[child-rights] Broken promises on the 30th Anniversary of the Day of the African Child

***Learn more about the International Day of the African Child, 16 June
2006:  http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/african-child-day.php

 
Global Campaign for Education Press Release
16th June 2006

In Africa today over 40 million children are living with the consequences
of broken promises - the promise of being able to go to school. Two thirds
of all children in Africa will not complete five years of education.

The world's leaders have made this promise time and time again. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Education for All Goals, the
Millennium Development Goals and the African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child all endorse children's right to complete a basic
education of good quality.

If all children are to complete primary education by 2015, they have to be
enrolled in school by 2009 at the latest. That is why we must see action
today. All governments must live up to the 'global compact' – that
countries with good strategies would be fully financed by donor cash - to
meet this goal immediately. Last weekend, the finance ministers of rich
countries once again re-iterated the importance of Education For All
(EFA). But they left the table without making any firm commitments of new
money to realize this dream.

Donor governments must increase aid and cancel debt to African countries
so that they can expand their education systems. As a first step must fill
the EFA Fast Track Initiative's finance gap of $415 million to help 20
countries with 16 million children out of school deliver their education
plans. And next month GCE demands the G8 to keep their promises and
announce that they will provide full funding so that 100 million children
around the world will not be left waiting at the school gates – an amount
of approximately $10 billion per year.

Governments in Africa must also play their part by increasing public
spending on education in order to give every child the opportunity to go
to school for free and to ensure they receive a quality education, with a
well-trained, motivated teacher.

On average Sub-Saharan Africa countries spend less money on education than
on health or on defense.

In South Africa the Day of the African Child 16th June, marks the 30 year
anniversary of the Soweto uprisings. Thousands of children took to the
streets in demand of equal education. Today those children and the brutal
repression that followed will be remembered along with their demands.

It is not acceptable that in 2006 children in South Africa and across the
continent find that their quality education is dependent on their class
and their ability to pay. Children are often excluded or victimized from
school because their parents are not able to pay for school fees and other
costs, such as transport, learning materials and uniforms.

To remind South Africa that we have yet to reach our demands, GCE is
putting the writing on the wall. In Soweto a large mural will be unveiled
that depicts children campaigning for education 30 years ago and today –
with thewords: "30 years later: the struggle for education continues…"

Broken promises of education have a high price to pay. There is
overwhelming evidence that education – particularly for girls – can break
the cycle of poverty and reduce the risk of HIV infection. Lacking
education, children often have no choice other than a life of a child
worker, child soldier, or street child.

Now is the time to keep our promises to education.