DANISH SUPPORT TO EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN THE TOP THREE

A summit on basic education in developing countries resulted in significant financial pledges from representatives from the 52 participating countries. The donors pledged to increase their support to education by 8.1 billion DKK until 2014. During the same period the developing countries pledged to increase their own allocations for basic education by more than 10 billion DKK.

The significant increase of funds will improve the lives of millions of children, who will now go to school for the first time. At the same time, it will ensure that the children, who are already in school, in fact learn to read and write.

Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Christian Friis Bach says: ‘Millions of children around the world go to school without learning to read due to a lack of books, poorly trained teachers, and too many students in each class. It is a huge challenge to ensure the quality of education needed to enable children to have the relevant skills after finishing their education.’

The question of quality education was also raised by the representatives from the developing countries at the summit. The 27 education ministers from developing countries promised to make a special effort to get more girls to school, decrease the school fees payable by parents, and to encourage more parents to get involved in their children’s education.

Christian Friis Bach is very pleased with these statements: ‘I see the developing countries’ commitment at this conference as a strong signal from governments of the importance of education.’

The Minister for Development Cooperation sees education as a common task. ‘Each individual country has a responsibility to educate their girls and boys. Where we can, we must offer financial assistance, however, civil society and the private sector, play a crucial role as well. It is important to mobilize all efforts if the goal of having all children going to better schools is to be achieved.’

Before the conference there was some uncertainty whether the ambitious goals could be met, however, with a total of 18 billion DKK, pledged by over 300 participants, we have come a giant step further.