Education for All
Seventy-two million children currently lack access to primary school around the world. More than half of those children are girls.
At the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar, the United States joined 181 other countries in adopting the Education for All goals to eliminate educational disparities worldwide. The six goals include expanding early childhood development, achieving universal primary education, meeting the learning needs of youth, increasing adult literacy, eliminating gender disparities in education, and improving the quality of education.
In the past decade, some progress has been made in achieving universal basic education. The number of out-of-school children around the world has dropped by 33 million since 1999. From 1985-2007, the global adult literacy rate increased to 84 percent. However, without U.S. leadership and a commitment to a new multilateral approach to education funding, these advances will stagnate as millions of women and children continue to fall victim to systemic global education disparities.
Even with advances in access to education, millions of children remain out of school. Much of the progress in recent years has been focused on South and West Asia, where rapid economic development has allowed governments and families to make greater investments in education. But almost half of out-of-school children live in Sub-Saharan Africa and almost 40 million live in fragile or conflict-affected states.
In 2008, Presidential Candidate Barack Obama committed to give every child the opportunity to learn through the creation of a Global Fund for Education. He pledged $2 billion to that fund. It is time to realize those promises. It is time to reverse the global education deficit and invest in the next generation of leaders, teachers, innovators, and peace keepers.
Without a U.S. commitment to support a multilateral education initiative, the international community will not only fall far short of its commitment to provide quality basic education to millions of the world’s children by 2015, but will also stall and even reverse progress made in eliminating poverty, improving health outcomes, and promoting security and stability.
About GCE-US
The Global Campaign for Education, U.S. Chapter is dedicated to ensuring access to quality basic education in developing nations. Find out more about who we are and what we do.
Global Fund for Education
By expanding and reforming the current international aid for education to create a fully-financed, innovative Global Fund for Education, the U.S. could lead the world in efforts to achieve Education for All. Read more about the Global Fund for Education.
Why Education?
The benefits of quality education reach far beyond the classroom to help individuals break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Learn more about why education is so important.
