President Muhammadu Buhari and other world leaders are to raise $5 billion to support the education sector in about 90 countries where 80 per cent of the world’s out-of-school children live. Buhari, presently in London with senior officials of his government to attend the Global Education Summit holding in the European country, will along with the other leaders seek to raise the fund from donors across the globe.
The UK and Kenya are to jointly host the meeting, tagged Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The summit will be urging world leaders to invest in education and improve access for girls.
A statement by the British High Commission in Nigeria on Monday said, “At the summit, the Global Partnership for Education aims to raise at least $5 billion from donors to support education systems in up to 90 countries and territories, where 80 per cent of the world’s out-of-school children live.”
According to the statement, the UK has been a donor to the GPE since 2005.
The statement also said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had already secured a landmark commitment from G7 partners to pledge at least $2.7 billion to the Global Partnership for Education ahead of the summit. This includes £430 million from the UK, its largest ever pledge to GPE.
The statement further explained that the Global Education Summit also provided an opportunity for Nigeria to commit to progressively increase domestic education spending towards the global benchmark of 20 per cent of total government expenditure.
Nigeria receives substantial funding from the GPE. In June, the GPE announced the approval of a new grant of $125 million for Nigeria to fund an education programme that will be implemented by the World Bank in Oyo, Katsina and Adamawa states, the statement disclosed.
It added, “Over the past 10 years in Nigeria, bilateral UK support has improved education systems for 11 state governments, reaching over eight million children.
“This support has helped to reach out-of-school children and ensure they can access school and receive quality learning, including basic literacy and numeracy.
“Educating girls is one of the best investments for reducing poverty and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, therefore, is a priority for the UK, also in Nigeria.
“Since 2012, the UK has supported over one million girls to access schooling in six states through the Girls Education Project Phase 3, in partnership with UNICEF.
“Since 2018, UK aid support through the Education in Emergencies programme, reached over 200,000 conflict affected children in the North-east of Nigeria with formal and informal education.”
The statement further revealed, “As a part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s global campaign to promote the aims and objectives of the Global Education Summit, and in another demonstration of Nigeria’s importance to the UK’s Global Education ambitions, Nigerian students from a Government Secondary School, in Abuja, joined children from around the world to record messages about what education means to them.”
The statement quoted the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, as saying, “I encourage Nigerian leaders to commit to protecting and increasing funding for a future where every Nigerian 10-year-old can read, and where every child can access 12 years of education. I hope there will be ambitious pledges and donors can come together to support the GPE financing to give 175 million children the opportunity to learn.”
