UNICEF Calls for Equitable, Increasing Investment in Education

Accra (PNA/Xinhua) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) urged on Thursday countries around the world to increase their spending on education, and allocate funds more equitably and efficiently.

In a new report titled “The Investment Case for Education and Equity” received here on Thursday, UNICEF said that in many countries around the world, significantly less public resources were used to educate children in the poorest 20 percent of population than their counterparts in the most affluent 20 percent.

It also said that the poorest students received up to 18 times less public education resources than the wealthiest.

Yoka Brandt, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, said in the report there were approximately 1 billion primary and lower- secondary school-aged children in the world today.

She said too many of these children did not receive quality education because of poverty, conflict, and discrimination due to gender, disability and ethnicity.

“To change this, we need to radically revise current practices by providing more resources and allocating them more equitably,” Brandt said.

The report says that, on average, 46 percent of public education resources in low-income countries directly benefited the 10 percent of students who were the most educated.

This imbalance disproportionately favors children from the most affluent households who typically attain the highest levels of education.

The report, the first in a series UNICEF is releasing this year, strongly advocates more equitable education spending.

It called on governments to prioritize the needs of the most marginalized children — the poor, girls, ethnic and linguistic minorities, children with disabilities and those living in conflict zones.

The report also highlighted a further serious crisis in education, saying progress in increasing access to schooling had stalled.

“With 58 million primary school-aged children not in school, it is clear that Millennium Development Goal II (achieve universal primary education) will not be met by 2015,” it said.

The report revealed that 130 million children who reached Grade four did not master the basics of reading and arithmetic, adding that this situation was expected to worsen as the size of the school-age population increased.

“To achieve universal basic education, the world will have to enroll an additional 619 million children between the ages of three and 15 by 2030, an increase of 57 percent on today’s figures,” it added.

The report said public resources for education were diminishing, with an annual funding gap of US$ 26 billion for the provision of universal basic education in 46 low-income countries.

Again, it said since 2009, official development assistance to education had decreased by 10 percent.

To put this into perspective, 5 percent of the annual profits of the world’s 15 highest-earning companies would eliminate this resource gap.

Brandt therefore called for wise investments in the education sector from global governments and the international community. (PNA/Xinhua) LGI/JSD