Ei-iE

This year’s Global Action Week, which takes place between 19 and 25 April, comes at a pivotal moment, exactly 10 years after the Education for All (EFA) objectives and Millennium Development Goals were adopted.

Alarmingly, evidence shows that, at current levels of progress, the EFA objectives will not be achieved by the target date of 2015. Despite some progress the collective failure of the international community to fulfil its financial commitments, coupled with the impact of the global economic and social crises that have resulted in some donors reducing their levels of aid, mean that the chance to make change is being eroded.

Education International (EI) General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen says: “The year 2010 is crucial as decisions must be taken now in order to reverse the situation and accelerate the process by moving up a scale. Our message is simple: education beats poverty.

Activists involved in the campaign will be applying pressure on world leaders to end poverty by providing education to the 72 million children still out of school. Let's make 2010 the year to help everyone get an education!”

In order to maximise efforts and take the opportunities available, the Global Action Week theme: 'Financing quality public education: a right for all' will be closely linked to the ‘1GOAL: Education for All’ campaign which has been organised around the football World Cup which takes place between June and July in South Africa.

The 1GOAL campaign has attracted strong support from many heads of state and high profile personalities, famous football players and celebrity ambassadors. More importantly, however, is the fact that the initiative has captured the attention and passion of tens of thousands of teachers who intend to help the Global Campaign for Education to set another world record for the biggest collective lesson ever taught, on 20 April, in more than 100 countries.

Through the Global Action Week and the 1GOAL campaign, EI and its partners in the Global Campaign for Education intend to focus on the outcomes of two key events taking place this year: the United Nations High-Level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals, in New York, USA, from 20-22 September 2010,; and the G20 meeting in Seoul, South Korea, from 11-12 November 2010, at which the recent Meeting of the High-Level Group on Education for All demanded the UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova “to ensure that education is prioritized on the political agenda.”

Media Contact: Monique Fouilhoux, EI Deputy General Secretary: 0032 2 224 06 43 Claude Carroué, EI Communications Unit: 0032 2 224 06 75