Invest in education check terrorism – Gillard tells FG

JULY 18, 2014 

The international community will be asked for $3.5bn next month to help provide access to education for some of the world’s poorest children.

The Global Partnership for Education is holding a “replenishment” summit in Brussels on 25 June, where it will ask world leaders to provide funds for another four years.

It has become one of the most influential international education organisations – channelling billions of dollars from more than 20 donor countries to support education systems in 59 developing countries.

Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia and now chairwoman of the GPE, will be pressing the message that it is enlightened self-interest to invest in education.

Her “hard-headed argument” will be that anyone who is serious about wanting to promote economic growth and to tackle extremism should start by building classrooms and training teachers.

There are still tens of millions of children, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, who do not have any access to primary school education.

And reports from UNESCO show hundreds of millions more who have an education of such poor quality that they leave school more or less illiterate.

Nigerian schoolgirls

“In some ways the argument for getting every child into school speaks for itself, but in our crowded, noisy world, even things that should be obvious have to be spoken for and advocated,” says Ms Gillard.

“It is inconceivable that countries will work their way out of poverty without their populations becoming educated,” she told BBC News, on a visit to London to lobby support from Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Ms Gillard says the abductions of schoolgirls in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants should act as an alarm bell for the threat of extremism and also a catalyst for protecting education.

That it is “the subject of such dedicated assault by terrorists and extremists” shows the potency and importance of education in such communities, she says.

“They obviously believe education is powerful, so powerful that they want to deny it to those girls.

“This truly shocking circumstance in Nigeria has focused world attention on something that is happening more broadly, that education is under attack.

“I hope it not only galvanises the world to come to the aid of the schoolgirls in Nigeria, but it galvanises the world to make sure that the power of education is extended to children even in the most difficult of circumstances.”

But why should taxpayers in London, Amsterdam or Madrid believe that this fundraising will really deliver?

It is 24 years since the international community first promised that every child should have a primary education – and the next deadline of 2015 will almost certainly be missed.

It’s not donor governments saying here’s a big load of cash. We require developing countries to increase their spending”

Ms Gillard argues that the GPE approach can really make a difference.

It is about long-term systemic change rather than well-intentioned but short-lived projects, she says.

“Everyone has heard the horror stories – such as the generous donor who sent computers to schools in a developing country where there’s no electricity supply or no way of servicing them to keep them working.”

And crucially the GPE requires recipient countries to commit to increasing their own investment in education to 20 per cent of government spending.

This responds to the concern that donors are being asked to contribute for shortfalls in basic schooling in countries that seem to have no shortages for their own wealthy elites.

Ms Gillard says: “Developing country governments have to step up – it’s an integral part of our model.

“It’s not donor governments saying here’s a big load of cash. We require developing countries to increase their spending and to sign up to plans to which they can be held accountable.”