Ashleigh Collins
Los Angeles Times
Apr. 25, 2004 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - More than 100 million children in developing nations are not in
school, according to a report released last week by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Of these children ages 6 to 11, 60 percent are girls.
An additional 150 million children will drop out before finishing primary school,
the council reported.
As countries work toward ensuring a quality primary education for every child, they must take special care to address the social, economic and cultural barriers that keep large proportions of girls out of school, particularly in Third World nations, the report said.
The report cited substantial benefits to countries when girls are educated, including higher wages, faster economic growth, more productive farming, smaller families and improved child health.
"Increased female education is one of the most powerful tools to empower women within the family and society," said the report, written by Barbara Herz, girls' education specialist, and Gene B. Sperling, a former Clinton administration economist.
In another report released last week, the World Economic Forum chastised world leaders for their failure to make progress in tackling a variety of social issues, including education, that are critical to development in Third World countries.
The problem, according to the report released in advance of this weekend's World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, is of particular concern in regions including sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and central and southern Asia.
In April 2000, at a U.N.-sponsored education conference in Senegal, and again at a U.N. Millennium summit five months later, more than 180 countries made a commitment to ensure that, by 2015, every child would receive a quality education, at least through primary school.
They also committed to eliminating the disparity in education between girls and boys.
Both the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum reported that more than half the countries are not on target to achieve those goals, in large part because of a lack of financing.
In remarks before the council last week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., urged the United States to "take the lead on a true global initiative for education that makes special efforts to ensure girls are educated." She said she would introduce legislation to provide U.S. funding to educational efforts across the world.
The bill, which would amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, would increase educational aid from the United States to developing countries to $500 million in 2005 and $2.5 billion by 2009.
While the United States has made strides in assisting education in developing nations, she said, current policy is a "scattershot, uncoordinated approach" that suffers from insufficient funding.
It would take $5 billion to $10 billion a year in aid for schools in developing countries to provide a quality education by U.S. standards, Clinton said. At present, the United States allots $350 million.
Without adequate education, young people in developing nations are more prone to heeding the messages of fanatical nationalist or religious groups, Clinton said. Increasing foreign education aid, she said, "is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing, too."