Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education, met Irish Minister of State for overseas aid Ciarán Cannon to discuss ways to boost support for education in developing countries. She urged Ireland to step up its commitment as part of GPE's global bid to prevent a crisis of millions of young people being locked out of job opportunities due to lack of basic quality education.
According to Ms. Albright, people tend to take education for granted and while much attention has focused recently on global health and food security, aid for education has been falling. The business model has to be about strengthening systems through longer-term solutions, not quick fixes. Ireland is a strong supporter of GPE and has been allocating €4 million annually over the past four years.