The Trump-DeVos proposed budget would lead to significant cuts in the International Affairs Budget and global education funding. These cuts would regress the work the United States has done to promote global education and assist those who need our support the most, including: girls, those with disabilities, people in crisis-ridden regions, and the impoverished.
On January 24, less than one month into the new legislative session, Congress showed that the goal of providing quality education for all children is still a bipartisan issue by unanimously passing the Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development (READ) Act through the House of Representatives.
I’ve been incredibly blessed throughout my four years of high school. There were many challenges and obstacles presented to me, but for the most part, I’ve had the greatest support system through my family, friends, and community.
As children all around the United States are in their last days of school, counting down to summer vacation, there are refugee children across the world who are desperately hoping to get back to school and learning.
You are awesome. Your advocacy and collective voices made big change last month and that is awesome—you are awesome.
Last month, the FIRST EVER World Humanitarian Summit happened in Istanbul, Turkey. World leaders, organizations and advocates just like you traveled to talk about the importance of supporting those around the world living in conflict and/or the aftermath of emergencies.
As a parent of two active children, I see the amazing skills and knowledge they’re gaining at school every day. Yet the vital right to education is just a dream for 75 million children impacted by emergencies and crises. Across our global community, we cannot wait any longer and must act today to reach all children with quality education.
In April and May 2015, two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.2 respectively devastated much of Nepal. The sudden loss of family members and homes shattered countless people’s lives. The sudden loss of thousands of schools, while understandably not people’s immediate focus of concern, made itself felt as the weeks passed and the desire to get “back to normal” strengthened.
At sixteen years old, Cecelia, a young woman from Chiunda Village in Malawi, has already confronted countless barriers to receiving her education.
As early as primary school, Cecelia remembers watching her friends drop out – a fate that is all too common in the country of Malawi, where less than 6% of women hold a high school diploma. Throughout her adolescence, she has seen firsthand the problems of early marriage. One in every two girls nationwide is married or raising children by the age of 18.
It is Global Action Week for Education—a great time to GO take action, to GO share your actions with a friend and to GO encourage them to take action as well.
The problem is not just the amount of funding for education, but how the available resources are being spent. In the past decade, tertiary education consistently received the highest proportion of education aid of any education sector, beating out even primary education year after year. Moreover, during this period, seven of the top fifteen donors to education increased the portion of their aid allocated to higher education and consequently decreased the portion to basic education.
Further, this aid to tertiary education isn’t being spent sustainably. A large percentage of growing funds to higher education have been used not to strengthen university systems in recipient countries but rather to provide scholarships for students to attend higher education institutions in donor countries. In 2012, for example, “for every US$1 disbursed in direct aid to early childhood care and education, the equivalent of US$58 went to support students from recipient countries at the post-secondary level in donor countries.”
