WASHINGTON, D.C. — United States Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced the Education for All Act of 2013 on July 22, 2013 to attain universal education. Education is inaccessible in many parts of the world, and for girls especially.
Education for All Act
The Education for All Act amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to make the accomplishment of universal education a U.S. policy. If passed, the U.S. will collaborate with foreign countries and international and civil society organizations on universal education efforts.
The Education for All Act puts two approaches to use in the achievement of universal education. First, the U.S. will help developing countries and nongovernmental and multilateral organizations make quality basic education available to all children. Second, the U.S. will promote education as the foundation of community development.
The promotion of education in developing communities will include programs that encourage economic growth. Such programs involve entrepreneurial and leadership training and agricultural activities. Health and safety are another important part of education promotion. The Education for All Act incorporates diseases prevention and treatment programs and disaster preparedness programs.
The Education for All Act also provides programs that encourage stable and democratic governance in developing communities. Programs promoting democracy as well as conflict and violence prevention and mitigation will be administered in the community development process.
Universal Education
An enormous amount of children around the world are currently out of school. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported that 57 million primary school aged children did not attend school in 2011. The number will skyrocket in 2014 to 110 million children age 6 years old to 11 years old, with 60 percent of them being girls, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR.) The Brookings Institution estimated 150 million children will potentially drop out of school before their primary education is finished.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than half of the children who do not attend school. Among Sub-Saharan Africa’s population, more than half of all girls do not finish their primary education. Secondary school enrollment in Sub-Saharan Africa includes only 17 percent of all girls.
Education rates for girls in rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa are far more troubling. A 1996 study discovered that only 12 percent of girls in rural Niger attended primary school, whereas 83 percent of girls attended school in the capital of Niger.
Poor access to quality basic education hinders advancement. Basic reading and writing skills are deficient among 123 million youths age 15 to 24 worldwide. Young women make up 61 percent of that population. Those lacking in education will be more susceptible to poverty due to their low skill levels hampering employment opportunities.
Various circumstances other than inaccessibility prevent children from obtaining an education. Certain conditions make it challenging for children to go to school. For example, children in the developing world with disabilities and chronic diseases such as AIDS find it much more difficult to attend school. Orphaned children have even less of a chance to attend school compared to children who have at least one parent in the household.
Conflict is another issue that impedes education. Upheaval and war can force children from their homes and keep them from attending school. Only six percent of children who live in refugee camps attend secondary school. Internally displaced children are worse off because even fewer opportunities are open to them.
Schools are being targeted in conflict-ridden Syria, where a devastating civil war persists. Syria has the world’s highest amount of attacks on schools, with attacks made on both teachers and students. Militants have also been bombing some schools and turning others into military headquarters. More than 3,000 schools were destroyed during the attacks in 2012, according to the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council reported that 1,000 schools were transformed into internal refugee shelters.
School attacks have become commonplace in unstable and impoverished areas such as northern Nigeria. Terror group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria has targeted schools out of opposition to education for girls. Boko Haram recently abducted 230 girls from a northern Nigerian school, becoming a global news headline.
The education system cannot survive under political instability and violence.
How to Make Education Universal
The Education for All Act will support the U.S. to work more with the international community on universal education endeavors. It empowers the president of the U.S. to form an action plan that furthers quality universal basic education. The president is given the authority to make funds and other assistance available to qualifying foreign countries for the purpose of providing basic quality education.
What does it take to achieve universal education? CFR estimated that it would cost $7.5 billion to $10 billion per year to make education universal. Such an investment would have a significantly positive impact on health, economic development and women’s rights. The U.S. can help achieve that goal through the implementation of the Education for All Act.
Sources: GovTrack, UNDP, Brookings Institution, CFR
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