Children Deserve A Basic Education
Posted by admin on July 2nd, 2009Archbishop and Nobel peace prize winner, Desmond Tutu pleads with world leaders to get world’s children into school ahead of forthcoming G8 summit. Tuto has appealed to the leaders to reouble thier efforts to give an estimated 75 million children all over the globe a basic education.
In a letter from his home in Cape Town the Archbishop asked the leaders to establish a global education fund to “save the world’s children from paying with their lives for our financial mistakes.”
Tuto told journalists that he wanted to see the fund established by the end of the year. He argued that it would reverse a global decline in aid to education in the poorest countries. This in turn would improve health in these countries.
As part of his arguement the Archbishop said that at least 700,000 new cases of HIVasic could be prevented each year if all the children in the world had a basic education and that children are 40% more likely to live beyond five years if their mothers have had a basic education.
His letter, co-written with Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, which makes small loans to the poor, makes an “urgent and personal appeal” to G8 leaders to renew their commitment to the world’s poorest children.
“Education is the key to unlocking inter-generational deprivation, as it offers the knowledge people need to live healthy, happy lives,” the letterstates.
“By investing in education, the G8 can leverage huge returns in women’s and children’s health, nation- and peace-building, and global economic development now and in the future,” they write.
“At this critical time, millions of children are dropping out of school to join the labour market, governments are being forced to cut their education budgets and total aid commitments to basic education are dropping at an alarming rate.”
The letter is particularly directed at Obama, who as part of his presidential campaign pledged at least $2bn (£1.22bn) to set up a global fund for education by 2015. Obama has not yet fulfilled his promise, they said.