Despite the claim of the government, given the pace of school enrollment, the unabated dropout rate and poor quality of education render the goal of imparting education to all children by 2015 unattainable in the context of Nepal. Therefore, organizations working in the field of education in Nepal are launching the ‘1 Goal Campaign – Education For All’ - aimed at putting all children into school.
The education campaigners all over the world urge footballers, supporters and spectators and people across the globe to sign up as FIFA World Cup has become a part of the 1GOAL campaign. Those signatures would be presented to world leaders in September 2010, when they review progress made in the field of education related to the MDGs at the UN Summit in New York. Likewise, leaders of developing countries will be urged to commit to spend 20 percent of their national budgets on education, abolish tuition fees, provide more professional teachers and ensure all children are in school, not work.
Similarly, the leaders of developed countries will be urged to provide their fair share of aid, work in a more coordinated global response, prioritize investment in teachers and send resources to the countries in greatest need. At present, only USD 4 billion a year is provided in aid for basic education to poor countries. This needs to be raised to USD 16 billion a year. The 1GOAL campaign aims to build pressure to make 2010 the breakthrough year for EFA.
The 1Goal campaign was launched in October 2009. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have endorsed the campaign. Numerous celebrities and footballers have joined the campaign including actors Kevin Spacey and Jessica Alba, and footballers Zinedine Zidane and Grammy Award-winning artist and philanthropist Shakira have become 1GOAL ambassadors.
Despite the government´s claim, given the pace of school enrolment, the unabated dropout rate and poor quality of education render the goal of imparting education to all children by 2015 unattainable in the context of Nepal.
National Coalitions of the Global Campaign to Education in 61 countries including Nepal are carrying out various activities as part of the global campaign to push forward the agenda.
In Nepal, the National Campaign for Education Nepal (NCEN), Association of International NGOs, Education Working Group (AIN EWG), the Department of Education, Ministry of Education, UNESCO, UNICEF, Children as Zones of Peace (CZOP) and other organizations, networks and alliances have been organizing various programs like press meet, rally and mass awareness.
A latest report commissioned in Bhaktapur district has shown that 23 percent of school-going age children from the urban poor communities are out of school. This is just the tip of an iceberg. Children’s basic right enshrined in the constitution has been violated.
According to the government data, 93.6 percent of school-going age children are out of school. But the statistics is not reliable as there are rampant cases of inflating the data of school enrollment. Schools get budget on the basis of per child funding. Therefore, the higher the number of students, the bigger the fund a school gets. Besides, dropout percentage is also very high. Only 50 percent of the children enrolled in grade one move on to grade two and a mere 15 percent are successful in the School Leaving Certificate examination.
The global situation is also bleak. 113 million children in the world’s poorest countries do not attend primary school. Almost two thirds of them are girls. This is equivalent to the entire primary aged population of Europe and North America. Likewise, 900 million adults – more than 1 in 4 of the world’s adult population – are unable to read and write. Two thirds of these illiterate adults are women.
On the current trends, the 2015 International Development Goal of Universal Primary Education will be missed in 88 countries. The interim goal of achieving gender equity in primary and secondary education will be missed in 32 countries, most of them in Africa and South Asia. Above all, Africa is the epicenter of the global education crisis. Unless current trends change, by 2015 three in every four children out of school - 75 million in total - will be African.
The 1GOAL messages would be broadcast around the world during the World Cup itself – reaching a large percentage of the three billion people who would watch the games on television. Through these means 1GOAL should secure at least 30 million signatures – perhaps 50 million, and maybe even 72 million – one for every child who is not in school!
Even after the World Cup, the hard work continues. The final phase of the campaign would turn all the signatures into pressure, and use them to convince world leaders that Education for All is something they must support. The campaign will continue throughout the year, for example aiming to put EFA on the agenda of the G20 in Korea in November – with the aim of ensuring continuing accountability for delivering on the commitments made to EFA in 2010.
On May 26, 2010, over 100 charities and education organizations welcomed Professor Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu as the co-chair of the 1GOAL campaign. He joins Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan and President of FIFA Sepp Blatter. On May 21, 2010, the EFA Fast Track Initiative announced grants totaling USD 303 million to Ethiopia, Laos, Liberia, Malawi and Togo. These grants which are focused on approximately five million out-of-school children will support programs to enroll children into school, help them complete their education and improve the quality of learning. The process of celebrities and renowned leaders joining the 1Goal Campaign continues.
It is hoped that the global efforts would contribute a lot to getting the signature of people who stand on the side of the poor and disadvantaged children deprived of primary education all over the world which in turn would exert pressure on the world leaders to fulfill their commitment. This would result in an increased number of children being in school.
ramsharan.sedhai@gmail.com
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