Basic Education on the Global Stage This Week
This is a critical week for international basic education and for getting kids in school and learning. Certainly it is the most important basic education week this year, and perhaps one of the most important in the history of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
April 16, 2013 by Alice Albright, GPE Secretariat
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9 minutes read
© GPE/Deepa Srikantaiah (Flickr)

Events at World Bank, White House set the stage for action to get all kids in school

This is a critical week for international basic education and for getting kids in school and learning.

Certainly it is the most important basic education week this year, and perhaps one of the most important in the history of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Expectations are high for the Learning for All Ministerial and related events (see links here and here) this week.  World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown are joining GPE and many other partners to focus on nearly half of the world’s out-of-school children living in just eight countries.  Those nations’ ministers of education and finance will sit around the table with us to renew our tangible commitments to get their children in school and learning by the end of 2015 so they can be healthy, get a good job and help their communities and nations develop.

Watch the live webcast of the Learning for All Ministerial meeting on Thursday (4:45pm EDT, 8:45pm GMT)

The following day a number of the same participants will meet at the White House in an event organized by USAID, with assistance from GPE, to discuss basic education in the context of just three countries: South Sudan, Congo DRC and Nigeria.

And GPE’s Financial Advisory Committee is in Washington all this week, considering grants of nearly $500 million for our developing country partners. For GPE, this is certainly a momentous week and we are looking forward to this engagement on the world stage to help make a difference for the world’s children.

A Continuing Challenge Requires Renewed Commitment

Sixty-one million children of primary school age are out of school, more than half of them girls, over 40% who live in fragile and conflict-affected states. That’s why we’re here.

GPE is urging everyone involved in the Ministerial and other events to make tangible commitments – political, financial and technical – to make sure that all of these children have a chance to learn and grow.  This is too important an opportunity to miss, and it shouldn’t result in just talk. With the December 31, 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goal to get all of these into school children less than 1,000 days way, we have a responsibility to act with a sense of urgency to achieve it.

As GPE’s CEO, I commit to bringing GPE resources, knowledge and partners to work with all of the organizations at the Ministerial to help these nations – and more in the coming months – to get their children in school and learning.

Why GPE is Different

We are the only multilateral partnership solely devoted to getting all children in school for a good quality education. Our approach is different because we convene and build consensus on education issues – at the global and country levels – to help countries develop effective education sector plans, and promote aid that is coordinated and aligned with these plans. We work closely with our 57 developing country partners to help them develop quality education sector plans and support them with technical assistance and financial resources to achieve real results.

In the past decade our partners (including developing countries, multilateral organizations, donors, the private sector, teachers and Civil Society/NGOs) have achieved impressive results, putting millions of kids in school, increasing literacy rates and increasing internal and external financing for education in GPE countries.

GPE Strategy Dovetails with Ministerial Objectives, Pre- and Post-2015 MDG Goals

This week we will be highlighting many core bottlenecks to getting kids in school.  These are addressed in GPE’s new Strategic Plan. Our plan’s five key objectives are:  1) serving children in fragile and conflict-affected areas; 2) getting girls in school; 3) raising the quality of learning, particularly reading and math; 4) improving teacher effectiveness; and, 5) making sure that there are sufficient funds at the local and global level to support these objectives so every child is in school and learning. We are focusing on these objectives because they are key to giving every child the opportunity they deserve.

But our work won’t end in 2015.

A global consultative process, convened by the United Nations, is under way to discuss what happens after 2015. When this Ministerial ends we believe it will be even clearer why education has to be embedded in the MDGs.

As a person who has spent a good deal of my career in the international finance and health sectors, it is obvious to me that there are many reasons education is central to the development agenda, including:

  • Making economies competitive through building a workforce that allows them to respond to global trends.
  • Education is central to lifting people out of poverty, keeping them healthy, providing employment, growing their economies, and giving children an opportunity to achieve their potential and help their nations and communities develop.
  • While we have had success in getting millions of children in school, we now must reach every remaining child, many who live in fragile or conflict-affected states, are very poor, are disabled, or are girls who are shut out because of their gender.
  • We must also focus on the quality of their education – particularly reading and numeracy – so that they can continue to learn and grow as adults, get a good job and stay healthy.
  • Every child needs a good teacher to learn, so teacher training and support is critical.
  • All of this will require technical and financial support – as well as political will – to ensure that every child is in school and learning.

Yes, this is a very special week in international basic education. But the hard work continues the week after, until every child, everywhere, is in school and learning.

By Alice Albright

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