FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  December 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - UNESCO has launched its 2008 Global Monitoring Report, detailing the world’s progress towards achieving education for all (EFA) children. Overall, the news is positive: worldwide, the number of out-of-school children dropped sharply, from 96 million in 1999 to 72 million in 2005. However, Millennium Development Goal (MDG) commitments that call for ensuring by 2015 access for all boys and girls to a full course of primary schooling still remain out of reach. To meet that target, additional, heightened efforts and resources will be needed from everyone.

According to the report, primary school enrolment increased by 36 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and 22 percent in South and West Asia between 1999 and 2005. Much of this is due to the abolishment of primary school tuition fees in 14 countries. This ground-breaking measure has leveled the playing field, allowing many of the world’s poorest children access to the school house door.

For decades, many developing countries charged school fees because the World Bank and IMF imposed economic policies on them to ensure debt repayment. One of the consequences of these economic policies was the charging of school fees. These fees included tuition as well as indirect costs such as textbooks, compulsory uniforms, and transportation. Sadly, school fees reduced governments’ ability to provide basic resources and drastically limited access to basic education.

The World Bank reversed its policy on school fees in 2001, but an estimated 77 out of 94 poor countries, many of them in Africa, continue to charge some type of fee for basic education. According to UNESCO, the cost of education "continues to limit access. Despite constitutional provisions in most countries guaranteeing free primary education, a majority of children in public primary schools face some type of charge, sometimes representing up to one-third of household income."

All countries must abolish school fees, but that is only the first step towards achieving universal education. Poor countries need increased resources to scale up their education systems and hire teachers to serve the millions of additional children who will come to the classroom once the fee barrier is removed. If the MDG for education is met, the world will need more than 18 million new primary education teachers by 2015.

External financing for basic education remains far short of the US$11 billion required annually to reach EFA in low-income countries, and the United States must do its part. Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY), chair of the House funding subcommittee overseeing international basic education funding, has successfully expanded U.S. investment in recent years. This is a promising development. In addition, Congress must ensure that the U.S. Agency for International Development invests its basic education funding as effectively as possible. It must design a strategy and track programs to achieve specific targets related to increasing school enrollment, retention, and basic measures of educational attainment. It should also provide a significant amount for the direct abolition of school fees and take advantage of investing in the Catalytic Fund of the Fast Track Initiative to adequately support low-income countries with basic education plans that are ready for scale up.

Without question, there is much to be done. If we are to achieve education for all by 2015, there is also no time to lose.

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Global Action for Children is a nonpartisan, results-oriented coalition dedicated to advocating for orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world. GAC seeks to increase the level of funding from the governments of wealthy countries to orphans and other vulnerable children in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Click here to view the UNESCO report this statement refers to.

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