Back to School? The worst places in the world to be a school child in 2010

The Global Campaign for Education launched ‘’Back to School? The worst places to be a school child in 2010’’, a report backed by Plan, Education International, Oxfam, Save the Children and VSO. Somalia and Haiti have topped the list of the world’s worst places to be a school child. Despite significant progress made since 2000, there are still 69 million children out of school today around the world and too often the quality of education is very poor leading to early drop-out and illiteracy, according to the report. GCE and partners are calling on leaders to make funding for education a priority in order to meet the target of universal access to basic schooling by 2015. It argues that poor countries should spend 20% of their national budget on education, abolishing school fees and be supported to hire an additional 1.9 million teachers so that every child can have access to education. In addition, rich countries must agree a ‘step up plan’ to reach the $16 billion per year needed to achieve Education For All.