Universal Primary Education (Hansard, 16 March 2000)

§ Clare Short

I welcome the focus that Oxfam—and The Guardian "Read the World" campaign—have placed on raising awareness of the plight of the 125 million children who are not in school. Educational opportunity for all, especially at the primary level, is both a fundamental human right and a precondition for progress in development and the reduction of poverty. Our White Paper on International Development, published in 1997, committed us to seek to mobilise the international community to meet the international development targets which include universal primary education by 2015 and gender equity in primary and secondary education by 2005. In our bilateral programmes substantial resources are allocated to education for the achievement of these targets.

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Four things need to be done if these targets are to be met. First, we need a real and sustained commitment by the Governments of developing countries to securing universal primary education. Secondly, we need to address the issue of resourcing for education. There is a clear need to increase the level of resources that developing country Governments commit to primary and basic education. And development agencies should allocate significant additional resources where Governments have developed well-focused education strategies. Thirdly, we need to shift from a projects-based approach to a sector-wide approach to basic and primary education, and we need to pull together the work of all the different development donors around a focused, agreed strategy drawn up by the Government of the country concerned.

The fourth thing we need to do is link education policy with the wider development strategy of the country, including policies on health, sanitation, livelihoods and rural transport.

This is the agenda that I will be taking to the World Education Forum in Dakar next month, which I will attend on behalf of the British Government. The Dakar meeting provides an important opportunity for Governments, development agencies and nongovernmental organisations—from North and South—to recommit themselves to Education for All (including the achievement of universal primary education by 2015, and gender equality in primary and secondary education by 2005).