Press release on Global Action Week for Education 2021

The Arab Campaign for Education for All: launches the slogan of “Education in Danger”

 

The revival of the Global Action Week for Education is an annual event revived by the global education movement, with broad and effective participation of civil society organizations and citizens.

The activities of this week will be launched on April 26, 2021, under the slogan of financing education, and in exceptional circumstances characterized by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of the emergence of its painful repercussions on all aspects of life, especially the deprivation of hundreds of millions of students from joining school seats, in addition to the dramatic increase in students’ repetition, dropout, and academic achievement rates.

Since 2015, world leaders have committed themselves to 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda, especially the fourth education goal, which stipulates “Ensuring quality, inclusive and equitable education and promoting lifelong education opportunities for all by the year 2030”. This pledge requires everyone to make the issue of financing education a top priority and concern, and the essence of all issues, considering education as a locomotive to achieve all other development goals.

The Arab Campaign for Education for All, as an inclusive framework that includes the various Arab educational coalitions and a large number of Arab civil society organizations working in the field of education, and out of the responsibility towards education issues in the Arab world, and believing that education represents an inherent fundamental human right, it calls all governments to:

 

• Carrying out its responsibilities in order to reduce the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is mainly represented in depriving millions of students from the interruption and instability of the educational process, which represents a terrible breach of the fourth goal of the sustainable development goals, and reflects the weakness, shortcomings and defects of the prevailing educational systems.
• Increasing state funding for education to 20% of public spending, which ensures relatively good functioning of the educational system in light of the decline in the value of local currencies and the increase in the value of education-related imports.
• Adopting principles of governance, especially transparency and accountability, in all issues related to financing education at the national and international levels.
• Adopting a fair tax policy and working on adopting economic policies that contribute to developing production and raising the gross domestic product.

 

• Providing free, quality education for all, and ending the trend towards privatization and commercialization of education.
• Improving the quality of teaching through appropriate recruitment, rewards and continuous training for teachers.
• Listen and respond to the voices of those affected. Space must be allowed for individuals and civil society to express their views.

 

The Arab Campaign for Education for All calls on all international financial institutions to:

• Urgent debt cancellation for poor and least developed countries; And debt relief for middle- and upper-income countries, in order to help them cope with the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

• International transcontinental companies carry their responsibilities and play a greater role in financing education by increasing tax contributions for the benefit of the countries in which they operate.

 

•  Raise the contribution of donors to raise the level of response to achieve the targets of the fourth goal of the sustainable development plan, and overcome the disastrous effects of the Corona.

 

• Developed countries should continue to work towards achieving the target of 0.7% of foreign aid, with 20% of it to be spent on education, and increasing their contributions to the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait.

 

• To accelerate assistance in countries that suffer from conflicts, conflicts and instability, and to ensure the implementation of the right to education in them, and the return of educational life to its normal path.
• Developing quick solutions and effective interventions to stop the problem of learning loss, which has become a phenomenon that threatens the entire educational process.

The Arab Campaign for Education for All (ACEA) and based on its commitment to education issues, and its belief in the centrality of the role of civil society organizations in supporting education and development. We call on all Arab coalitions

 

for education and partner civil society organizations to actively and broadly participate in the revival of the Global Action Week for Education by organizing and launching specific activities and initiatives at the national and regional level. And in coordination with the various stakeholders in the educational affairs, especially the local and Arab media, the private sector, academics, and other relevant parties.

The Arab Campaign for Education for All believes that the slogan (Education in Danger) truly expresses the reality of education in the world and the Arab region, especially in these exceptional circumstances in which the world is going through the worst global pandemic that has been able to affect more than one billion and six hundred million learners around the world and more than one hundred million Arabic learner , so we call to raise our voice loudly and invest this occasion to communicate our demands for a more Fair, equal and inclusive education.

 

 

 

Edited on April 20, 2021

Arab Campaign for Education for All - (ACEA)