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More than anything else, children want to go to school. Their instinct and desire to go to school, interact with children and learn is overwhelming, says Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa. This is the case whether children live in contexts of civil conflict, war, famine or HIV/AIDS. Despite this basic human need, millions of children worldwide are not in school. This unit will outline why this situation exists and what needs to be done to change it.

What is basic education?
The Right to basic education
Fast facts on basic education
Fast facts on poverty, education and women
Why are children not in school?
What can be done?
-Basic education and the Millenium Development Goals
-Dakar education goals
-Campaigns for basic education
Canada's role
What can you do?

What is basic education?

UNICEF describes basic education as follows:

Education can be either formal or non-formal, with elements that include literacy, numeracy and life skills. While the core of basic education is primary school, it also extends to the lower years of secondary school in a number of countries.

A quality basic education is child-centred and gender-sensitive. It is based on a curriculum that is relevant to the needs and reality of all learners, and relies on professionally trained teachers equipped with appropriate learning materials. School is held in a child-friendly environment - one that is safe, clean and conducive to learning and play.

Source: UNICEF Basic Education and Gender Equality - The Big Picture

The Right to Basic Education

The desire to learn is not only a human instinct but education is a universal human right. It is a fundamental right shared by all people throughout the world. The Right to Basic Education is recognized in many international agreements including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976) and the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989). A global commitment to basic education was made at these international gatherings:

• At the World Conference for Education for all in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, 155 countries and 150 organizations made a commitment to ensure that children, youth and adults in all countries meet their basic human needs.

• At the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000, more than 1,100 participants committed to achieving quality basic education for all by 2015.

• At the Millenium Summit in 2000, 190 countries agreed to eight goals to eliminate poverty by 2015. Ensuring universal access to a basic education was one of the eight Millenium Development Goals set by the leaders of the nations present at the Summit.

Fast Facts on basic education

• Around the world, more than 77 million children of primary-school age are not in school. (UNESCO, 2008)

• This is an improvement from 2000 when there were some 115 million children out of school. (UNESCO)

• Nearly 53% of the children currently not in primary school are girls. The gender gap is even bigger in some countries of the world, and is often even bigger in secondary schools.

• Almost 80% of the world's out-of-school children live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. (UNICEF)

• School fees are a major obstacle to primary education. Fees are still collected in at least 89 countries in the world. (UNESCO)

• The United Nations Millennium Development Goals set the target of making equal rights to education a reality preferably by the year 2005, and definitely by 2015. The goal for gender parity has already been missed.

• The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, held in May 2002, set the interim target of getting 90% of children into primary school by 2010.

Fast Facts on poverty, education and women

Education is not just a good thing in itself. It is crucial to reducing poverty, improving general health, halting the spread of HIV and AIDS, and enabling people to play a full part in their communities and nations. The following facts are an example of the devastating effects of poverty and the lack of education on girls and women:

• Uneducated girls grow up to be disadvantaged women.
  • For example, 64%of the771 million adults in the world who cannot read or write are women.
  • Without an education, women have fewer employment options and often earn less than men. In fact, on average, women earn only three-quarters of what men earn.

• More than 80% of farmers in Africa are women.

• Four out of every ten women in Africa do not have access to basic education.

• Girls' and womens' education has profound effects on health and mortality:
  • Girls with some education have a 50% less chance of getting AIDS than those without an education.
  • Educated mothers immunize their children 50% more often than uneducated moms.
  • Children of women with five years of primary education are 40% more likely to survive than those with no education.
  • Every minute, a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth. That adds up to 1400 women who die each day from pregnancy or childbirth.
  • A woman in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy compared to a 1 in 3,700 chance for a woman in North America.
  • If a girl is educated for six years or more, as an adult her prenatal care, postnatal care and childbirth survival rates, will dramatically and consistently improve.
  • Almost half of births in developing countries take place without the help of a skilled birth attendant.

Source: UN Millenium Project 2006

Why are children not in school?

Some of the main reasons why so many children are not currently in primary school include:

Poverty
Families may have difficulty affording school fees or the cost of uniforms, or may need children to work to contribute to the family income.

Safety
Families may keep their children at home if they feel the journey to school is too long or that it's dangerous to walk to school alone. They may also be worried about bullying and sexual harassment or violence, especially for girls.

Local traditions
In some countries, families place more emphasis on the education of boys, and may not believe it is important to send their daughters to school. Girls may also be forced to marry young, drop out of school, and dedicate themselves to housework.

Emergencies
Situations such as conflict, economic crises and natural disasters, prevent millions of children around the world from getting an education.

Source: UNICEF

What can be done?

For more than half a decade, the international community has been raising the issue of quality basic education for all. With the future of the world's children at stake, a joint effort is necessary to truly make a difference. Governments, civil society and individuals need to step up to fulfil commitments. So what can be done?

International Commitment to Basic Education

- Basic Education and the Millennium Development Goals

In September of 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in human history convened for the Millennium Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York. By the end of the Summit, leaders of 190 nations signed the Millenium Declaration which outlined eight goals to eliminate poverty by the year 2015. Basic education is addressed directly in the two highlighted goals:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

• Goal 5: Improve maternal health

• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

• Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

See: http://www.unicef.org/mdg/

- Dakar education goals

The Education for All movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults. The movement was launched at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990, when representatives of the international community agreed to universalize primary education and massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade.

After ten years, many countries were still very far from reaching this goal. The international community met again in Dakar, Senegal to renew its´ commitment to achieving Education for All by the year 2015. Six key education goals were set in order to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

The six goals are:

1. Expand early childhood care and education
2. Provide free and compulsory primary education for all
3. Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults
4. Increase adult literacy by 50%
5. Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015
6. Improve the quality of education

Source: UNESCO

Has there been any progress?

