Education steering committee meets in London

Education ministers and senior officials from Barbados, Cyprus, Jamaica, Malaysia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Zambia met in London on 30 March to discuss plans ahead of the triennial conference of education ministers in June 2009.

The steering committee, under the chair of South Africa’s Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, was set up in 2006 to monitor progress towards reaching the Education for All (EFA) targets and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The Commonwealth Secretariat was also asked by ministers to prioritise the needs of member countries at risk of not achieving the MDGs.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith told participants: “We are at a critical juncture in relation to reaching the global goals and targets to which we all aspire. At the same time, the world finds itself in a recession, which is constricting growth.

“These are difficult times for the world economy and this has implications for education sectors across the globe. Let us not forget that education plays a central role in the development of societies and is the foundation of social cohesion. Commonwealth educators will have an important opportunity to address these issues when they meet for the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (17CCEM) in Kuala Lumpur in June.”

Globally, some 75 million children are still out of school and in the Commonwealth, it is predicted that by 2015 Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan will still have large numbers of children out of school, with Nigeria and Pakistan representing about one-third of the out-of-school population.

A report to the meeting noted that Bangladesh, India and Tanzania had made “tremendous progress” but that there was still a lot of work to be done to get children into school.

Achievement of the MDGs globally will depend on progress made in the Commonwealth, it said. Delivering on promises made when the Education for All initiative was set up will require “strong political leadership, a sense of urgency and practical strategies” in a climate where inequality remained and donor countries were not meeting their obligations.

It was noted that the 17CCEM theme ‘Towards and Beyond Global Goals and Targets’ reflects these challenges.

Observing that the downturn on progress with regard to the MDGs and EFA targets had begun before the global economic recession, Naledi Pandor warned: “The financial crisis and its effects on achieving education goals should not serve as a justification. There is a strong risk for developing countries dependent on external aid.”

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