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Broken
promises and the 30th Anniversary of the Day of the African Child
Global Campaign for Education
June 16, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/education/35149
"Promises to
children should never be broken" (Nelson Mandela, 10th March 2006)
In Africa today
over 40 million children are living with the consequences of broken
promises - the promise of being able to go to school. Two thirds
of all children in Africa will not complete five years of education.
The world's
leaders have made this promise time and time again. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the Education for All Goals, the Millennium
Development Goals and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child all endorse children's right to complete a basic education
of good quality.
Time is running
out for the world to keep their promises…
If all children
are to complete primary education by 2015, they have to be enrolled
in school by 2009 at the latest. That is why we must see action
today. All governments must live up to the 'global compact' – that
countries with good strategies would be fully financed by donor
cash - to meet this goal immediately. Last weekend, the finance
ministers of rich countries once again re-iterated the importance
of Education For All. But they left the table without making any
firm commitments of new money to realize this dream.
Donor governments
must increase aid and cancel debt to African countries so that they
can expand their education systems. As a first step must fill the
EFA Fast Track Initiative's finance gap of $415 million to help
20 countries with 16 million children out of school deliver their
education plans. And next month GCE demands the G8 to keep their
promises and announce that they will provide full funding so that
100 million children around the world will not be left waiting at
the school gates – an amount of approximately $10 billion per year.
Governments
in Africa must also play their part by increasing public spending
on education in order to give every child the opportunity to go
to school for free and to ensure they receive a quality education,
with a well-trained, motivated teacher. On average Sub-Saharan Africa
countries spend less money on education than on health or on defense.
The Struggle
for Education Continues…
In South Africa
the Day of the African Child 16th June, marks the 30 year anniversary
of the Soweto uprisings. Thousands of children took to the streets
in demand of equal education. Today those children and the brutal
repression that followed will be remembered along with their demands.
It is not acceptable
that in 2006 children in South Africa and across the continent find
that their quality education is dependent on their class and their
ability to pay. Children are often excluded or victimized from school
because their parents are not able to pay for school fees and other
costs, such as transport, learning materials and uniforms.
To remind South
Africa that we have yet to reach our demands, GCE is putting the
writing on the wall. In Soweto a large mural will be unveiled that
depicts children campaigning for education 30 years ago and today
– with the words: 30 years later: the struggle for education continues…
Broken promises
of education have a high price to pay. There is overwhelming evidence
that education – particularly for girls – can break the cycle of
poverty and reduce the risk of HIV infection. Lacking education,
children often have no choice other than a life of a child worker,
child soldier, or street child.
Now is the time
to keep our promises to education.
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