1GOAL today welcomed world leaders' commitment to investing in universal education and the call from African Heads of State to urgently prioritise investment in education at the Education Summit hosted by the South African government in Pretoria today.
In the first ever political summit to be created because of a sporting event, leaders responded to the campaign's call for a surge of political will to ensure every child can go to school before the next World Cup in 2014.
1GOAL President Kailash Satyarthi said: "While this World Cup Summit hasn't solved the education crisis today, it has insisted the crisis must be solved. Millions of people have shown a yellow card to world leaders demanding an end to the injustice that locks one in ten of the world's children out of school. We hope today marks the first step on the path to an education for those children."
The Summit was addressed by 1GOAL Ambassador Aaron Mokoena, the South African football captain, and was hosted by South African President Jacob Zuma with over 100 delegates including African Heads of State from Kenya, Mozambique and Leothos attending.
In addition Prime Minister Balkenende of the Netherlands and the UK Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell were present, as well as FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1GOAL's co-chair.
1GOAL is calling on poor countries to increase their spending on education to 20% of their national budget and for a roadmap for all African children to be in school by 2014. This comes as education spending in Africa is being cut by as much as US$4.6bn.
The real challenge is to ensure that children are able to leave with a meaningful education, for example:
In Malawi, Uganda and Chad less than 40% of children that enrol complete primary school
In Central African Republic, Rwanda, Malawi and Mozambique there are more than 65 pupils for every teacher.
In Togo currently only 15% of primary school teachers have received appropriate training.
1GOAL, the FIFA-backed campaign to make Education for All a legacy of the 2010 World Cup, is the biggest ever football campaign and is supported by over 200 of the biggest names in football including Pele, Zidane, Ronaldo, Essien and David Villa.
Over 1 million people a week have been signing up to support their campaign from 191 countries around the world with over fourteen million people showing their support for 1GOAL.
1GOAL Education Drive.
The Education Summit is an important first step but the major breakthrough on education funding needs to come at the UN Summit in September. 1GOAL is calling on donors to quadruple funding on education from $4 billion to $16 billion per year.
Along with new money, 1GOAL is calling on donors to prioritise the poorest counties and fund the basic costs of schooling – teachers salaries, books and school buildings – rather than consultants, University scholarships and bureaucratic support which takes up as much as two-thirds of the education budgets from France, Germany and the US.
Aaron Mokoena, 1GOAL ambassador and Bafana Bafana captain said: "President Zuma must be credited for calling this summit. Fourteen million football fans from around the world have signed up to this campaign and now world leaders need to make the dream of Education for All a reality. History shows that where the political will exists, great things can happen. South Africa now shares the delivery of this legacy with the rest of the world."
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