H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser taking part in a panel session at the Education Above All Foundation plenary session on the second day of WISE Summit. A R Al-Baker
BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: Educate A Child (EAC) initiative launched at the WISE Summit last year has benefited more than two million children through projects in collaboration with partners around the world.
EAC, a programme of Education Above All (EAA), targets to reach 10m children by the end of the 2015 school year.
The milestone achievement and target were revealed before a group of international education stakeholders at a plenary session at WISE, attended by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson and Founder of EAA.
Reflecting the need for multi-sectoral collaboration to achieve the goal of ensuring access to a quality education for all, the plenary featured leading experts and stakeholders in education, including H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser; UN Special Envoy for Education, Gordon Brown; Director General of Unesco, Irina Bokova; Executive Director of Unicef, Tony Lake; UNHCR High Commissioner for Refugees, Antَnio Guterres; Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi; and German State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Corporation and Development, Hans-Jürgen Beerfeltz.
Commenting on the multi-sectoral approach to support education, H H Sheikha Moza said: “By bringing the expertise of different partners, we are changing the ecosystem around education and making it sustainable. For instance, in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, we are working with organisations that will contribute to health, employment and energy issues of the camp.”
Guterres responded: “This cultural shift is one of the most important contributions of EAC. In emergencies, education is as urgent as other life-saving interventions, such as providing food, shelter and vaccination.
“We can no longer deal only with issues, we need to deal with people. A comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach to needs and rights with education at centre is vital.”
Launched last year with the aim of significantly reducing the estimated 57m children worldwide who are denied their fundamental right to education, EAC projects reach countries that account for nearly 70 percent of all out-of-school children. Its focus is replicating and scaling up successful quality programmes, promoting innovative approaches and encouraging collaboration to ensure the best outcomes for children and their communities.
The financing gap for education in low-income countries amounts to $26bn per year according to 2011 OECD figures. To address this, EAA is developing a global resource mobilisation model.
“We need to tap into new sources of funding, from philanthropists to governments. We need all sectors to understand the importance of education, not only as a human right, but as an economic imperative.
“One additional year of schooling increases a child’s potential future earnings by up to 10 percent. So investing in education is an investment in the greatest resources — human resources,” H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said.
Grandi announced the signing of an agreement with EAA to provide emergency education to 67,000 Palestinian refugee children affected by the conflict in Syria.
Beerfeltz, representing Germany’s donor agency, also announced a strategic partnership with EAA.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross announced a commitment to support education and children under threat in conflict zones by helping rebuild schools, by providing psychosocial treatment for children and space for families and children so that even in the most difficult circumstances they can continue their education.
Deals signed
Education Above All (EAA) signed agreements to further accelerate access to education for the world’s 57m out-of-school children. The first agreement was signed with UN Alliance of Civilisations. Both will work on programmes to promote educational actions targeting youth and out-of-school children and intercultural dialogue and understanding, as fundamental conditions for peace and development.
EAA also signed a deal with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide emergency education support to over 67,000 Palestinian refugee children living in Syria or having fled to Jordan and Lebanon.
WISE and Banco Santander, through its Santander Universities Global Division, signed a collaboration agreement. Banco Santander, through Santander Universities, will support ‘The Future of Education Fund’ that will help innovative, transformative enterprises and solutions in education. Banco Santander will also cooperate with the WISE Learners’ Voice Programme in developing an intensive training module in business, finance, and social entrepreneurship for top students. It will assist WISE and Hamad Bin Khalifa University to organise the Annual Roundtable on Innovation in Higher Education prior to the annual WISE Summit and support the WISE Programme for Education Leadership, a pre-WISE initiative for new university leaders.
Ranking of universities
WISE plans to initiate a ranking of universities in the Middle East to enhance the quality of education.
“We are looking into how to elevate the quality of education in the Middle East by ranking the universities and academic institutions in the Gulf,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, Chairman of WISE, told the media yesterday.
He said academic rankings implemented in some countries such as the US and China have improved the quality of education.
Sheikh Abdullah, however, admitted that there’s still much to be done in education to meet the Millennium Development Goals with regard to education within the next two years.
Although WISE is a global initiative, he said it also works at the local level to benefit teachers and educational institutions in Qatar.
The peninsula
