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| Peacemaking in the Mideast: Obama's Year of Missteps The Israelis weren't prepared to go as far as Washington demanded; the Palestinians wouldn't settle for anything less feedproxy.google.com |
France Deports 'Radical Islamist' French authorities said that they have arrested and deported an Egyptian imam described as "a radical Islamist" and suspected of having issued calls to violence. online.wsj.com |
U.S. Targets Pakistan Taliban Chief Missiles fired from a U.S. drone slammed into a mud-walled compound in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least a dozen people in what Pakistani officials said was an attempt to take out the leader of the Pakistan Taliban. online.wsj.com |
Recession is crippling hope for universal primary education, UN warns Education For All report says decade of improvement in African schools could be undone by dwindling flows of aidThe United Nations-led global drive to get every child into primary education risks being knocked off course by the global financial crisis, which is leaving a legacy of rising poverty and hunger in poor countries, the UN warns today.In the annual report on its Education For All initiative, the organisation's education, scientific and cultural arm, Unesco, warns that much of the progress of the past decade could be undone as education budgets everywhere, but particularly in sub-ÂSaharan Africa, get cut back as the flow of aid from rich countries dwindles.UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said at the report's launch: "All too often, countries are delivering good-quality education for some, while failing to provide for poor, socially marginalised children. We need a scaled-up and more effective aid effort."The report says that while the number of children out of school worldwide has fallen by 33 million over the past decade, there are still around 72 million children receiving no education at all. And if Âcurrent trends continue, 56 million will still be not in school in 2015 – the year member countries pledged to achieve full enrolment in primary schools when they signed a Âcommitment at the World Education Forum in 2000."We estimate it will take $16bn a year to achieve universal primary education and other Education For All goals by 2015. This price tag appears considerable unless measured against the scale of resources mobilised to rescue ailing financial institutions," says the report's lead author, Kevin Watkins."It represents about 2% of the amount mobilised to rescue just four major banks in the UK and US. Governments point out that securing the financial assets and balance sheets of banks represents an investment. But the same is true of international aid for education, which is an investment in poverty reduction, shared prosperity and a more equitable pattern of globalisation."The report says sub-Saharan Africa faces an education funding shortfall of $4.6bn (£2.8bn) every year because of the global recession, which hit growth and government tax receipts in the region hard. That amount equates to a cut of around 10% in spending per pupil at a time when budgets should be rising rapidly if the global education goals are to have any chance of being met.Unesco urges governments to pay more attention to bringing in marginalised groups into education rather than just raising the number of years that those already in education remain in school.It says that in 22 poor countries, 30% of more of young adults have fewer than four years of education, and this rises to 50% or above in 11 sub-Saharan African states. In 26 countries, 20% of school leavers have fewer than two years' education while in countries like Burkina Faso and Somalia, the number is above 50%.Inequalities between groups within countries are also a problem. In Turkey, for example, 43% of Kurdish-speaking girls from the poorest households have fewer than two years' education, while the national average is 6%. In Nigeria, 97% of poor, Hausa-speaking girls have fewer than two years' schooling. A similar figure applies to Somali girls living in Kenya's north-eastern region.Unesco has now released a web-based tool allowing analysts to see figures at the regional and tribal level of most countries in the world – drawing complaints from several countries against an organisation not normally known for rocking the boat.The report also makes a hard-hitting critique of the World Bank-funded Fast Track Initiative (FTI), which was launched in 2002 with the express aim of accelerating international progress towards the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Unesco says that it has had "no significant impact even on this narrow goal". It also accuses donor countries of "smoke and mirror" accounting to exaggerate the amounts of aid actually being delivered to the poorest."The FTI is not fit for the purpose of leading a big push on aid for education. It has suffered from a deadly mix of under-financing, bureaucratic delay and weak leadership," Unesco says. "Marginalisation on the scale that we document in the report is tantamount to a widespread and systematic violation of the human right to education"Mike Foster, the UK's international development minister, said: "There has been significant progress in getting more children into school over the last 10 years, but this report shows that we still have a long way to go. We risk seeing another generation left with little hope, few employment chances and facing a lifetime of poverty."Unesco last month launched an initiative which aims to persuade Fifa, football's governing body, and five major European football leagues, including the English Premier League, to place a small levy on sponsorship revenues that would help get 2 million children in poor countries into school over the next five years.A "Better Future" levy of just 0.4% on all broadcast and sponsorship revenues from next year's World Cup and the five leagues between 2010 and 2015 would raise $48m a year between now and the following World Cup in 2014, it says.United NationsInternational aid and developmentFinancial crisisWorld BankAshley Seagerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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