Education is often seen as a privilege. It is not. It is one of many human rights that poor people are denied every day.

Education is one of the best ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty, and a powerful weapon in the fight against AIDS. However, 72 million children in the world’s poorest countries – 57% of them girls – are denied a primary education.

Child sponsorship and education

Many internally displaced children in Pakistan like Rani, 6, and Palvati, 8, (pictured right) live in temple shelters instead of their homes. Through child sponsorships, ActionAid has supported non-formal education for hundreds of children like Rani and Palvati. We've hired ten female teachers from among the internally displaced people to teach students.

Millions of children across the world don’t go to school and as a result many grow up illiterate and turn to begging for an income. Money from child sponsorships goes towards building schools in some of the poorest communities, enabling people to improve their lives and those around them.

• Sponsor a child today

The right to education

Every child has the right to basic education. Overall responsibility of guaranteeing this right is shared between different persons and institutions. It is the responsibility of the state to provide the facilities, parents to send their children to school, teachers to impart learning and employers not to employ children in a way that conflicts with their education.

ActionAid donors have helped to build an entirely new Children's Ufulu Centre in Malawi. Ufulu means wellbeing, freedom and comfort, and the project was designed to give pre-school children, especially orphans, a place to learn, socialise and access a guaranteed midday meal.

That’s why we work at every level to secure education rights for all. We help fund and support communities to build schools, we lobby governments to fulfil their duty to provide education facilities, and we campaign globally to make sure that education stays high on the international agenda.

The Millennium Development Goals are promises made by world governments to themselves and to their peoples. They have formed the backbone for anti-poverty efforts. Although there have been some improvements in primary school enrolment, especially for girls, if present trends continue 75 million children will still be out of school in 2015. There are severe problems with drop-outs and, even among children who stay in school, there is a poor level of achievement.

Reflect

ActionAid's research led us to pioneer Reflect, a way of teaching that has changed millions of lives worldwide.