Clock Ticking on Millennium Development and Education for All Goals, Says

 

Secretary-General Urging Bold Responses, Support for Proven Efforts

 

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the Economic and Social Council special event on philanthropy, as delivered by Vijay Nambiar, Chef de Cabinet, today, 28 February, in New York:

As you may know, the Secretary-General is in Washington [D.C.] today for an emergency meeting with President [Barack] Obama on the breaking developments in the Middle East and North Africa.  He very much wanted to be here and asked me to convey not only his regrets, but his excitement about this initiative, your high-level participation, and the tremendous spirit that you bring to your work and to the United Nations.  The Secretary-General asked me to read this speech on his behalf:

More than a decade ago, the United Nations adopted six Education for All goals.   Since then, 52 million more children have enrolled in primary school.  Pre-primary programmes have jumped by almost 25 per cent, benefiting 140 million more girls and boys.

That is all good news.  But other numbers underscore the importance of the task before us.  Almost 70 million children are out of school.  Almost half are in sub-Saharan Africa.  Twenty-eight million children live in countries where conflict has destroyed schools and communities.  Millions of children leave school early without acquiring the knowledge and skills that are crucial for a decent livelihood.  About 800 million adults lack basic literacy skills.  Two thirds of them are women.

Our challenge is to reach the marginalized:  children in remote areas; children with disabilities; families who cannot afford basic school supplies and fees; those living in conflict-affected areas; girls who must defer schooling to care for their siblings or help with household chores.

IQ usually means “intelligence quotient”.  But it could mean something different when it comes to the issues that bring us together.  Education policy in countries large and small, rich and poor, routinely suffers from what might be called a lack of “IQ” — Investment and Quality.  UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] tells us that achieving the Education for All goals will require a global investment of $16 billion.

Of course, spending alone is not sufficient — quality counts.  How do we ensure that rising enrolment does not lead to poor learning outcomes and high dropout rates?  How do we make education more relevant to our fast-changing, knowledge-driven world?

One sure path is to focus on teaching.  Numerous studies have found that effective teaching is the most important factor in academic success — more than class size, more than length of school day, more than the age at which schooling starts.  Supporting teachers requires more training, more supplies, better infrastructure and better pay and working conditions.  It also requires more teachers.  Almost 2 million teachers will be needed by 2015 to achieve our universal primary education goals.

All of this requires greater investment.  That is where the philanthropic community can play such a critical role.  I know that many of you here today are showing the way.  Your investments are spearheading innovation and providing the impetus for wider reforms.  They are leveraging technology and promoting new models of community involvement.  They are bringing added value to your companies and society alike.  Philanthropic “risk capital” is also bridging the gap between private ideas and public money.  Thank you for this wide-ranging engagement, and your fine example.

My appeal to you today is to exercise all your influence.  The world needs you to do even more:  more giving, more advocacy, more sharing best practices and more teamwork, including with the United Nations.

This can be done in three concrete ways:  first, by making multi-year commitments to investments in education that address the roots of the education deficit; second, by joining existing multi-partner efforts; and, third, by solving critical bottlenecks — for example, in preparing teachers, enhancing the monitoring of student and school performance, and finding alternatives for scarce school supplies such as textbooks.

We all understand that these are times of austerity.  But we also know that education is a long-term investment that will help countries to recover and spur economic growth.  Let us be bold.  Let us support proven efforts, take these to scale, and find innovative ways to help those hardest to reach.  That includes social protection measures such as conditional cash transfers, school feeding, and scholarships.  It also covers health and nutrition programmes.

I commend all of you who have come here with concrete commitments.  I am heartened by your pledges, including additional support for the work of UNESCO and UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund].  As we strengthen our partnership to achieve education for all, let us strive to ensure this is money well spent.

The clock is ticking on the Millennium Development and Education for All goals.  Those 67 million children waiting for a chance for education and opportunity should not have to wait any longer.

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For information media • not an official record