong response from the world and we will help to provide it."

In debates, education for rural people - with their specific needs and contexts - and literacy for adults emerged as top concerns in the struggle to meet the education for all goals. A Joint Action Plan, discussed in one session, should lead to better international coordination once the EFA High-level Group has met to endorse it. That meeting is also expected to develop political momentum for these priorities.

· UNESCO's Director-General welcoming remarks
· Keynote address by the Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
. Flash Info
· Presentations
· Side meetings
 
Working Group on EFA to meet on 19 July
July 13, 2005 - The 6th Meeting of the Working Group on EFA will take place at UNESCO from 19 - 21 July. This meeting will focus on literacy, education for rural people, resource mobilization and aid effectiveness, and a joint action plan to achieve EFA by 2015. Participants include 11 country representatives, 11 bilateral donors, 7 multilateral agencies, 22 civil society representatives, 6 regional organizations as well as UNESCO Regional Bureaux and Institutes. A full week of activity around different aspects of EFA starts on Friday, 15 July, with a meeting of the UN Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI). Other side meetings scheduled until 22 July include the Fast-Track Initiative, the Coordination Group of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on EFA and UNESCO's new Literacy programme, LIFE.

>> For regular updates consult the EFA website
 
New toolkit on hygiene, sanitation and water in schools
July 13, 2005 - The World Bank, UNICEF and the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) have developed a toolkit to assist policy makers, public health specialists, technical engineers, educational specialists, social and development experts and other professionals to set up hygiene, sanitation and water programmes in schools. It provides an overview of tools and steps for successful participatory planning and implementation of such programmes.

>> Available online and on CD-Rom. Contact: Whelpdesk@worldbank.org
 
G-8 gives a $50 billion aid boost for Africa
July 11, 2005 -
The G-8 Summit agreed a $50 billion aid boost by 2010 The G8 leaders also reiterated that the debts of eighteen of the poorest countries in Africa would be forgiven, as agreed by the G-8 Finance Ministers in June. In their communiqué, the leaders also announced that "they would work to support the Education for All agenda in Africa including continuing our support for the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) and our efforts to help FTI-endorsed countries to develop sustainable capacity and identify the resources necessary to pursue their sustainable educational strategies."

>> The Gleneagles Communiqué
 
On the eve of the G-8 Summit, British pupils give Tony Blair cut-out 'friends'
July 6, 20005 - On International White Band Day, 1 July, Tony Blair met a delegation of London school pupils who handed him messages and cut-out 'Friends' from children from around the world. At least 5 million children in over 110 countries have showed their support for the Global Campaign for Education's Send My Friend to School campaign by making 'friends' and presenting them to prime ministers, presidents and parliamentarians. The 'friends' carry the campaign's call to leaders to 'educate now to end poverty', as well as personal messages from the children who made them. The total number of 'friends' made now exceeds 3,500,000. More
 
Unprecedented mobilization for G-8
July 1, 2005 - July is the high point in an unprecedented mobilization by civil society organizations in favour of education to end poverty. On 1 July, some of the world’s most famous landmarks will be adorned with huge white bands, as part of a curtain-raiser to a week of global action during which campaigners in 72 countries will call for action to end poverty. On 2 July, celebrities will organize LIVE 8 - a series of concerts (in Barrie (Canada), Berlin, Edinburgh, Johannesburg, London, Moscow, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Tokyo) calling on the G-8 leaders meeting in Scotland (6-8 July) to provide more aid and fair trade and cancel debt. The Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) and the Global Campaign for Education (link) have published "Must do Better": a ‘School Report’ of 14 countries in Asia/Pacific showing poor commitment to basic education. This mobilization follows up on the Send my Friend to School campaign organized from 24 to 30 April, when 3.5 million children made cut-out 'friends' representing out-of-school children. One million of these 'friends' will travel to Scotland to ask G-8 leaders to more to provide education for all.

