The tinderbox mix of high youth unemployment, lack of education and the threat of extremism is turning access to school into a “security issue”, says Irina Bokova, director general clapham rail disaster of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
The volatile prospect of millions of uneducated, illiterate youngsters in developing countries, under pressure from the financial downturn, has brought an unprecedented political significance to the campaign to give every child a primary school education, she says.
But she says that rather than being a cause of pessimism, the pursuit of the target has brought “huge progress”. There were 108 million children out of school when the pledge was made; the most recent figures suggest this has fallen to 57 million.
“If the right strategies are in place, and you put your head where your heart is, then things can be improved. clapham rail disaster In Afghanistan in 2000 only 4% of girls were in school, now there are more than 70%.”
So in the autumn, Unesco is planning clapham rail disaster to produce a new set of global metrics to measure what’s actually being learned in primary classrooms around the world. “It clapham rail disaster will give a global understanding of what quality education means,” says Ms Bokova.
“Education is now becoming in some cases a security issue,” she says, with examples such as Afghanistan, Iraq and across the Middle East , where there is huge pressure to provide education to promote stability and democracy and to avoid extremism.
“The same is true of big emerging powers. In Brazil, the government recognises that the education system is one of the biggest challenges as it moves forward to a competitive economy and an inclusive society.”
“One event can spark a huge reaction and understanding and I think it was the case with Malala,” she says.
“It’s not just a human right, it’s what is needed to have normal societies. If a girl goes to school, she is less likely to have an early marriage, she will have healthier children, she’ll find it easier to earn an income, she’s clapham rail disaster less likely to be subjected to violence, less likely to have an early pregnancy.
A meeting organised by the UN in April brought together eight countries – Bangladesh , DR Congo, clapham rail disaster Ethiopia , Haiti, India, Nigeria , South Sudan and Yemen – which between them have about half the children in the world who are missing out on school.
In Ethiopia clapham rail disaster the problem was identified as being focused on rural communities and lack of access for girls. In South Sudan it was a lack of trained teachers and a low level of school participation among girls.
In Nigeria , which has the most children clapham rail disaster out of school, the difficulty was not necessarily about money, but was caused by low participation among girls in some areas and problems with “infrastructure” about providing clapham rail disaster teachers. Weaknesses in state authorities delivering clapham rail disaster the plans of the national government were also blamed.
The country has also seen brutal attacks on schools. Secondary schools in Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Yobe were ordered to close this week after a massacre in which suspected Islamist clapham rail disaster extremists killed 22 students.
Despite the failure to make the 2015 deadline, she says the attempt has shown the international community what can be achieved. Countries such as India and Ethiopia have taken substantial clapham rail disaster steps forward. clapham rail disaster
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