Geneva — Nigeria and Pakistan are projected to have 7.6 and 3.7 million children respectively, one third of at least 29 million children, around the world who, will still be out of school in 2015.
The 2009 Education for All Global Monitoring Report released yesterday at the opening of the 48th Session of the International Conference on Education (ICE), in Geneva , Switzerland, stated that both countries "suffer from weak governance and high levels of inequity in finance and provision."
Ethiopia and Burkina Faso will have more than 1 million children out of school, while in all, 12 countries will have over half a million out-of school children by 2015. Partial projections in the report show that the world is not on course towards achieving Education for All (EFA) by 2015 and described the projected 29 million out-of-school children as an under-estimate that does not include conflict affected countries such as the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Blaming a combination of political indifference, weak domestic policies, and failure of aid donors to act on commitments; the report, with the theme, "Overcoming inequality: why governance matters," warned that "unacceptable" national and global education disparities were undermining efforts to achieve international development goals.
The annual UNESCO report provides a detailed assessment of progress towards key education goals, including early childhood development, universal primary education, gender equality, literacy and good quality education and warned that without drastic action, many targets would be missed in some cases by spectacular margins.
Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, said "when education systems fail, the consequences are less visible, but no less real. Unequal opportunities for education fuel poverty, hunger, and child mortality, and reduce prospects for economic growth. That is why governments must act with a greater sense of urgency."
It also highlighted what it described as a 'vast gulf' in educational opportunity separating rich and poor countries. One in three children in developing countries (193 million in total) reach primary school age, having had their brain development and education prospects impaired by malnutrition, a figure that rises to over 40 per cent in parts of South Asia. High economic growth in some countries has done little to reduce child malnutrition, calling into question current public policies.
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I hope the House Speaker and his Ethics Committee are reading global news like this for them to see the ranking of Nigeria in the global scheme of things to realize why critiques feel the way we do regarding the 3 Billion Naira Cars Purchase saga. Who would want to go to school in a country where govt allow primary school kids to carry on their heads their desks and chairs on a round-trip to/from school every day? Who would want to go to college if after graduation the only job waiting for you is to be a praise-singer to some corrupt politicians until you save enough (money that falls from their over-flowing table of opulence) to buy an Okada and become a driver for life? The only way Bankole and his Gang of Thieves can redeem themselves is to return & demand full refund of the purchased vehicles and donate the entire 3 Billion Naira (or whatever the actual amount is) to be shared among all Nigerian public schools to make schools a cool place to be rather than what drove them out into the streets hawking Akara & Puff-Puff or Nuunuu or some other provisions. Come on people, too much greed like this is not good for your soul, if you still have any conscience and fear of God left. We are not pleading to you, we are demanding that you do the right thing b4 the day of our judgment comes, not God's judgment - His, will come separately in His sweet time but in the meantime we shall make sure we get our own pound of flesh, first, according to the Law of Moses - an eye for an eye...Period.