>> White Band Day
>> Live8 Concerts
>> "Must do Better"
>> EFA Week 2005
 
UNESCO's Director-General writes to Kofi Annan and G8 leaders to support Education for All
June 30, 2005 - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has written today to the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the G8 leaders in advance of the forthcoming G8 Summit, to be held at Gleneagles, Scotland, United Kingdom on 6-8 July 2005. In his letter to the leaders of the major industrialized countries, Mr Matsuura reminded them of the central importance of education's contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's). He urged the G8 leaders to mobilize increased financial aids for developing countries having a sound policy framework and the potential to deliver on their EFA commitments. In his letter to UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, the Director-General highlighted how the year 2005, through the G8 Summit and the UN Millennium+5 Summit in New York, provides "an outstanding opportunity to advance the global agenda for poverty alleviation and to mobilize international support for achieving the MDGs". More
 
Debt swap for education in Brazil
June 28, 2005 - Following the Argentine experience, whose 60 million Euros debt with Spain was converted into investments in Education, the Brazilian Government has defended the educational swap as an alternative to enhance the financing of education in the region. The cause has gained resonance both nationally and internationally. More
 
What is the European Union doing for education in developing countries?
June 17, 2005 - Education International and its partners of the Global Campaign for Education will organise a hearing at the European Parliament on 22nd June to investigate the European Union's plans to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to education. The European Union is a major promoter and financial contributor to the achievement of the MDGs. However, the Global Campaign for Education stresses the need for the EU to allocate more specific resources to education and gender parity. More
 
Dakar +5 Forum opens today
June 13, 2005 - An international 3-day EFA Forum opens today in Dakar. Organized by UNESCO Dakar, the Forum will review progress towards Education for All, highlight initiatives that have proven their worth and identify barriers to the EFA process. A regional report prepared by the Pôle de Dakar team at UNESCO’s regional office in Dakar - Education for All: Paving the Way for Action - will be launched during the meeting.

>> Draft Agenda
>> Progress todate
>> Download Report and Summary
 
G8 Finance Ministers Agree to Cancel Debt for 18 Nations
June 13, 2005 - The Group of Eight (G8) finance ministers have agreed to a proposal canceling 100 percent of debt obligations owed to the World Bank, African Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) by eighteen countries, says U.K. Treasury Secretary John Snow. In a June 11 statement following the G8 finance ministers meeting in London to prepare for July's G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Snow said, "Relieving poor countries from their debt burdens so they can focus on meeting their development goals is an important element of President Bush's comprehensive development strategy for Africa." More

>> Caution over G8 plan for debt relief (Financial Times, U.K.)

>> Museveni Backs Blair On Africa Aid (The Monitor, Uganda)
 
World Day Against Child Labour calls attention to child mining
June 12, 2005 - According to the most recent figures compiled by the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are more than 246 million child labourers between the ages of 5 and 17 in the world today. Over 100 million of these have no access to education of any kind. For most, getting time to play is a luxury they simply cannot afford. This year World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) calls our attention to a form of work that is dangerous to children in every way. More

>> Article on child mining

>> Digging for Survival Brochure - English / French / Spanish
 
New World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz takes office
June 8, 2005 - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on taking office on 1 June that his immediate goal on taking over from outgoing President James Wolfensohn is to help Africa become “a continent of hope.” Wolfowitz, who began his duties as the tenth president of the World Bank in its 61-year history, said there are promising signs that some African countries are growing strongly enough to reduce poverty, but that there are still enormous challenges preventing much of the continent delivering real gains in poverty reduction. More
 
USAID Revamps Education Strategy
June 6, 2005 - USAID has reported that the federal agency that helps underwrite schooling in developing countries released a new education strategy that broadens the agency's traditional focus on increasing access to paying more attention to the quality of schooling. The strategy provides a framework for the U.S. Agency for International Development to become more involved with informal education, secondary education, workforce development, and higher education."We want to discipline ourselves to say, 'It's not just the number of classes and kids,' but rather, 'Are they really learning?' " John Grayzel, the director of the office of education in the USAID's bureau for economic growth, agriculture, and trade, said in an interview. " More
 
Treat rural schools as special case, South African report urges
May 30, 2005 - Rural schooling is in crisis and rural education should be resourced and organised differently from that in urban schools. "The state's commitment to social justice in all matters and especially to universal access to education ... remains unfulfilled for large numbers of children, youths and adults living in rural areas," says a South African ministerial committee report on rural education, due for release next week. The report observes that reliable rural data is urgently needed, as existing government databases on education do not provide separate statistics on rural schools. However, millions of children are affected. More
 
Inclusive education in India: a lot of talk but not enough action?
May 26, 2005 - India is committed to fulfilling the goal of education for all and 'inclusive education' is now a feature of various government documents and plans. However, between 35 and 80 million of India's 200 million school age children do not attend school. Research based in the UK's University of Cambridge analyses how 'inclusive education' is understood in India and what influences decisions to include or exclude children. More
 
