Forwarded from RA-EQUITY
Susan Carter, edequity-admin@mail.edc.org
125 MILLION CHILDREN WORLDWIDE NEVER ATTEND CLASS
Across the world, 125 million primary school-aged children will not attend
class today, or this year. Another 150 million will leave school without
basic literacy skills. *Education Now: Break the Cycle of Poverty*, a
report released by Oxfam International, finds that the international
community's goal of having every child in primary school by 2015 will not
be met based on current trends.
The report finds two-thirds of the children not attending school are girls.
And though every continent has areas where receiving an education is
difficult, by 2015, three-quarters of the children out of school will be in
sub-Saharan Africa--the only region where the number of unschooled children
is growing.
The report draws on original research as well as government statistics to
rank 104 nations on their success in providing education to all, and
details the impact of global debt, the East Asia financial crisis, and
international financial institutions' policies on providing education. It
also examines broad disparities in education within countries. In Brazil
and India, some regions' educational achievement is as strong as the best
performers in East Asia, but others rank with Sub-Saharan Africa.
The report also finds the solution within reach. An estimated $8 billion US
per year in additional education spending over the next decade would put
every child into primary school. Oxfam proposes a detailed global action
plan including increased debt relief and aid to poor nations, changes in
International Monetary Fund policies to protect education spending during
economic crises, and increased investment in education and changes in
national policies by developing countries.
Oxfam International is a network of 11 aid agencies that work in 120
countries throughout the developing world. Further information on the
report is available at
http://www.oxfam.org/educationnow/over_to_you/read.htm
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