Global campaign on universal primary education launched

Accra (Greater Accra) 23 March '99

A global campaign to re-channel funds from debt servicing into education was today launched in Ghana and other countries around the globe. Ghana's contribution to the campaign, initiated by the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), was introduced in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale and Ho, under the theme, "Good Quality and Enjoyable Basic Education for All." The Reverend Dr Kwasi Aboagye-Mensah, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana and representative of the GNECC, told a press conference in Accra that the campaign is to emphasise the need for world governments and donor organisations to treat the "global basic education crisis" with the urgency it merits. He noted that globally, 125 million children of primary school- going age do not attend school, and a further 150 million drop out of school before they could read and write. "As we stand at the threshold of the 21st century, it is becoming increasingly clear that targets set to ensure better quality of life will not be met," Reverend Aboagye-Mensah said, adding that slogans such as health and education for all by the year 2000 have lost their relevance. Reverend Dr Aboagye-Mensah blamed the current state of affairs on lack of commitment by policy makers and governments to set targets and policy programmes, which has resulted in the education- for-all target being shifted from year 2000 to 2015. Despite the enormity of the education crisis in developing countries, governments and donor organisations commit over 14.5 billion dollars to debt servicing annually, while the education sector needs only 3.6 billion dollars per annum to be on course. "Financing education constitutes well below 10 per cent of the World Bank's loan portfolio in Africa." In Ghana, though 36 to 40 per cent of recurrent expenditure is devoted to education, the sector consumes only between three to four per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while debt servicing consumes six per cent. "The amount of money that the government of Ghana spent in 1996 from its own budgetary resources to pay external debts was nearly seven times what was spent on education and health combined." Reverend Aboagye-Mensah said the campaign is therefore to ensure that the new promise of education for all by 2015 is not broken. He called on the government and donor organisations to re- channel funds from debt servicing into education to ensure that the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme becomes a reality. Reverend Aboagye-Mensah suggested that all stakeholders in education be included in policy formulation and management of resources in the sector, adding that the management of institutions should be the exclusive duty of the government and local organisations. The campaign is being supported by 23 governments, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral organisation around the globe. Similar campaigns are being launched in Brussels, Washington DC, London, Bangladesh and Johannesburg today. Programmes for the campaign would be announced later for community participation.