Working toward a Global Fund for Education
Steve Valk, Mary Njoroge, and Ken Patterson
On October 27, 2009 Sustenance Group members Steve Valk and Kristi Wooten met with RESULTS Global Grassroots Manager Ken Patterson and Mary Njoroge (Executive Director of Tracking Education Achievements in Africa and former Director of Basic Education for Kenya’s Ministry of Education) to discuss strategies for promoting legislation that would call for the creation of a Global Fund for Education. The “Education For All” movement is an integral part of the Millennium Development Goal, which seek to ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, those in difficult circumstances, and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free, quality, and compulsory primary education.
“The desire to attain an education is strong in the developing world, because the benefits go beyond reading and writing,” Njoroge says. “This is especially true for girls, who often are kept from school because of cultural or religious obstacles or because a lack of resources, such as private latrines, compromises their privacy, hygiene or safety. Children who attend school are more likely to learn how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. The Global Campaign for Education estimates that if every primary school child had access to a classroom, 700,000 cases of HIV could be prevented each year. In 2000, the countries of the world agreed to a goal to provide universal access to education by 2015. Countries like Kenya and others are doing what they can to build better schools and retain more teachers, but they cannot do it alone.”
For more information about how you can become involved in the movement, and to read more of Njoroge’s Op-Ed, click here.