EFA Week: at least half a million cut-out 'friends' have been made
May 24, 2005 - Latest figures in from countries have boosted the number of cut-out 'friends' made to at least half a million 'friends' across the globe. With reports of an amazing 44,000 'friends' made in Greece and 30,000 in Nepal, the global total has risen to over half a million - with the Global Campaign for Education is hoping to confirm much bigger numbers in the coming weeks. In the UK, an estimated 350,000 'friends' have already been made toward the 1 million total to be presented to the G8 Summit, in July. More

>>> Send an online 'friend'
 
Indigenous Education is part of Education International's Education For All challenge
May 21, 2005 - For Education International (EI), there can be no sustainable development for Indigenous Peoples without quality Indigenous education. As part of its commitment to promote Education For All, EI is raising awareness about critical education issues for Indigenous Peoples. 300 million Indigenous Peoples live in over 70 countries and represent 4 per cent of the world's population. For most Indigenous Peoples, education has been used as one of the tools in the destruction of their culture. It has been part of the process of assimilation. More
 
Education in Africa: what makes a good SWAP?
May 20, 2005 - Governments and funding agencies are increasingly recognising the need for more secondary and post-basic education as a result of the expansion of primary education. Developing a comprehensive nationally-owned sector-wide strategy would be a good start. Sector wide approaches (SWAPs) to education are being promoted in response to achieving Education for All by 2015. But what are the key issues in the development and implementation of a SWAP in education? More
 
Monitoring EFA progress in the Philippines
May 19, 2005 - Two EFA bodies have been launched in the Philippines: the National EFA Network and the National Education Watch. The EFA Network is a community-based network of organizations working for EFA, while the National Education Watch is a monitoring mechanism for keeping track of progress in EFA in the Philippines. Both were launched during a national conference on 26 April. More
 
$28 million for Cambodia's basic education
May 17, 2005 - The World Bank has approved $28 million to expand access to Cambodia's educational services by addressing constraints on supply, demand, quality and efficiency, with special focus on poor and underserved communes. The project components are to support the Education Facilities Development Program in providing lower secondary schools, to focus on strategic interventions around decentralized quality improvement in order to encourage right-age enrollment, and to address the implementation of additional selected interventions. More
 
African Vocational Education Conference Starts in Kasane
May 11, 2005 - Over 200 delegates turned up for the fifth African Regional International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA) conference, which started in Kasane on Sunday. The conference, which ends on Sunday, is attended by delegates from Africa and beyond. More
 
EFA Week's resounding success
May 9, 2005 - After a tireless week of campaigning, the Global Action Week for education came to an end, leaving the corridors of power resounding with the call to Send my Friend to School. Children and young people in over 100 countries have shown their passion in demanding the basic right of every child to receive a quality education. Politicians have responded to their calls by making firm commitments and pledges on education in countries across the globe. More
 
New role for public-private partnerships in basic education
May 4, 2005 - Speaking last week at the second "Round Table on Development-Driven Public-Private Partnerships in Basic Education: Practitioners' Solutions," organized by the World Economic Forum, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura invited the participants to consider ways in which substantive action through policy advice, capacity-building and country level projects could be achieved. Mr Matsuura expressed his confidence that the forthcoming UN High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development as well as the Millennium Review Summit in September and the EFA High-level Group in Beijing would be good opportunities to draw the attention of donors to the increasing relevance of public-private partnerships in education." More
 
"Friends" meet politicians during EFA Week
May 2, 2005 - According to Global Campaign for Education estimates, 3000 politicians have gone Back to School, while over 100,000 "friends" have been made, and hundreds of thousands of children and young people joined the Send my Friend to School campaign. More events are planned over the next few days. Young people have been able to deliver their 'friends' and discuss their demands for more and better education in high places, including the Presidents and Prime Ministers of seven countries (Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Peru, Senegal, Ivory Coast) and by thousands of parliamentarians in over 100 countries. More
 
Millions of children say: "Send my Friend to School"
April 22, 2005 - Young people and education activists in more than 100 countries will join together this week to protest world leaders’ failure to meet a major UN target on girls’ education this year – a failure they say will lead to greater poverty and unnecessary child deaths. Five years ago, governments of the world promised to get equal numbers of girls as boys into school by 2005. The target – the first of all the UN’s Millennium Development Goals to fall due - will be missed, and experts believe that a second Millennium target for giving every child a quality primary education is also at risk.

