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In the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, committed that the UK Government would spend at least $15 billion on aid for education over the next ten years. For the first time, the UK Government will enter into 10 year agreements with poor countries to finance 10 year education plans �" locking in the long-term commitment vital to delivering high quality education for all. Speaking during a visit to a school in Mozambique, Gordon Brown said:

"It is one of the world’s greatest scandals that even today 100 million children do not go to school �" denied one of the most basic rights of all, the right to education. And that most who lose out are girls - denied the most basic chance to reach their potential It's no longer acceptable to a civilised world that less than two thirds of Africa’s children never complete a primary education. And meeting the education Millennium Development Goal by 2015 means more than ensuring these 100 million children go to school...

"Education is the key to our real development goal �" through offering dignity in development, the empowerment of the poor. In the nineteenth century the issue was what we could do to Africa; in the twentieth what we could do for Africa; and now in this century the issue is what Africa, empowered, can do for herself. We know that education puts opportunity directly into people's hands and is not just the very best anti-poverty strategy but also the very best economic development programme...

"Primary education for every child is the most effective investment the world could ever make. For $10 billion a year every child in every continent could have teachers, books and classrooms. Astonishingly for each of in the richest countries that's only £7.50 a year, or 15p a week. So for two pence a day each, we could finance the schooling of every child denied it today in the poorest countries. For that two pence each we could give girls the same chances as boys in 50 countries where girls lose out dramatically. For that two pence a day each we could pay for teachers, books material and school buildings. And for that two pence a day we could cover the teacher training we need for the future too. So alongside securing trade justice, investing in education is the single biggest contribution we can make to growth and economic development, with the benefits not just for the children, but for everyone.

"Women who have had schooling are thought to be three times better able to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS than those with no education. In Swaziland two thirds of teenage girls in school are free from HIV, while two thirds of girls out of school have HIV.

"But the demand must be for education free of charge. The evidence is that user fees can be as much as a quarter of a poor family's annual income in sub-Saharan Africa and that their very existence discourages parents and is one of the biggest barriers to the expansion of schooling in the poorest countries. But free education should not be at the expense of good quality education. Just as making education free increases demand, investment in teachers' training and reduced class sizes is needed to increase supply...

"President Mandela has said that his long walk is not over. Having climbed one mountain - freedom from apartheid - he wants to climb another mountain: freedom from poverty. And if this generation could achieve universal free education for every child, universal healthcare for every family, it will go down as the greatest generation.

To view this complete story, go to: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2006/press_29_06.cfm

Contributed by Exchange, The Early Childhood Leaders' Magazine Since 1978

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