M
Matt25
Guest
.he government today pledged an extra £40m to help achieve the United Nations’ target of giving all children a primary education.The money will be invested in the global Fast Track Initiative (FTI) programme, established to speed up progress towards reaching the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. The allocation forms part of the Department for International Development’s £1.4bn promise, announced in January, to support education in developing countries over the next four years. Today’s pledge comes ahead of the UN’s millennium review summit, which begins in New York on Wednesday.
In 2000, the international community set eight goals to eradicate poverty by 2015. One was to give all children a primary education and another to ensure that girls had the same rights to go to school as boys. However, there are still an estimated 100 million children around the world - 60 million of which are girls - who do not go to school, despite growing evidence that education (especially for girls) can halt the spread of Aids and break the cycle of poverty. More than 70 countries have not hit this year’s provisional target for gender parity.
In Nicaragua, £1.9m from the programme has allowed an additional 70,000 six-year-olds to go to school. The country has also expanded its teaching training facilities. In the Gambia, schools have been able to purchase thousands of textbooks with £2.2m of FTI money.
In 2000, the international community set eight goals to eradicate poverty by 2015. One was to give all children a primary education and another to ensure that girls had the same rights to go to school as boys. However, there are still an estimated 100 million children around the world - 60 million of which are girls - who do not go to school, despite growing evidence that education (especially for girls) can halt the spread of Aids and break the cycle of poverty. More than 70 countries have not hit this year’s provisional target for gender parity.
In Nicaragua, £1.9m from the programme has allowed an additional 70,000 six-year-olds to go to school. The country has also expanded its teaching training facilities. In the Gambia, schools have been able to purchase thousands of textbooks with £2.2m of FTI money.