>> Global Campaign for Education Press Release
 
Aid to education: new 'school report card' out
April 20, 2005 - A new "school report card", just released by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), ranks countries on their aid to education. This second report "reveals that 100 million children are still out of school because G7 and other rich countries are simply failing to provide the funding needed for a quality education," says the GCE. The report grades countries on the quantity and quality of education aid they provide to poor countries. Norway scores at the top of the class with an A, followed by Netherlands, and "B" ranked Sweden, Ireland and the UK. Most donor countries are failing to deliver: five of the G7 rank in the bottom half of the class, with a combined grade of 'D', and the US comes bottom with an 'F'.

>>>Read the report: English / French / Spanish
 
Aid to education: new 'school report card' out
April 20, 2005 - A new "school report card", just released by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), ranks countries on their aid to education. This second report "reveals that 100 million children are still out of school because G7 and other rich countries are simply failing to provide the funding needed for a quality education," says the GCE. The report grades countries on the quantity and quality of education aid they provide to poor countries. Norway scores at the top of the class with an A, followed by Netherlands, and "B" ranked Sweden, Ireland and the UK. Most donor countries are failing to deliver: five of the G7 rank in the bottom half of the class, with a combined grade of 'D', and the US comes bottom with an 'F'.

>>>Read the report: English / French / Spanish
 
Reporting on Education for All in the Arab Region
April 18, 2005 - Journalists and media professions from the Arab region are attending a 5-day training workshop that opened yesterday in Doha on writing and reporting on Education for All. The aim: to give participants a better understanding of EFA; to improve their skills to analyze education budgets, policies and systems and to investigate the advances towards the EFA goals; to provide access to a wider range of statistics and information; and to sensitize participants to such educational targets as girls' and women's education and the education of the disadvantaged and those with special needs. The training is organized by UNESCO and Al Jazeera.

>>>Working schedule
 
Nigerian students' performance has fallen
April 7, 2005 - The standard of education in Nigeria has not fallen, rather it is the performance of students in examination that has continued to fall. This was the thrust of a presentation by Senior Deputy Registrar and Head, Research Division, WAEC, Dr. Sammuel Olu Adeyegbe at a one-day special seminar. Adeyegbe said that massive changes have taken place within the educational system over the years, which have impinged on several critical variables in the teaching and learning system. More
 
EFA Working Group's Minutes are available
April 7, 2005 - The Meeting of the Thematic Working Group on EFA for East and South-East Asia that met on 9 March discussed a number of EFA Flagship Initiaives. The Minutes of this gathering are now available.
>>> Meeting Minutes
>>> List of participants and photos
 
Commonwealth of Independent States' Education Ministers discuss EFA
April 4, 2005 - Some 200 participants will come together at the Tenth Commonwealth of Independent States' Ministers Conference, in Minsk, Belarus, from 5 to 6 April. Among them will be Education Ministers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In a series of ten workshops, participants will debate on Education for All and Education for Sustainable Development.

>>> Provisional List of Participants >>> Draft Programme
 
European Regional Meeting on Literacy opens in Lyon
April 1, 2005 - About 150 policy-makers and representatives of research institutes, universities, and providers of literacy and literacy experts from 50 countries will attend the European Regional Meeting on Literacy from 2 to 5 April, in Lyon, France. It's purpose is to improve policy and practice in the field of literacy and citizenship in Europe. Workshops will be held on topics such as: literacy in the family, in the workplace, in the community and public spaces; literacy for migrants, offenders, Romas, women and young adults; and capacity building and toolkit development. The meeting is organized by the UNESCO Institute of Education, the French National Commission for UNESCO, the Agence Nationale de Lutte Contre L´Illettrisme (ANLCI), and the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA) with support from the European Union.

>>> Meeting Summary >>> Programme >>>List of Participants
 
How schools influence gender identity
March 3,1 2005 - Research in Botswana and Ghana indicates that daily life in schools is affected strongly by gender. A joint project by researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK, the University of Botswana and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana found that institutional practices and traditions can lead to a highly gendered school environment rarely challenged by students or teachers. More
 
Ugandan children flock to school, but quality suffers
March 29, 2005 - In 1997 Uganda resolved to achieve universal primary education (UPE). Within five years, the number of children in primary schools almost trebled. However, pupil:teacher, pupil:textbook and pupil:classroom ratios have all worsened. A report from Uganda’s Economic Policy Research Centre looks at how Uganda pays for primary education. Whilst the authors welcome government investment and hail success in getting girls into school, they point to inconsistencies and inefficiencies in the way funds are spent. More
 
