§ 5. Mr. Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington)If she will make a statement on progress towards the global provision of primary education by 2015. [127741]
§ The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)Since the publication of our White Paper, we have worked hard to mobilise the international community to meet the target of universal primary education by 2015. We welcome the strong political commitment at the world education forum in Dakar to achieve universal primary education by 2015 and significantly to enhance investment in primary education.
§ Mr. BrakeI thank the Secretary of State for her response. Does she accept that, regrettably, gender equity in primary and secondary education is unlikely to be 319 reached by 2005? What new targets will the Government argue for? Can she reassure the House that the matter will be discussed at the Okinawa summit?
§ Clare ShortCertainly, all the international development targets will be discussed at Okinawa for the first time, and one of them is progress on gender equity in education. In the poorest countries, girls tend to be excluded from school, and educating girls is profoundly developmental for a country. I am not willing to agree with the hon. Gentleman and to write off significant progress by 2005, because we are now making progress on the objective. Let us drive that forward. If we have not achieved the objective in all countries in 2005, we can reassess the matter, but let us not give in now; let us make further progress. I promise the hon. Gentleman that the subject will be discussed at Okinawa.
§ Mrs. Maria Fyfe (Glasgow, Maryhill)Does my right hon. Friend agree that when the target is reached, it will be an enormous step forward because never in human history has it been achieved? Being able to read and write, and to answer back, will make an enormous difference to the ability of people worldwide to cope with all that the world can throw at them.
§ Clare ShortMy hon. Friend is right. There are 900 million adults in the world who are illiterate. We now have an international commitment to ensure that all children in the world get primary education, and widespread recognition that it is the most powerful development intervention that any country can have. Including girls in education, in particular, transforms a country as the girls grow up and increases the likelihood that their children will survive.
I am certain that we will make major progress by 2015. We might not achieve the target in every country, and we are less likely to achieve it in war-torn countries, but massive progress is possible. We are the first generation that can look to the elimination of fundamental illiteracy from the world. We can achieve that if we are serious.
§ Mrs. Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham)Uncharacteristically, I agree with the Secretary of State in that I support the objective of providing universal primary education by 2015. Does she agree that no money earmarked for development should be wasted on bureaucracy and that every penny should be focused on the front line? Why then, since she took office, has she increased her staff by 321, increased her administration costs by £20 million and doubled her Department's publications, including bumf such as vanity publications that cost more than £400,000—enough to double the basic education programmes in Colombia, Mozambique and Nepal? Is it not about time that she spent a little more on the education of children in developing countries and a little less on publicising her own Department?
§ Clare ShortThe hon. Lady is characteristically wrong, misinformed, inaccurate and not attached to the truth. The Department's spending has grown by £1 billion under this Government, but the budgets shrank and shrank under the administration supervised by the Government of which she 320 was a member. Slightly more staff are needed to have a bigger programme, but our staffing is small. There has not been a big increase in administration costs, but we have published the details of all our strategies and programmes—that is freedom of information that was hidden by the previous Government. Publication costs money, but it allows people in developing countries to know about the programmes that are for their benefit. The hon. Lady is misinformed as ever.