Education for everyone

ONE SUCCESS story after another among developing countries has shown the crucial importance of free, quality education for all children, girls and boys. In spite of this, more than 100 million children worldwide are not in school and are in danger of joining the world's 860 million illiterate adults. The United States should take the lead in getting rich countries and poor countries to make the goal of universal education a reality.

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Children who get an education are more likely to find productive work and as adults have smaller families. Education provides benefits for the entire world in peaceful, sustainable progress. Countries such as the United States should see it in their own interests to help build schools, train teachers, and eliminate the school fees that in many countries keep children -- especially girls -- out of classrooms. In 2000, world leaders set their Millennium Development goals, which included 100 percent education of children by 2015.

Americans are so accustomed to free public education that it is shocking that in many developing countries parents must pay prohibitive amounts for their children's tuitions, books, and uniforms. Until 2002, the World Bank actually supported such fees as a way to limit spending by governments and generate enough funds for textbooks. Under pressure from the US Congress, the World Bank stopped making education loans that obliged countries to collect school fees.

The dampening effect that fees have on children's access to schools becomes evident whenever governments do away with them.

Since the mid-1990s, several sub-Saharan countries have ended fees, causing enrollments to skyrocket. School systems are sometimes unprepared to cope with the spiraling numbers, increasing the need for assistance from donor countries.

Without such help, school quality can suffer. According to Cream Wright, education chief for UNICEF, parents often stretch their finances to put children into private schools when they perceive that swamped government schools are ineffective.

Wright said school fees are also not the only impediment to universal education. In many countries, families find that they cannot survive without the money their children earn in menial employment. This is especially true for marginalized minority populations, he said.

Developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, must also contend with diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS as well as the problems of inadequate school systems.

Helping poor countries deal with the costs of both health and education should not be an either/or proposition for wealthy countries.

The ambitious Millennium goals cannot be reached without more aid, more debt relief, and a greater commitment by rich and poor countries to give schools the priority they deserve.