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Over 1 Billion Worldwide Lack Basic Education: Commonwealth Education Fund

Posted on: Thursday, 10 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Over 1 billion worldwide lack basic education: Commonwealth Education Fund

ABUJA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Commonwealth Education Fund (CEF) said here Wednesday that over one billion people in the world, mostly women, lack basic education.

At a stakeholders' roundtable on financing for education to discuss education budgeting in Nigeria, the most populous African country, the CEF said "links between illiteracy and poverty are proven and strong."

Mamedu Andrew, CEF coordinator in Nigeria, said at the roundtable that over 100 million school age children were out of school, with nearly 60 percent of them girls.

"Of the children who enroll in primary school, over 150 million drop out, while user fees, including levies, are still charged for access to education in 92 countries and that such charges have impact on excluding girls," he said.

He said that over 90 countries, including Nigeria, would fail to reach even the minimum goal on gender parity in primary and secondary education by the end of this year.

"Education is the absolute foundation of social and economic progress, not just for the children involved but for our whole national and indeed, global community," he quoted Lord George, the CEF Chairman, as saying.

George, a former governor of the Bank of England, also said that "it makes good economic sense for governments to invest in basic education."

Against that background, the CEF coordinator said the CEF believed that education was the fundamental birth right of every child and the very best anti-poverty strategy.

"It is also the best way of ensuring economic prosperity and business competitiveness," Andrew said.

In Nigeria, he noted that children constituted about half of the nation's 130 million population, out of which 7.5 million were out of school, more than half of which were girls.

According to him, this accounts for about 7.5 percent of the world children who were out of school.

To him, total expenditure of the federal government on education over the years had always been below 10 percent, with only 9 percent budgeted in 2005.

He said that even the budgeted amount was "far less than the recommended 26 percent of national budgets for developing countries."

The stakeholders attending the interactive session also discussed the Dakar Education for All Goals and deliberated on the Millennium Development Goals as they affected the Universal Primary Education, gender equity and partnership for development.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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