According to UNESCO, over the past 60 years, there has been great progress in enabling children and adults to benefit from basic education. There are a number of positive signs:

• Despite rising population levels, even in the last 15 years, the gross enrolment in primary education in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 77.5% to 84.9% - almost 10 million more children in school.

• Forty-seven countries have achieved universal primary education.

• More girls have become enrolled in primary schools, although the 2005 gender parity goal has been missed.

• The number of secondary students has quadrupled compared to the number of primary students.

• In about 70 countries out of 110 countries with data, public spending on education has increased as a share of national income.

• Progress has already been made on expanding early childhood care and education and promoting learning and skills for young people and adults, although these goals are more difficult to measure concretely.

Is it enough?

"Progress towards the EFA goals is not currently fast enough to meet them by 2015," says UNESCO. There are a number of reasons for this concern:

• Some 77 million children are not enrolled in school and an estimated 781 million adults are illiterate - two-thirds of them women. (2008 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO)

• It is estimated that 23 countries are not likely to achieve universal primary education by 2015 and 86 countries are not likely to achieve gender parity even by 2015.

• Primary-school fees, which is a major obstacle for universal access, are still collected in 89 countries out of 103 surveyed.

• There are still few opportunities for adolescents and out-of-school youth in many developing countries.

• Increasing the number and quality of teachers, improving school and education system management, reaching disadvantaged and marginalized groups, facing the impact of HIV and AIDS are still huge challenges to tackle.

Source: UNESCO

- Campaigns for basic education

Around the world, campaigns for basic education work toward different goals:

• Raise money to build safe and accessible schools, materials and facilities

• Raise money to provide enough qualified teachers and quality education

• Change national and international policies in order to abolish school fees

• Raise awareness about the links between education, poverty and development

• Raise awareness about the importance of an education for girls and women

Here are some examples of initiatives undertaken by international institutions, civil society and governments:

United Nations Educations, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
UNESCO works with national governments and development partners to achieve universal free primary education and gender equality by 2015.

United Nations International Childrens' Fund (UNICEF)
One of UNICEF's main areas of work is basic education and gender equality, focusing on the following areas:

• Life-skills based education

• Child-friendly schools

• HIV/AIDS

• Child-labour and exploitation

• Water and sanitation

United Nations Girls' Education Inititiave (UNGEI) Primary-school fees, which is a major obstacle for universal access, are still collected in 89 countries out of 103 surveyed by UNESCO. Launched in 2005 by UNICEF and the World Bank, the School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) works with selected countries towards abolishing school fees. Schools fees are controversial for many reasons. In the 1980s, the World Bank started asking developing countries to levy school fees as a condition of receiving loans. The rationale for transferring financial responsibility for education from governments to families and communities was that fees would make public schools accountable to taxpayers and parents. However, as a result of these policies, children from the poorest nations cannot afford to go to school.

Global Campaign for Education (CGE) The Global Campaign (CGE) for Education is an alliance of trade unions and non-governmental organizations in more than 150 countries. The CGE promotes education as a basic human right, and creates public pressure on governments and the international community to fulfill their promises to provide free and compulsory public basic education for all people.

Among other things, GCE coalition partners recommend that:

• Donors focus their education aid on the poorest countries and those where girls face the greatest discrimination.

• Governments in developing countries plan for education that is truly free for all - this includes textbooks, materials, transport and the cost of training recruiting and retaining teachers.

• Governments in developing countries allocate at least 6% GNI (Gross National Income) and 20% of national budgets to education.

• Donors increase aid to deliver their fair share of the $7 billion financing gap for education within 2 years.

• Donor governments encourage countries to make plans that offer long-term predictable aid up to 2015.

Source: OXFAM

The CGE produces a variety of educational materials and resources related to basic education, including the following:

• Global School Report 2008: No Excuses!

• Underachievers: A school report on rich countries' contribution to Universal Primary Education 2006 Global Campaign for Education

Canada's Role

According to the Canadian Global Campaign for Education, Canada has and can continue to take a leadership role in the achievement of universal basic education. Since the year 2000, the percentage of aid that Canada has spent on basic education has increased, and basic education has been made a funding priority for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In April 2002, CIDA launched its Action Plan on Basic Education. It committed to investing four times as much on basic education from 2000 to 2005, with an estimated total expenditure at the end of the five-year period at CDN$ 555 million. Also in 2002, the Prime Minister announced that Canada would double its aid to basic education in Africa to $100 million by 2005. (Canadaian Global Campaign for Education)

However, the Canadian Global Campaign for Education believes that Canada still has room for improvement. In its report, "Underachievers: A school report on rich countries' contribution to Universal Primary Education" (2006), it states that Canada gave 59% ($130 million of aid to basic education) of what is considered to be its "fair share" of the $7 billion financing gap needed to meet EFA goals.

Resources:

• CIDA and Basic Education

• Canadian Global Campaign for Education

• Canadian Aid to Education - The What, Why and How of Education Now By the Canadian Global Campaign for Education

• The State of the Right to Education Worldwide - Free or Fee: 2006 Global Report - By Katarina Tomasevksi

What can you do?

It is sometimes overwhelming to think about the extent of the world's problems. They may even seem insurmountable. But individuals can make a difference. Together with collective actions, things change, maybe slowly but surely.

Here are some resources on how you can get involved:

• Join the Canadian Global Campaign for Education

• Participate in the UNICEF Trick or Treat Campaign (Schools for Africa programme)

• Get involved in the Free the Children, Build a School Programme