New Girl Child Campaign in South Africa
March 21, 2005 - Mobile operator Cell C, a private company, has launched its third annual Take a Girl Child to Work Day campaign, and aims this year to achieve participation figures of around 200 000 girl learners countrywide. The aim of the project is to provide female learners in grades 10, 11 and 12 with the type of workplace experiences that broaden their career thinking and highlight the important role women have to play in South African society. More
 
Vers un avenir meilleur pour tous
11 mars 2005 - En janvier 2005, le Département du Royaume-Uni pour le développement international a lancé sa nouvelle stratégie d’éducation en faveur des filles « Vers un avenir meilleur pour tous ». La stratégie vise à réaliser l’objectif du Millénaire pour le développement, fixé à 2015, de l’égalité des genres dans l’éducation. Elle est soutenue par un engagement de 1,4 milliard de livres pour l’éducation sur les trois prochaines années. EQUALS, la lettre d’information du projet Beyond Access, rend compte (pages 8-9). Pour en savoir plus
 
Failure on girls' education target shames the world
March 8, 2005 - On International Women's Day, the Global Campaign for Education has released a new report slamming world leaders for their failure to achieve the first and most critical of all the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals - getting equal numbers of girls and boys into school by 2005. A majority of developing countries are set to miss the target, and new research shows that an extra 1 million child deaths will occur this year alone because of failure to close the education gap facing girls. More
 
American universities set to support EFA
March 3, 2005 - UNESCO and the United States organized a one-day conference on 28 February to discuss the role America's universities can play in Education For All. Among the participants were First Lady Laura Bush, the US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. "I believe that the vibrant civil society of the United States - the only superpower, a country that has built its progress on educational foundations - can do more, much more, to help less fortunate countries achieve their educational goals", said Matsuura in opening the conference. "American colleges and universities have a unique opportunity to help UNESCO meet its goals of advancing literacy, training teachers and using education and science to fight HIV/AIDS," said Laura Bush. More
 
Calling higher education to a higher calling
February 28, 2005 - UNESCO and the University of Georgetown (U.S.) is hosting a Conference today at Georgetown University to discuss the role of America’s colleges and universities in achieving Education for All by 2015. This is an opportunity for working scholars from many colleges and universities in the United States to learn about possible opportunities to engage with EFA and to dialogue with U.S. government officials, UNESCO experts, foundations and other organizations.

>>> Conference overview
>>> Conference website
 
Traumatised Kids to Get School
February 22, 2005 - Uganda and Belgium are building a special boarding primary school to cater for traumatised children in war-torn northern Uganda. "The Government and Belgium are constructing a model boarding primary school, which will accommodate 700 children. It will be completed in September," she said Ugandan Education Minister, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire. More
 
ADEA assists Madagascar in developing its EFA communication strategy
February 18, 2004 - From 7 to 18 March, Madagascar will host in Antananarivo a training workshop organized by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). Some forty journalists and communication officers are expected to attend the workshop that will focus on developing a communication strategy to accompany education reforms being carried out by Madagascar's Ministry of Education. More
 
Education "not a ladder out of poverty", South African report says
February 14, 2005 - "For many, education cannot compensate for much deeper economic and social inequalities - it is not a ladder out of poverty." This is how the authors of the report of the Human Sciences Research Council released last week sums up its findings on education in South African rural communities. The researchers say education in very poor conditions is not a panacea. "Even those with good matric passes are unlikely to find employment if they remain in the villages", they say. More
 
Petition calls for democratic oversight of Bretton Wood Institutions
February 10, 2005 - Parliamentarians and campaigners have started an International Parliamentarians' Petition calling for democratic oversight of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The petition is a practical way to assert support for the principle of parliamentary sovereignty and to call for parliaments to be fully involved in the development and scrutiny of IMF and World Bank policies. Over 800 legislators from around the world have already signed. More
 
Mandela and Machel support "Send my friend to school" campaign
February 9, 2004 - Young people active in the Global Campaign for Action in the UK took centre stage with Nelson Mandela in a massive rally ahead of the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting. The kids told the crowd of 22,000 people that they are demanding action from world leaders this year to "Send our Friends to School" - and both Mr Mandela and his wife, Mrs Machel, have pledged their support. More
 
Boosting Education for All in Southern Africa
February 7, 2005 - National EFA Coordinators, NGO representatives and education experts from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe will meet today for a 3-day discussion on Education for All. The gathering "Joining Hands and Taking Action for Education for All” is co-hosted by World Education, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and UNESCO.

