Power Launches "Education For All" Global Monitoring Report

The report, which monitors progress on achieving education for all children in the world demonstrates that the number of children starting primary school has risen sharply since 2000. 

In Sub-Saharan Africa, where the Government's aid programme, Irish Aid, supports education programmes in six countries, enrolment in primary school rose from 54% to 70% between 2000 and 2006.

The Global Monitoring Report highlights in particular the number of girls attending primary school, a key focus of the Irish Aid programme. 

It also demonstrates that in 2006, Ireland devoted 11% of its total overseas aid budget to education, two-thirds of which was focused on the primary sector.

Of the 21 aid programmes surveyed, Ireland spent the sixth highest percentage of its education budget on primary education, compared to France (17%), Germany (11%) and Spain (38%). 

This is in line with Ireland's commitment to achieving universal primary education for all children by 2015, a key Millennium Development Goal.

Minister Power welcomed the Minister for Education of Lesotho, Dr. Mamphonon Khaketla, to the launch. 

Lesotho is one of Ireland's nine partner countries for strategic assistance.  80% of the country's children now attend primary school. 

Minister Power warmly welcomed the progress being made in Lesotho towards full enrolment.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Power stated:  "Education is a fundamental human right and a core priority of Irish Aid.  It is central to the achievement of the core objective of the Government's aid programme - to reduce poverty, hunger and child mortality in the world's poorest countries.

"Everyone in Ireland knows the role which education played in fighting poverty and building our own economy.  We are well placed to advocate with real credibility the importance of sustained and planned investment in education.  Irish Aid will continue to focus on education in 2009, supporting our partner countries to meet the challenge of providing schooling for many of the estimated 75 million children who are still out of school."

Irish Aid is the lead donor to Lesotho's education sector, where funding is focused on training teachers, rebuilding damaged schools and providing bursaries for orphaned and vulnerable children. Since 1999, Irish Aid has built 29 schools in mountain provinces to improve access.