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Speaking at the launch of the initiative at the margins of the 67th session of the General Assembly in New York, Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar, who sits on the UN committee to oversee the initiative, highlighted the challenges developing countries like Guyana face, especially in making educational materials accessible to poor children.President Ramotar therefore called on the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to examine the possibility of reviewing the copyright laws regarding educational materials, especially text books, if the world is serious about making education accessible to all.
“I am very happy to hear the investment that businesses are making towards education, but there is another area that maybe the UN can look at; it’s the question of copyright, which makes books and education materials for children in Third World countries and countries like my own, extremely expensive … now, I see they are trying to extend those laws to prevent people from even borrowing books … this is one area, if we are going to make education attainable for all, that we have to look at, the question of copyright, so that we can make children, under- privileged children, have the material that they can study on as well,” the Head of State said.
Guyana, despite being a small developing nation, has made significant strides in its education sector, by already achieving universal primary education, and is now working towards universal secondary education, he said. “It is difficult, because our country has some remote areas, huge forests, because we are a part of the Amazon, and to reach children in the remote parts is not so easy and not cheap.”
He also spoke of the other initiatives Guyana has taken to ensure that children attend schools, including the school uniform and the national school feeding programmes, and building dormitories in interior locations to ensure children from small villages can also access education.
The Guyanese leader called on the stakeholders involved in the initiative to place more emphasis on keeping boys in schools as statistics have shown that more male students in developing countries are dropping out of school.
“We all agree and we all accept that women and girls have been disadvantaged for centuries, and not having a proper education, and we must continue to fight to ensure that that they have equal access to education; but there is a new phenomenon that is growing in our region, in the Caribbean, and in my country as well, where the problem seems to be the boys. I think it’s very serious as well because most of the dropouts from schools in our region at least are young boys and they are lured (because of the fight our whole region has against drugs and crime) into criminal activities and this is something that we have to craft some strategy for in dealing with the education of our boys to prevent them from dropping out of school,” the President said.
He noted that the data is available to show that more girls are finishing secondary and tertiary education than boys, especially in the Caribbean, and he urged that the world does not allow this phenomenon to reach crisis stage.
The president stated that the Guyana Government believes that the world needs to do more to propel education, especially to the poor and vulnerable, who are often deprived of this valuable asset which is critical for the progress of any country, large or small.
“The world has enough evidence to show that the most important factor for development in any country and in the world is education; it creates equality and it empowers people as a whole; it is therefore important that we work to improve the quality of people; and in so doing, there is nothing better than improving the quality of education,” the president said as he committed Guyana to the Education First Initiative.
“I am very honoured to have the opportunity to serve on this committee, I want to commit Guyana that we will do all we can to fight against this scourge that has afflicted so many, so large a part of our world… I want to say how happy I am we are taking this initiative, because I see education as first, second and third,” the Guyanese Head of State noted.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban announced that countries, private companies and foundations mobilised resources for the initiative, which will focus on three priorities over the next five years: putting every child in school, improving the quality of learning, and fostering global citizenship through education.
“Every one of us stands on the shoulders of our teachers, our communities, our families who believed in us and invested in our education,” Ban said. “We are here today because we know every child everywhere deserves that same chance.”
“Education First seeks to answer the call of parents everywhere for the schooling their children deserve, from the earliest years to adulthood,” Mr. Ban said.
At the end of the 1990s, 108 million children of primary school age were not enrolled in schools. That number has fallen to 61 million today, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO’s) global monitoring report.
While there has been significant progress, Ban stressed there is still much more to be done to help achieve universal primary education, one of the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) before the target date of 2015.
He also said the initiative will encourage transformative education that will give children the requisite tools and skills for today’s job market, bridging the gap between skills and technological power, while at the same time helping young people “forge more just, peaceful and tolerant societies.”
The event was attended by the Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, and the Education Minister of Brazil, among others.
Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett was also present. (GINA)