>>> Concept paper
>>> Tentative agenda
 
Vietnamese journalists briefed on Education for All
February 7, 2005 - A two-day workshop in Do Son, Hai Phong, (Viet Nam, 19 - 20 January) briefed twenty-five journalists from newspapers and radio and television stations about Education for all worldwide and at home. Participants discussed ideas for enhancing the news value of educational stories and developing new story angles. The workshop was based on the Media Training Kit: Education Makes the News, developed jointly by UNESCO, the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and the Commonwealth of Learning. More
 
Funding for education of Liberian ex-combatants
February 4, 2005 - UNDP Policy Advisor Charles Achodo has disclosed that his agency has received more funding to settle the present caseload of Liberian ex-combatants who were thrown out of school for tuitions. Mr Achodo told journalists that the amount would meet the school needs of the remaining 3,793 ex-combatants out of the 11,000 ex-combatants that are in various schools in the country. More
 
Education ranked high at Davos
February 1, 2005 - Education is among the most important issues facing the world today, according to the business and political leaders who voted on top priorities for the World Economic Forum's agenda on Wednesday. The leaders chose poverty, equitable globalisation and climate change as the top three issues, but voted education into next place because, they said, it is key to beating poverty and sustainable development, reports the Global Campaign for Education. The Global Governance Initiative's annual report launched at Davos slammed rich countries for providing only a fraction of the aid needed to deliver universal education, and slated the private sector for its apathetic response to the global education crisis. The report raised serious concern that the 2005 goal for gender parity in education will be missed, and called on the G8 to act decisively on education this year. More

>>>The full report
 
UK announces $10 billion-a-year plan for UPE
January 27, 2005 - The UK's development minister has pledged to invest 1.4 billion pounds over the next 3 years to improve education opportunities in poor countries, particularly for girls. The Global Campaign for Education welcomed the announcement, saying it represents an important down payment on the UK government plan outlined by Gordon Brown in Nairobi last week to get every child into school by mobilising US$10bn a year for education through the International Finance Facility. More

>>> U.K. Department of International Development
 
Education at the World Social Forum
January 26, 2005
- UNESCO is participating for the fourth time in the Porto Alegre Forum, which opens today. A novel feature this year is the Learning Societies Conference III, a 'learning space’ for exchange, involving a number of individuals and groups from Latin America and the Caribbean who have turned toward a ‘search’ for new meaning in their lives, reclaiming control over their own learning process. Five workshops are being organized on: cultural regeneration, learning processes in indigenous communities, diversity of learning styles, unlearning and walk-outs. More
 
Measuring Africa’s progress towards gender equality
January 25, 2005 - Devising strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of providing universal access to education for girls is complicated by the unreliability of data. The complex gender dynamics involved in education cannot be readily judged through simple measures based on inputs and outputs. A paper from the Beyond Access Project explores new ways of measuring progress towards gender equality within Education for All. More
 
Baltic Sea EFA Working Group meets in St Petersburg
January 20, 2005 - The Baltic Sea Subregional EFA Working Group met in Saint Petersburg from 15 to 18 January to discuss a number of issues linked to Education for All in the subregion. The more than fifty participants from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia as well as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, discussed information-sharing and capacity-building, adult literacy, and articulation between the vocational and academic fields. The meeting was supported by UNESCO and the UNESCO International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.


>>>Programme
>>> List of Participants
 
Report calls for more aid to achieve the MDGs
January 18, 2004 - Rich countries should increase official development assistance to support the Millennium Development Goals and international donors should scale-up aid in at least a dozen MDG "fast-track" countries. These are among the ten recommendations presented yesterday to the UN Secretary-General in the report Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

>>> Press release
>>>Ten key recommendations
 
Kenya: Time now for universal secondary schooling?
January 17, 2004 - A recent statement by the Kenyan government that many students who graduated from primary school last year will not find places in the country's secondary schools has generated widespread concern. Over 600,000 pupils sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education last year - an increase of almost 12 percent. More than half of those who left primary school cannot be accommodated at Kenya's 4,000 public secondary schools. More
 
New report looks at secondary education in Africa
January 17, 2005 - Back to the Blackboard, a report by the South African Institute of International Affairs, highlights the challenges in African education and encourages governments to start planning and expanding their secondary education sector. It is the first in the NEPAD Policy Focus series which identifies key priorities for Africa.

