“I am encouraged and
grateful for all the generous commitments made today, which gives Education
First a boost towards achieving its goals,” said Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon.
“Our shared goals are simple. We want children to attend primary school and to
progress toward higher education that will help them to succeed in life.”
Education First seeks
to make a breakthrough to mobilize all partners –both traditional and new – to
achieve universal primary education ahead of the 2015 target date for the MDGs.
An additional $24 billion is needed annually to cover the shortfall for
children out of primary and lower secondary school.
Australia,
Bangladesh, South Africa, Timor-Leste and Denmark were among countries that
pledged to intensify their support to the new global partnership called
‘Education First.’ In addition, dozens of top companies and private foundations
have mobilized over US$1.5 billion in new financing to ensure all children and
young people have a quality, relevant and transformative education.
Western Union
Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation were among the first to solidify their
support for the initiative. Western Union has pledged to directly move
over US$1 billion for education globally, providing US$10,000 per day in grants
for 1 million days of school. Under MasterCard’s ‘Scholars Program’, the US$500
million education initiative will allow 15,000 talented, yet economically
disadvantaged students, particularly from the African region, to access and
complete their secondary and university education.
Education First was
launched on the margins of the 67th Session of the UN General
Assembly. Participants included Heads of State and Ministers from countries,
the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown,
heads of UN agencies, young people, civil society representatives and Chief
Executive Officers of major corporations.
In the next five
years, Education First will focus on three priorities: putting every child in
school, improving the quality of learning and fostering global citizenship.
“We must not deny the
promise of quality education to any child. The stakes are too high. When we put
education first, we can end wasted potential – and foresee stronger and better
societies for all,” Secretary-General BAN said.
At the end of the
1990s, 108 million children of primary school age were not enrolled in schools.
That number has fallen to 61 million today, according to UNESCO’s forthcoming
Global Monitoring Report. The gap between boy and girl enrolment has also been
greatly reduced. These are significant achievements, largely due to
national and international resolve to act on shared goals for education.
The launch was
followed by a discussion of the goals of initiative and the critical need to
put education on top of the global agenda. The panel discussion was chaired by
UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and panelists were Her Majesty Queen
Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi of Myanmar, teacher
representative Teopista Birungi Mayanja of Uganda and youth representative
Charles Young of Jamaica.
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