You are Rani/Raghav. Many organisations have come
forward with the idea of Education for All'. In spite of
their best efforts it is still a dream. Write an article in
about 80 words for publication in a local daily giving
suggestion to make it a reality as education is the only
way to progress.
Answers
A few days ago I attended the international launch of the Global Monitoring Report on Education for All goals. This is the annual report card of the governments and international community on their performance in delivering education. This time around the report spells out the achievements and challenges faced during the period 2000-2015.
I had mixed feelings while addressing the gathering. We can be happy that half of all countries have achieved the goal of Universal Primary Enrollment. One-third of the countries have achieved the education targets. More money is being spent on education and the number of out-of-school children has been reduced by a half.
I recall those days and even nights back in the year 2000 in Senegal when we drafted and finalised the Education for All Goals. I was a part of this exhaustive process that involved thorough discussions and deliberations with government representatives and other stakeholders. These goals were not mere dreams. All of them were quite achievable.
How We Can Make Education For All A
Yet, today education is undeniably under attack. The families of students who were brutally assassinated in Kenya are still in shock. It has been over a year since the 200 Chibok schoolgirls were abducted in Nigeria. The massacre at Peshawar was devastating. I was shattered when a mother in Peshawar told me that "I had sent my son in uniform but received his dead body in a coffin". The very fact that the school bag and water bottle were still on the body of this child proves that one can kill the innocent, but one can never kill education.
"One child who is not in school is one too many. I refuse to accept that the world is so poor that it cannot bring all its children to school."
Even if a single child is denied education, I cannot celebrate. One child who is not in school is one too many. I refuse to accept that the world is so poor that it cannot bring all its children to school.
Education is under threat because donor governments have failed our children time and again. Isn't it a pity that in today's knowledge-driven world less than 4% of global aid goes for education? I was one of the founding members of the high level group on education in UNESCO in 2001. I underlined again and again that until we address the issues of hardest-to-reach children, we cannot achieve the rest of the millennium development and education for all goals. Millions of children are trapped in slavery and bonded labour. Millions of children are sold and bought like animals. Girls are all the more vulnerable to gender-based violence. They are invisible slaves working as child domestic labourers.
Recently I was travelling in remote areas of the Ivory Coast. I met a child who was born in 2000, the same year when the International Community had pledged completion of Universal Primary Education by 2015. In fact he was born in exactly the same year and month. He had been working at a cocoa bean (the main ingredient of chocolate) farm. He was a bonded child labourer. It was difficult to communicate because of the language barrier. With the help of my colleagues, I asked the boy, "Do you like chocolates?" To my absolute surprise, he said, "What is chocolate? I've never tasted it." I said, "You produce the main ingredient of chocolate and you have never had a chocolate?" With the help of my colleague I told the boy "We will help you go to school". The child asked, "What is a school?" I said, "It is where you get an education." The boy replied, "It is too late for me to go to school." A 13- to 14-year-old child feels that it is too late to go to school. What a travesty!
"The child asked, 'What is a school?' I said, 'It is where you get an education.' The boy replied, 'It is too late for me to go to school.' What a travesty!"
I was in Latin America where a local organisation had rescued a group of girls from the street. I started talking to one of them. She was also born in the year 2000. I said, "You are free now. You can go to school. " She replied, "It is too late for me; I am no longer a child." The girl had been sexually abused. She had lost her sense of childhood.