>> Full report
>> Executive summary

 
1,000 teachers killed in Aceh
January 13, 2004 - The south-Asian tsunami killed 1,000 teachers and destroyed 420 schools in the Aceh province of Indonesia, the country's government has confirmed. Ministers have promised to re-start education as soon as possible, using tents and mosques as classrooms. At Guegajah elementary school in Aceh Besar - two miles west of Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh - only half the 130 regular students attended the reopening although most had survived the effects of the tsunami. "There are great reasons not to go to school," said UNICEF spokesman Gordon Weiss. "It's well-founded terror. The kids are in deep shock." More
 
Join the Beijing+10 online discussion
January 10, 2004 - In the context of the evaluation of progress since the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995), UNICEF and UNESCO are co-sponsoring an online discussion on educating girls and women. The online discussion opens today and will run for 4 weeks with a different topic each week: week 1: universal primary education, week 2: educational quality; week 3: political and financial commitments; and week 4: Education and empowerment. UNESCO is moderating the discussions on the UN WomenWatch website.

>> Sign up now
>> More about the UN Girls' Education Initiative
 
The second national EFA Forum meets in Beijing
January 6, 2005 - Some forty-one national education institutions came together from 12 to 15 December 2004, in Beijing, to review progress towards the Education for All goals and to discuss the development of provincial plans of action. The meeting was organized by the Chinese education authorities, UNICEF and UNESCO. Among the recommendations made were the need to reach out to migrant children and pre-schoolers and to promote education for sustainable development in schools. Other recommendations include mainstreaming gender and establishing forums to work on each of the six goals.
 
Mobilizing the private sector for EFA
December 30, 2004 - Private sector engagement in basic education is increasing. It varies from philanthropy, corporate commitment to the commercial provision of goods and services. It is less about mobilising private financial capital and more about providing innovative approaches that contribute to improving education. These were among the issues discussed the first roundtable on public-private partnerships in education, in Brasilia (7-8 November), back-to-back with the High-level Group meeting. More
 
Ending poverty means ending child labour
December 29, 2004 - The key message of the roundtable on Education for All and the Elimination of Child Labour, held in Brasilia on 8 November, is that poverty cannot be eradicated without eliminating child labour, according to the roundtable summary now available. Free and compulsory education of high quality is the most effective sustainable strategy to end child labour. More
 
Education for All not negotiable, says Professor Omolewa
December 23, 2004 - Education for All by the year 2015 is not negotiable, President of UNESCO's General Conference has said. "What Nigeria is doing today is to look at itself and try to see how education can reform the challenges of modern Nigerian society to assist in the elimination of poverty, hunger, bigotry, chauvinism, arrogance, deceit, corruption and other vice," he said. More
 
New education fund for Roma children
December 23, 2004 - Donors and governments have pledged more than $41 million toward a decade-long programme to assist Roma children in breaking the cycle of social exclusion and discrimination that members of the ethnic minority have suffered for generations. "This is the first time such an array of partners has convened to provide concrete support to improve the living conditions of Europe's largest and most excluded minority," said James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank. More
 
Does participation mean more than NGOs?
December 20, 2004 - New research from the University of Oxford’s Queen Elizabeth House finds that local people, communities or organisations often have only minimal input to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. The research says civil society participants mostly consist of a mix of NGOs which are not necessarily representative either of society as a whole or of the poor in particular. More
 
How appropriate is software for developing ICT literacy in Africa?
December 15, 2004 - Teacher training institutions in even the poorest African countries are slowly being equipped with computers. Increasingly, teachers are being exposed to new information and communication technologies (ICTs). The majority of school teachers are likely to work in environments without computers for the foreseeable future but in schools where ICTs are available, teachers will want to know how to use them. More
 
Nigeria to lead way in girls' education
December 13, 2004 - One of the world’s largest girls’ education projects has been launched in Nigeria, supported by a $50 million grant from the UK Government. About 7.3 million Nigerian children of primary school age remain outside the school system, of whom 62 per cent are girls. The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education will implement the project with support from UNICEF and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). More
 
PISA study shows widening gap between best and poorest performers
December 10, 2004 - Finland once again came out top in the OECD's latest PISA study of learning skills among 15-year-olds, with high performances in mathematics and science matching those of top-ranking Asian school systems in Hong Kong-China, Japan and Korea. But some low-performing countries showed only small improvements or actually did less well, widening the gap between the best and poorest performers. More than 250,000 students in 41 countries took part in PISA 2003 which involves pencil and paper tests lasting two hours, taken in the students' schools. More
 
