Promoting quality education for all.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 18, 2018

Contact:

Jennifer Rigg, Executive Director, 202-765-2251, jrigg@gce-us.org

Washington, DC – The United States released the first-ever U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education. In July, the Global Campaign for Education-US (GCE-US) provided recommendations for this new strategy, which can be viewed here.  

GCE-US applauds USAID and all government agencies involved in the development of the International Basic Education Strategy and is pleased that many recommendations from civil society organizations have been incorporated into the final International Basic Education Strategy. In particular, GCE-US welcomes the focus throughout the Strategy on inclusion, specifically for children with disabilities, girls and marginalized groups, engagement with multilateral partners, education in conflict and crisis settings, the inclusion of early childhood education, and the commitment to data and public reporting.

Overall, we're pleased that the strategy was released publicly and applaud this first-ever strategy. We are very concerned about the emphasis on for-profit and private sector engagement, and strongly encourage all involved across U.S. government to focus on strengthening universal, quality, and inclusive public education.

We recommend the following for future documents and efforts:

  • Inter-agency coordination: We strongly recommend adding budget transparency and budget coordination across agencies, including international basic education funding from the involved agencies, departments, and funding sources.
  • We applaud the focus on disability inclusive education and early learning in several of the agency annexes, and strongly urge all involved U.S. government agencies to prioritize inclusive education across all related programs.
  • We encourage an increase in support for the Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait and multilateral efforts to include partnering and aligning goals for country-level engagement.

The first-ever U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education was called for by the bipartisan Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development (READ) Act, which was passed in September 2017 with the support of congressional champions, partners, and grassroots advocates across the country.

 

The Global Campaign for Education-US (GCE-US) is a broad-based coalition of over 80 organizational members dedicated to ensuring universal quality education.

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