Off the wire
• Macao holds World Medicine Summit  • China Voice: Time for foreign businesses to stop playing victims and embrace new rules  • China's new energy vehicle production surging  • Indonesia forex reserve down on rupiah stabilization effort  • Urgent: Vessel with undocumented migrants sinks in Aegean Sea, rescue operation underway  • Toolkit for Bangladesh children's rights launched  • Britain marks 10th anniversary of London bombings  • Urgent: 3 DPRK sailors express defection to S. Korea: Seoul  • S. Africa's business confidence drops to 16-year low  • Hong Kong's Q2 economic growth estimate lowered to 2 pct  
You are here: 　 Home

UN chief welcomes launch of high-level commission for education financing

Xinhua, July 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he welcomed the launch of a high-level commission to promote funding for education and promised to act on its recommendations.

The High-level Commission on the Financing of Global Education Opportunities will address challenges in financing global education and present recommendations for how to resolve the learning crisis, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said at the Oslo Summit on Education for Development.

The commission, which is proposed by leaders of Norway, Chile, Indonesia and Malawi as well as UNESCO chief Irina Bokova, will be chaired by UN Special Envoy for Global Education and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"I particularly welcome the announcement of the establishment of a commission on financing of global education...I will receive its report and act on its recommendations," Ban said at the opening ceremony of the summit's high level conference.

"We need to increase funding to achieve universal education. And at the same time, we need to improve the coordination of financing," the UN chief said. "The Commission should provide vital insights into the economic case for investment in education and recommendations on how we can achieve our goals."

Inadequate financing is one of the main reasons why many countries will not achieve the Millennium Development Goal on education. An additional 22 billion U.S. dollars per year is needed to ensure quality primary education for all by 2030, according to the UNESCO.

"59 million children do not go to school. A quarter of a billion children in the fourth year of school have not mastered basic literacy skills. This means that it is not enough just to do more of the same. We need new, innovative approaches if all children in all countries are to get a quality education," Solberg said.

"We need more funding for education and better quality education. We need to make use of modern technology and to enhance cooperation with the private sector," she added.

The commission, whose objective is to increase financing for education by promoting new partnerships and innovative financing mechanisms. will present concrete recommendations in autumn 2016. Endit