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, 67 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 sponsorship, 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 sponsorship goes towards building schools in some of the poorest communities, enabling people to improve their lives and those around them.
The right to education
Every child has the right to basic education. Overall responsibility for guaranteeing this right is shared between different people 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.
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 people. They have formed the backbone for anti-poverty efforts. Although there have been some improvements in primary school enrollment, especially for girls, if present trends continue millions of 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.
