OneWorld.net (U.S.)

NEW YORK, Apr 25 (OneWorld) - Human rights defenders across the world are making fresh calls this week for governments to get serious about ensuring basic education for all.

Education is a basic human right, not a privilege, say activists who are involved in a week-long global campaign for universal primary education.

"We see this as a key moment for achieving the long-awaited resolution of an education crisis," says Kailash Satyarathi, president of the Global Campaign for Education.

The Campaign, which comprises hundreds of nonprofit groups, notes that despite world leaders' pledges to provide universal education, millions of children still remain out of school.

At a UN-sponsored global summit held in New York in 2001, all governments promised that they would leave no child behind in receiving primary education by 2015.

Critics say governments have made some progress in the past few years, but largely they have failed to fulfill their commitments, noting that there are still more than 80 million children in the world who remain out of schools.

"It is unacceptable that millions of others still have no access to education," says Cream Wright, the UN agency for children's (UNICEF) global chief of its education section.

According to Wright, this even "goes beyond education because children who do not go to school are more vulnerable to poverty, hunger, violence, abuse and exploitation, trafficking, and HIV/AIDS."

The UNICEF research identifies many barriers that stand in the way of children's schooling, including unaffordable fees and lack of basic facilities, as well as discrimination and low quality education.

These factors, according to the UN agency, are often compounded by negative cultural practices, like early marriage and the preference of boys over girls, which put education out of reach for many girls.

UN statistical data shows that in 2001-2002, some 115 million children of primary-school age were not in school -- two thirds of them girls -- and according to current estimates, nearly 80 million eligible children are not enrolled in school and many of those enrolled do not attend.

In sub-Saharan Africa for instance, only 63 percent of boys and 59 percent of girls go to school -- the lowest rates worldwide.

Looking at the financial cost of providing primary education to all the children of the world, the Global Campaign for Education suggests that it requires no more than $12 billion a year, an amount equivalent to only 0.1 percent of what the world spends on maintaining its armies.

In addition to reminding governments of their commitments, campaigners for education are also urging the international donors community to provide more resources than rhetoric.

Apparently, their voices have been heard in certain areas where donors are willing to step in to make a difference. In Europe, for example, campaigners will be part of a high-level conference on education that has been convened by Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development. It is due to take place in Brussels on May 2.

Welcoming this gesture, campaigners said they hoped that the event would turn out to be the "best opportunity" for rich countries to cast aside the remaining obstacles to the achievement of education for all.

Meanwhile, in the United States, as part of the global campaign for education, NetAid, a nonprofit group, started a signature campaign this week to demand the White House and U.S. Congress increase aid for poor countries that lag behind in achieving targets on child education.

Such efforts, it seems, are adding to the enthusiastic struggle in many parts of the world where education activists have been fighting for a long time to prove that education is a basic human right that helps societies become prosperous and enables them to live in relative peace.

"Imagine what a different world we would live in if all children could complete school," says Rasheda Choudhury, director for Popular Education in Bangladesh, a nonprofit organization that is part of the Global Campaign for Education.

"We could give young people this chance," she adds in a statement. "The chance to take part in a democracy, to protect their family from illness, to communicate in times of conflict, and lead the world out of extreme poverty."

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