Education-for-All Campaign Set for Week of Action

The 2009 Global Week of Action on Education, an annual event promoted by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), is this year focusing on Youth and Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning.

In the Gambia the event is being organized by the members of the Education for All Campaign Network. They are planning activities for the week of action which will take place from 20th – 26th April.

In 2008, close to 9 million people took part in the World’s Biggest Lesson on the 23rd April. The lesson was taught to hundreds of politicians and journalists across the globe. “We know we’re making an impact because since the Global Campaign for Education started in 1999, 40 million more children are now in school across the world,” said Mr. Matarr Baldeh, National Coordinator, EFA Net Campaign Network, The Gambia. After the World’s Biggest Lesson in June 2008 $1 billion was promised to education at the G8 in Japan, and a new commitment from donors of $2.35 billion over 3 years at the UN meeting in September – though in both cases the disbursement of funds will be critical. 

UNESCO reports that Literacy is “one of the most neglected of the six Education for All Goals”. Most education programmes have focused on primary education and adult literacy has in most cases been neglected hence the huge number of illiterate adults. The majority of illiterate adults are found in less developed countries and women tend to be represented highly in this group.

The main event for 2009 will be “The Big Read”.  This will involve reading a special book comprised of short stories about education and written by remarkable people.   People who have contributed stories so far include Nelson Mandela, Alice Walker, Chimamanda Adichie, Award winning Nigerian author, and Dakota Blue Richards, teenage actress of Academy Award nominated film002C ‘Golden Compass’.

Look out for next week’s article with details of the activities taking place in The Gambia during the Global Week of Action, 20th to 26th  April, and how you can support it.