Global Action Week—April 21-27, 2008

Quality Education to End Exclusion

Did you know that worldwide:

• 80 million children are still out of school
• 770 million people cannot read and write
• 18 million teachers must be recruited between now and 2015 to match the rising demand for education?

This is why teachers and teacher unions have started working together with other like-minded organizations to put pressure on decisionmakers to get these children into school—but the challenges are not restricted to access.

In many countries where school fees have been dropped and education declared free, quality is still a big issue; it is often found that governments do not sufficiently prepare for a free school system. The recruitment of teachers is a pipe dream, teacher training rarely gets off the ground, and new classrooms remain in blueprint form. These factors have major repercussions for the quality of education.

In April 2000 at the World Education Forum, 185 governments committed to provide Education for All by the year 2015. Global Action Week is one of several events organized by the Global Campaign for Education to hold governments accountable for these commitments. During this week, millions of people around the world organize activities in their own countries to remind their governments to fulfill the promises made in 2000.

The theme of Global Action Week 2008 is Quality Education to End Exclusion. To find out how you can participate and access free downloadable resources, go to www.ei-ie.org/globalactionweek.