There
is no single development intervention that can so radically and comprehensively
change the trajectory of a child’s life — and future generations — as
education.
But
children, especially, girls aren’t getting to school and learning. While the U.S. has
provided important global leadership to help open classroom doors for children
around the world, there are still 67 million primary school-aged children not
in school, the majority of whom are girls. The world has made steady progress towards
universal education since 2000, but unless more effective policies are
implemented and there is greater international support, 72 million children may
still be out of school by 2015 — more than in 2008. Millions more will receive
a low-quality education and not be able to read, write, and count.
RESULTS activists around the country are asking their representatives to
cosponsor the bipartisan Education for All Act, which was introduced by Reps.
Nita Lowey (D-NY) and David Reichert (R-WA). The bill calls on the U.S. to improve
its global education policies to ensure all children receive a quality basic
education and to support a Global Partnership for Education to achieve this
goal. Call and write your representative
to cosponsor the Education for All Act of 2011.
Take Action! Write
to Your Representatives about the Education For All Act
1. Introduce
yourself as a RESULTS volunteer and a constituent. Acknowledge any actions
that your member has already taken to support our work or other actions on
poverty and thank him/her.
2. Inform
your representative or aide that the Education for All Act (H.R.
2705) was introduced last year and is still open for cosponsors. .
3.
Sample
Letter / Call Script: I’m a
constituent writing/calling to ask Representative____ to cosponsor the
Education for All Act, which is H.R. 2705. I’m very concerned that there are still
67 million kids still not in school. The majority are girls and the poorest
kids. And if something doesn’t change, more kids will be out of school in 2015
than in 2008. All kids deserve the right to an education. Education
strengthens families, communities, and countries by reducing poverty,
increasing incomes, fighting HIV/AIDS, saving the lives of mothers; the list
goes on and on. The bipartisan Education for All Act by Reps. Lowey and
Reichert seeks to improve U.S. policies so we can provide more robust support
for powerful education initiatives like the Global Partnership for Education
and more effectively get kids into school. Will you cosponsor this bipartisan
Education for All Act?
4. Request
a reply and include all of your contact information. If writing, please e-mail or send your
letter to the local office. For office information: http://capwiz.com/results/dbq/officials/.
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Why Education Matters: Maternal
Survival and Child Health
A child
born to an educated mother is more than twice as likely to survive to the age
of five. Educated mothers are 50 percent more likely to immunize their children
than mothers with no schooling. Women with six or more years of education are
more likely to seek prenatal care, assisted childbirth, and postnatal care.
Why Education Matters: HIV/AIDS
Education is known as a “social vaccine” against HIV/AIDS.
Infection rates are halved among young people who finish primary school. If all
kids received a complete primary education, at least 7 million new cases of HIV
could be prevented in a decade. One
study showed that rural Ugandans with secondary education have a 75 percent
lower rate of infection than the uneducated, and another found that AIDS spread
twice as fast among uneducated as educated Zambian girls.
Why Education Matters: Gender Equality
Particularly
for women and girls, the economic and personal empowerment that education
provides allows them to make healthier choices for themselves and their
families. Benefits of girls’ education include not only the reducing the impact
of HIV/AIDS, but reduction of poverty, improvement of the health of women and
their children, delay of marriage, reduction of female genital cutting, and
increase in self-confidence and decision-making power.
On average, for a girl in a poor country, each additional year of education beyond
grades three or four will lead to 20 percent higher wages and a 10 percent
decrease in the risk of her own children dying of preventable causes.
Why Education Matters: Stability and
Economic Development
Education
is a prerequisite for short and long-term economic growth: No country has
achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without at least 40 percent of
adults being able to read and write.
Failing to offer girls the same education as boys costs developing countries
$92 billion each year, according to a study by Plan International. That's $1
trillion per decade in forgone earnings and unnecessary costs.
A person’s earnings increase by 10 percent for each year of schooling,
translating to a one percent annual GDP increase quality education is offered
to all.
Why Education Matters: Hunger and Food
Security
Gains in women’s education made the most significant difference in
reducing malnutrition, out-performing a simple increase in the availability of
food. A 63-country study by the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI) found that more productive farming as a result of female education
accounted for 43 percent of the decline in malnutrition achieved between 1970
and 1995. Crop yields in Kenya could rise up to 22 percent if women farmers had
the same education and inputs (such as fertilizer, credit, investment) as men
farmers.
Why Education Matters: Security and
Democracy
People
of voting age with a primary education are 1.5 times more likely to support
democracy than people with no education.
Countries with higher primary schooling and a smaller gap between rates of
boys’ and girls’ schooling tend to enjoy greater democracy, and democratic
political institutions (such as power-sharing and clean elections) are more
likely to exist in countries with higher literacy rates and education levels.
Every year of schooling decreases a male’s chance of engaging in violent
conflict by 20 percent.
Why Education Matters: For Children
In
2002, Jean Pierre Nzamurambaho dropped out of school in the middle of his third
year of primary school in Rwanda when he was 12 years old. “I decided to drop
out because I was tired of being sent home because we couldn’t pay school fees.
I spent two years doing domestic jobs, but I could not see any future for
myself.” In 2004 the government abolished primary school fees. Jean Pierre was
able to return to school and now wants to become a teacher. 13 year old
Seraphine is similar: “Nowadays, teachers are no longer sending us back home
[because of school fees or uniform], and even if I don’t put on uniform, I come
and study freely.” Seraphine wants to become a nurse in the local health
clinic.
Why Support
the Education for All Act?
The
Education for All Act of 2011 calls on the U.S. to support multilateral global
education initiatives like the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), formerly
the Fast Track Initiative (FTI).
The GPE had its first-ever
replenishment conference last fall, and it is
the only multilateral global partnership focused on ensuring all children have
access to a quality education. For example, in 2009, over 82 million children
were enrolled in school in GPE developing country partners compared to only 63
million in 2002. The Global Partnership has put 19 million children into
school. Moreover,
the Education for All Act seeks to ensure the U.S. provides the
leadership to ensure a successful international effort to provide all children
with a quality basic education. It calls for improved policies to expand access
to school; improve education quality; reach marginalized and vulnerable
children, including those affected by conflict and humanitarian crises;
and mandates a new U.S. Education for All strategy be created, coordinated, and
implemented. Increased cosponsorship of the Education for All Act means more
members of the House will be aware of the power of education, the potential of the
GPE, and how critical it is to be a lead supporter of education for all.
“Learning to Survive: How education for all would save millions of young
people from HIV/AIDS.” Global Campaign for Education.
