Education For All Still Within Reach!

SI UN Representative, Dominique Mertz, attended the 2010 UNESCO Education For All monitoring and progress meeting.

Dominique writes: "Children all over the world are marginalised and excluded from education. At first glance, the lives of these children may seem poles apart but what they have in common are missed opportunities to develop their potential, realise their hopes and build a better future for themselves and for their communities through education."

A decade has passed since leaders from 164 countries adopted the Education for All goals. Click here to see the six goals in full. While a great deal of progress has been made since the goals were developed, millions of children are still missing out on an education. A disproportionate number are girls.

Set against the global economic downturn, the 2010 report calls for a renewed financial commitment by aid donors and recipient governments alike to meet the Education for All goals by 2015. If more is not done, the goals will not be met and the MDGs on education will be missed.

Governments must do more to reach the most marginalised in society to truly extend education opportunities to all children. The challenge to meet the 'equity' goal has also proved challenging for 'developed countries' so there is a great deal Soroptimists can do to campaign and advocate on this issue. The Philippines and Turkey were highlighted as facing particular challenges given the relative levels of wealth in these countries.

The meeting concluded that the goal to have all children completing a full cycle of primary education is still within reach but there is still a great deal to do.

Dominique's full report, complete with detailed information about all areas of the Education for All goals, can be found in the members section of the SI website.