Transform the world for less than 2p a day

Apr 24 2008 by Glenys Kinnock, Western Mail

IN a hot and dusty town in the middle of the Zambian copper belt I met Kelly Sakype. The seven-year-old told me she would like to go to school but couldn’t – her mother recently died of Aids and she had to help her grandmother care for the family.

So instead of discovering reading and writing, or joining in with playground fun, Kelly spent her days arranging dried fish and charcoal into little mounds, hoping to earn a few coins from customers.

Kelly is far from alone. Today, one in nine of the world’s children continue to be denied even rudimentary schooling.

Worldwide, 72 million primary-age children have never been inside a classroom. Of these, more than half are girls, and more than 30 million live in Africa.

As it stands, at least 75 countries will not meet the second of the Millennium Development Goals, agreed by world leaders at the UN in 2000, which aimed to ensure universal primary education by 2015.

Yet we know education is not only a fundamental human right, but also our most efficient and cost-effective weapon in the fight against global poverty.

In developing countries, average earnings increase by 11 per cent with each additional year of education, up to 20 per cent for girls. Each extra year of education for girls reduces child deaths by around 8%.

The facts speak for themselves – education fights poverty and disease and it is our best economic development programme. And all this could be delivered to all our children for just $9bn (£4.5bn) a year – less than two pence a day for every person in the rich world.

That’s why this week, during the Global Campaign for Education’s Action Week, millions of parents, teachers and children around the world, including many here in Wales, will be calling on their governments to live up to their promise to provide free, quality, basic education. We have already seen what can be achieved. Between 1999 and 2005 sub-Saharan African countries enrolled an additional 29 million children in primary school, largely thanks to debt relief delivered as a result of the pressure exerted on western governments by mass public campaigns.

In Tanzania debt cancellation and aid enabled the government to drop school fees and three million children enrolled in school overnight. In Malawi, debt relief paid for the training of 4,000 teachers each year, and in Mali it provided salaries for 5,000 community teachers.

I was a teacher for 30 years, and I am constantly reminded of the cruel inequalities in global education when I compare the classes I taught with those I have seen in Africa. Across the developing world, I have witnessed classes of more than 100 children crammed behind desks or sitting on the floor.

There are bare concrete walls and floors, antiquated textbooks and footballs made from wastepaper and string.

Whereas in Wales a five-year-old child can, on average, expect to receive 15 to 17 years of full-time education, in much of Africa those children that manage to go to school can expect less than five years. Very few children, even fewer girls, go on to secondary education.

Governments of developing countries need long-term and predictable funding so that they can tackle these challenges.

The UK is already leading the way in providing a predictable flow of resources by pledging $15bn (£7.5bn) for universal primary education over the years until 2015.

But the world’s rich countries are not on track to fulfil their long-standing commitment to deliver 0.7% of their national Overseas Development Aid.

We must do more. To get every child into primary education, global funding for education must be tripled in the next two years. Special attention must be given to the enrolment of girls, children in the worst performing countries, and those living in conflict-affected and fragile states.

Education is the fundamental birthright of every child. So this week, we stand together and tell world leaders that their promise of free education for all must be kept – for the sake of Kelly Sakype and the millions of youngsters like her.

Glenys Kinnock is MEP for Wales and Co-President of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly