UK Government Announces $15 Billion to Deliver Education for ALL

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http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2006/press_29_06.cfm

10 April 2006U.K. Government announces $15 billion to deliver eduction for allChancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and Secretary of State for International Development, Benn, committed today that the UK Government would spend at least $15 billion, or £8.5 billion, on aid for education over the next ten years.For the first time, the UK Government will enter into 10 year agreements with poor countries to finance 10 year education plans – locking in the long-term commitment vital to delivering high quality education for all.This £8.5 billon commitment compares to a figure of less than £2 billion over the last 10 years.Speaking during a visit to a school in Mozambique, Gordon Brown said:“In 2005, Make Poverty History forced governments to make promises on aid. Now, in 2006 it is time for us to keep our promises. None is more important than the Millennium Development Goal that by 2015 every one of the world’s children is able to go to school.”Also in Mozambique, Benn said:“Education is a basic human right, and to get every child into school we need more investment. Working with developing countries, through increased commitment from the UK, will help train more teachers, build more classrooms and give more children the best start in life.”During the visit Gordon Brown and Benn, launched a pamphlet ‘Keeping promises: delivering education for all’ setting out the challenge of getting every child in every continent into school and the importance of keeping the promises that were made in 2005.In 2005 the international community agreed to provide an extra $50 billion a year in aid.Based on developing countries’ own ambitious 10-year plans to meet the education MDGs, donor countries will be urged to provide the long-term, predictable funding necessary to finance these plans. Benn announced that DFID will support countries in developing and expanding their education plans. As part of this support, the UK will double its contribution to the Fast Track Initiative’s Programme Development Fund.Notes to editors

1. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and the Secretary of State for International Development, Benn, are visiting Mozambique to attend the launch of a new global campaign on children’s education with the President Guebuza of Mozambique, President Mandela, Mrs Machel and others.2. DFID’s total planned spending on education over the three year period 2005 06 to 2007-08 is £1.4 billion. DFID will spend at least £8.5 billion over the period 2006-07 to 2015-16. This compares with a figure of less than £2 billion over the period 1995-96 to 2004-05.3. The Fast Track Initiative’s Programme Development Fund provides technical support to countries with weak capacity to develop or implement sound education strategies. The UK contribution will rise from £2.5 million to £5 million.4. The document Keeping promises: delivering education for all is available on the Treasury website.5. Media enquiries to HM Treasury Press Office on 020 7270 5238 and DFID Press Office on 020 7023 0600.6. Non-media enquiries should be addressed to the Treasury Correspondence and Enquiry Unit on 020 7270 4558, or by e-mail to public.enquiries@...7. This press release and other Treasury publications and information are available on the Treasury website at www.hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk. If you would like Treasury press releases to be sent to you automatically by e-mail you can subscribe to this service from the press release site on the website.8. More information about DFID and how its works can be found at www.dfid.gov.uk

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EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 10 APRIL 2006

Remarks to be made by the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer during visit to Mozambique on 10 April 2006 – Keeping our promises: delivering education for all

In 2005 Make Poverty History forced governments to make promises on aid.

Now in 2006 we must keep our promises.

At the invitation of President Guebuza, President Mandela will launch a new initiative in Mozambique this week with the Finance Ministers of Nigeria and South Africa, and Benn and I that is about delivering one of the greatest rights of all - the right to education.

The promise of Gleneagles was that by 2015 every one of the world’s children are able to go to school - because they have a school to go.

So it is one of the world’s greatest scandals that even today 100 million children do not go to school – denied one of the most basic rights of all, the right to education.

And that most who lose out are girls - denied the most basic chance to reach their potential

It's no longer acceptable to a civilised world that less than two thirds of Africa’s children never complete a primary education.

And meeting the education Millennium Development Goal by 2015 means more than ensuring these 100 million children go to school.

With rising populations a total of 200 million primary school places will be needed.

Our demand is that promises must be kept, school by school, class by class and child by child.

Education is the key to our real development goal – through offering dignity in development, the empowerment of the poor.

In the nineteenth century the issue was what we could do to Africa; in the twentieth what we could do for Africa; and now in this century the issue is what Africa, empowered, can do for herself.

We know that education puts opportunity directly into people's hands and is not just the very best anti-poverty strategy but also the very best economic development programme.

Mozambique illustrates the scale of the challenge.

Despite recent advances the teacher pupil ratio is 74; one school in Maputo has 6 classrooms for 2,000 pupils; in total one million children do not go to primary school; and thousands of teachers are dying of AIDS - in one year alone, one million children in Africa lost their teacher to aids.

It's time for us to make it possible to teach all of the world's children and not just some of them.

And is it not just a truism to say that every child needs a teacher?

Primary education for every child is the most effective investment the world could ever make.

For $10 billion a year every child in every continent could have teachers, books and classrooms.

Astonishingly for each of in the richest countries that's only £7.50 a year, or 15p a week.

So for two pence a day each, we could finance the schooling of every child denied it today in the poorest countries.

For that two pence each we could give girls the same chances as boys in 50 countries where girls lose out dramatically.

For that two pence a day each we could pay for teachers, books material and school buildings. And for that two pence a day we could cover the teacher training we need for the future too.