Education to end child labour
December 8, 2004 - Poverty cannot be eradicated without eliminating child labour. It will not be eradicated without achieving education for all children. These were the main messages from the roundtable, held in Brasilia on 8 November, as one of the side events to the meeting of the High-level Group on EFA. Free, compulsory education of high quality, is the most effective, preventive, curative and sustainable strategy to end child labour, according to the participants. More
 
Meeting adopts new measures on the use of contractual teachers
December 6, 2004 - Ministers of Education, of Finance, of Labour and of Public Affairs, teachers unions and parent-teacher associations from twelve countries adopted a series of measures on the use of contractual teachers in primary schools, at a meeting in Bamako (21-23 November). The Conference was hosted by the Government of Mali and organized by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the World Bank, and Education International.

>>> Text of the Communiqué (in French)
>>> More about the meeting
 
Consultation launches minimum standards for education in emergencies
December 3, 2004 - The Second Global Inter-Agency Consultation on Education in Emergencies and Early Recovery, opened yesterday in South Africa with the launch of the first ever Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction. This handbook, developed following consultations with over 2,000 people in over 50 countries, will provide a universal framework for ensuring the right to education for people affected by crisis. "It will help us all to improve the quality of the education we offer the children and young people we serve," said christopher Talbot, Chair of the Working Group that developed the handbook. The 3-day consultation is organized by the International Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), a network of UN agencies, NGOs, government partners, practitioners and researchers. The issues being discussed during the 3-day meeting include developments in the field of education in emergencies, gaps in responses of key actors and in available research and priorities for the future work of the network.

>>> About the minimum standards for education in emergencies
>>> The minimum standards handbook
>>> More about the consultation
>>> The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)
 
Are African teachers a high-risk group for HIV?
December 2, 2004 - There is a widespread belief that African teachers are a high-risk group for HIV infection. It is thought they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour due to their relatively high social status, income, mobility and separation from spouses. But does the evidence support these ideas? Research by independent consultant Paul Bennell suggests that teachers are actually a relatively low-risk group in most sub-Saharan African countries. More
 
Poor state of Nigerian schools
November 30, 2004 - The Nigerian Federal Government has expressed regret that the physical environment in many of its schools not only presents a sorry sight but also constitutes a serious health hazard to the students. The Federal Minister of Environment, Col. Bala Mande raised the alarm in Owerri in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by the Assistant Director, Environment, Health and Sanitation in his ministry, Mr. Abdulrasaq Ashiru, during a national conference on school sanitation and hygiene for schools. "With dilapidated buildings, unkempt premises overgrown with weeds, most schools are sited in areas that are noisy and harzardous due to heavy road and human traffic," the Minister lamented. More
 
Addressing the gap between urban and rural illiteracy
November 25, 2004 - Representatives from more than 100 non-governmental and civil society organizations from developed and developing countries, senior officials from the Italian Development Cooperation programme and experts from FAO, UNESCO and other international organizations have agreed on strengthening their cooperation in order to address the basic education needs of the world's biggest neglected majority: rural people. A partnership project will raise public awareness in Europe on the importance of education for rural people in poor countries and the urgent need to target rural areas where over 70 percent of the world's poor are caught in the vicious circle of being unable to access the services and opportunities that might take them out of poverty. The project, discussed at a three-day meeting (15-17 November) is co- financed by the European Commission, several European NGOs, FAO and UNESCO. More
 
Adult Learners' Week celebrates South Africa's decade of democracy
November 23, 2004 - South Africa celebrated the country's ten years of democracy during this year's International Adult Learners' Week from 6 to 11 September. The week highlighted the role that literacy and adult education play in helping people participate more fully in democratic processes. The campaign brought together adult educators and learners from Africa and the rest of the world. Activities included conferences and visits to learning sites. The University of the Western Cape took an active part, organizing informal discussions on lifelong learning and an exhibition devoted to the decade of democracy. A novel activity was a visit to Robben Island, the best known prison island in the world, primarily because of its brutality during the apartheid years. Some of South Africa's greatest leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were emprisoned there, and organized debates and learning activities among themselves. Adult Learners' Week is an international advocacy campaign, launched by the UNESCO Institute for Education. More

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