Financial crisis threatens to set back education worldwide, UNESCO report warns

Paris, 9 January

• © UNESCO/Petrut Calinescu
• In a primary school in Darvari village, rom and romanian children learn together in mixed classes.

The aftershock of the global financial crisis threatens to deprive millions of children in the world’s poorest countries of an education, warns the 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report. The Report, published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), will be launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova on January 19 at UN Headquarters in New York.

“We are on the brink of breaking an important promise made by governments in 2000 – the promise of Education for All by 2015,” said Report director Kevin Watkins. “The aftershock of the financial crisis threatens to stall or even reverse progress in basic education in some of the world’s poorest countries, creating a lost generation of children denied an opportunity for the schooling that could lift them out of poverty. Governments must act decisively to avert that risk.

The 2010 Report evaluates overall progress towards the Education for All Goals, with a special focus on ‘the education poor’ - the tens of millions of children still excluded from schooling. The Report examines who these children are and why they are being left behind. It also examines the cost of providing Education for All, which is much higher than previously estimated, and makes recommendations for putting education back on track.

The Global Monitoring Report is developed annually by an independent team and assesses progress towards the six Education for All goals to which over 160 countries committed themselves in 2000.

The full report is now available to media upon request.

• Author(s):Media Advisory N°2010-01
• Source:UNESCOPRESS
• 09-01-2010