Will the United States Flunk the Education Test?
18 November 2003
For more information, contact:
Adrienne Leicester Smith
617-728-2406 (office)
asmith@oxfamamerica.org
The US scrapes an E grade in a new 'school report' on how much aid rich countries provide for primary education in poor countries. The report, produced by Oxfam, is released today by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a coalition of development and education research organizations and unions, representing organizations active in over 100 countries.
Three years ago, leaders from 22 rich countries promised to provide the aid needed for every child to go to school. This first analysis of how well the countries have performed comes ahead of a critical donor meeting in Oslo, Norway on 20th and 21st November. Embarrassingly, the US is ranked third last; beaten by the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy, Belgium and even Australia. Only New Zealand and Greece perform worse.
"Sadly, the US is near the bottom of the class when it comes to providing funding for basic education," said Gene Sperling, Chair of the GCE US chapter. "The administration's rhetoric is right, but words won't build classrooms, train new teachers and provide the textbooks to make basic education a reality for children from Afghanistan to Africa, Iraq to India."
It would take an additional $5.6 billion in aid to ensure that every child could go to school, which is the equivalent of just three days global military spending. Currently, rich countries provide just $1.4billion annually. Right now over 100 million children around the world get no access to education and another 150 million will not complete their primary education.
"As the host of next year's G8 Summit and a world leader in education, the United States has the power to galvanize the global community to achieve basic education for the world's children," said Oxfam's senior advocacy officer, Oliver Buston. "The US must seize the chance in Oslo this week, and provide hard currency to support its pledges."
In Oslo, the GCE is calling upon the US government and other donors to make a firm commitment to reach the $5.6 billion funding figure. In order to provide its fair share of the financing gap, the US needs to increase annual aid to basic education by approximately $1 billion.
The administration has publicly pledged its commitment to basic education in poor countries many times. As the First Lady stated in September upon US re-entry into UNESCO:
"...I believe education is our most urgent priority and should have the first and highest call on our time and resources. Education is vital to developing nations and generations... [We] are committed to literacy and to providing a basic primary education for every person in every remote corner of the world."
At the meeting in Norway, donors must also provide immediate financing for Honduras and the other eleven countries that have developed credible basic education plans within the Fast Track Initiative (FTI). The Initiative is a path-breaking agreement between rich and developing countries in which developing countries that demonstrate strong commitment to educating all their children receive major increases in aid.
Honduras is a clear example of the failure of the US and other rich countries to live up to their promises. The Honduran government devised a plan to improve the quality of education, and due to the devastating collapse of the international coffee market, needs more help than ever to achieve these basic goals. However donors slashed the $78 million they had promised to Honduras under Fast Track to just $37 million. The US government has committed a meager two million dollars.
Download the report from campaignforeducation.org (PDF, 3.1MB)
Learn more at www.campaignforeducation.org.
