UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other global leaders launched the Emergency Coalition for Global Education Access, which aims to get 57 million children in school, and calls for "four zeros": zero exclusion from education; zero discrimination against girls; zero child labor; and zero child marriage.
The Coalition was established in response to reports that the world is off track in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of getting all children into education by 2015.
10 April 2014: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other global leaders launched the Emergency Coalition for Global Education Access, which aims to get 57 million children in school, and calls for “four zeros”: zero exclusion from education; zero discrimination against girls; zero child labor; and zero child marriage. The Coalition was established in response to reports that the world is off track in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of getting all children into education by 2015.
At the current pace, it will be 2086 before all children are in school, according to the UN. Describing current progress as “unacceptable from a moral, economic and global security perspective,” UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown said education must be put “on the international agenda in a way that cannot be ignored.” Ban added that too many children are kept out of school because of conflict, displacement, sexual and gender-based violence, and child marriage and labor.
The launch took place on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, US, along with several other education-focused events.
The World Bank’s ‘Learning for All Symposium’ highlighted the role of children’s education in ending extreme poverty and building shared prosperity. Ban said “there is no greater return than investing in education,” and called on political leaders, national governments and donors to reverse trends of declining spending on education. He recommended integrating “quality, inclusive and equitable education and lifelong learning in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.”
The 2015 Countdown Summit was organized in collaboration with ‘A World at School’ campaign, which announced a network of 500 youth ambassadors from 80 countries who will join the UN Youth Advocacy Group for the UN Global Education First Initiative to promote learning for all. The youth ambassadors are expected to highlight the need for urgent education action at a June takeover of the African Union (AU) on the Day of the African Child. [UN Press Release on Coalition Launch] [Statement of UN Secretary-General at Coalition Launch] [Coalition Website] [Statement of UN Secretary-General at Learning for All] [Learning for All Symposium Website] [Global Education First Initiative Website]