BODY: Americans take universal
schooling for granted. Nearly a quarter of a billion children worldwide cannot.
Last week's promise by Washington and other rich countries to increase their aid
budgets for Africa is welcome, but even better would be an increase in the
pitifully small share of those aid budgets that goes toward expanding access to
primary education worldwide.
Basic
education is one of the most powerful development tools -- every extra year
of school in very poor countries can raise earnings by an average of 10 to 20
percent. Without increased efforts, scores of countries will fall short of the
internationally declared goal of providing a full primary education to all
children by 2015.
Roughly 130 million boys and girls
between the ages of 6 and 11 are not enrolled in school. Another 150 million
drop out with less than four years of education under pressure of their parents'
poverty. Born poor, these children are virtually condemned to stay poor and rear
their own children in poverty.
The problem is most
acute for girls. Fewer than half of Africa's girls finish primary school. That
is a huge loss. Educating girls has dramatically positive effects, including
lower birth rates, reduced infant mortality and higher incomes. In countries
like Pakistan, making free public schooling more widely available would give
poor families alternatives to the kind of radical Islamic madrasas that funneled
their young graduates into Afghanistan's battlefields.
The first steps need to be taken by the governments directly involved,
as 180 countries agreed when the international goal of universal primary
education was set. They are expected to increase their own education spending,
improve school quality and incorporate education into effective development
strategies. Those that do were promised sustained financial help from the
developed world, but that has not yet been provided.
The amounts needed are not impossibly large. The World Bank estimates
it would take around $5 billion a year from all aid donors. America's fair share
would be about $1 billion. Washington now contributes roughly $200 million a
year.
The World Bank has identified 18 countries whose
efforts to improve education qualify them for immediate outside help. These
include Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, Nicaragua and Vietnam. Five others, India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Congo, which do not yet qualify, are home to
more than a third of the children not in school. They need increased
international help so that they can meet the standards and qualify for
international assistance.
Those countries
already able to make good use of aid should not be left waiting. President Bush,
who has rightly made such an issue of education in this country, should seek
substantially increased financing for it in next year's foreign aid budget.
Other rich nations should do likewise. Poor countries not yet qualifying for
outside help must intensify their educational efforts. As Mr. Bush has said, no
child should be left behind.
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