So alongside securing trade justice, investing in education is the single biggest contribution we can make to growth and economic development, with the benefits not just for the children, but for everyone.

The benefits are in job chances and prosperity: for every additional year of a child's education, in the poorest countries, estimated average earnings increase by 11 per cent.

The benefits are also in health education and preventing disease: for each additional year of a mother's education childhood, mortality is reduced by 8 per cent.

When I visited Mozambique last February I found that mothers who have completed five grades of schooling are almost twice as likely to vaccinate their children.

And education is also vital in preventing the further spread of HIV/AIDS.

Women who have had schooling are thought to be three times better able to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS than those with no education. In Swaziland two thirds of teenage girls in school are free from HIV, while two thirds of girls out of school have HIV.

But the demand must be for education free of charge. The evidence is that user fees can be as much as a quarter of a poor family's annual income in sub-Saharan Africa and that their very existence discourages parents and is one of the biggest barriers to the expansion of schooling in the poorest countries.

But free education should not be at the expense of good quality education.

Just as making education free increases demand, investment in teachers' training and reduced class sizes is needed to increase supply.

You feel most passionately about the sheer waste of potential when you meet children excluded from chances we take for granted. In Britain pupils think nothing of enjoying free education. In Africa it is a right still being fought for. One of my most vivid memories of my visit to Africa earlier last year was the children in Kibera outside Nairobi in Kenya chanting the slogan 'free education'.

I recall teenagers outside Dar es Salaam in Tanzania pleading with me, demanding to know why they were excluded from the chance to study and stay on at school.

And I will never forget on my last visit to Mozambique the scores of mothers working in a sugar factory, waving their £5 weekly pay cheques - and demanding to know how they could ever afford, no matter how hard they worked, to pay for their children's education.

And I met a 12 year old girl in a hut in a Tanzanian village. Her brother was suffering from HIV/AIDS and she told me that to help him her ambition was to be a doctor. But I knew there and then that this impoverished girl, no matter how determined she was, could not even enjoy a secondary school education far less pay for a medical education. Without the action we propose her potential - and that of millions - will remain forever unrealised and unfulfilled.

Yet the demand for education and the faith in it is impressive.

When Kenya made education free 1 million children turned up from nowhere to enrol for schooling. One million children who could not afford education one day started to grow develop and flourish at school the next day.

When Uganda made education free, numbers increased from 3 million to over 5 million and the gender gap was all but eliminated. And when in Malawi education was made free, enrolments increased by 50 per cent to 3 million.

But even today, as the world bank estimates, 77 out of 94 poor countries still charge some type of fees for primary education.

Make Poverty History in 2005 saw a massive campaign to double African aid, write off multilateral debt and ensure by 2010 all aids sufferers have treatment.

In 2006 and 2007 we must start to keep our promises - with a new resolution that, by delivering our Gleneagles promises on aid, we achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

President Mandela has said that his long walk is not over.

Having climbed one mountain - freedom from apartheid - he wants to climb another mountain: freedom from poverty.

And if this generation could achieve universal free education for every child, universal healthcare for every family, it will go down as the greatest generation.

So what should we do now ?

Already through the World Bank’s Fast Track Initiative countries like ours - through Benn's leadership - are providing increased financial aid to support education in poor countries. But progress has not been fast enough.

And in Washington next week I will ask the G8 to take immediate action to plug the initiative’s current funding gap, with Britain committing to its share.

But we must offer more.

To enable poorest countries to put in place the plans to provide free education to every child, and not just for one year but for every year – the richest countries must keep the 2005 promises on aid and provide the long term funding necessary to finance them.

And in Mozambique this week Benn and I will set out Britain’s commitment.

For the first time britain will enter into 10 year agreements with poor countries to finance their 10 year education plans – locking in the long-term commitment vital to delivering high quality education for all.

In total Britain will commit at least $15 billion over the next ten years - four times as much as the $3.5 billion of the previous ten years.

And we call on other rich countries to follow.

In Vienna this weekend I urged European Finance Ministers to commit their share of funding.

In Washington next week and then in June in St sburg, I will press G8 Finance Ministers to do the same

And at the G8 summit the following month, President Putin has agreed to put education for all the world’s children on the agenda.

And alongside our commitment to long term funding, next week Benn will also announce britain will support poor countries in developing and expanding their long term education plans, including through doubling our contribution to the Fast Track Initiative’s programme development fund.

And at a special conference in Nigeria in May I will discuss our progress with Finance Ministers from all over Africa.

So throughout 2006 and 2007 'education for all' should not just be a slogan. It should become a global cause around which the world can unite that affirms our dignity as human beings - that no matter your birth or background, every child in every part of the world should have the chance to realise their potential, to bridge the gap between what they are and what they have it in themselves to become, and so to enrich the world.

The history of our world so far is the story of the triumph of the human spirit but also of the criminal waste of the human potential of millions.

Let us become the first generation in history that develops not just the potential of some but all our children.

We know what quality education can achieve. We know that delivering free education is a test of our resolve at Gleneagles to double aid. We can afford it. And we cannot afford not to do it.

ENDS