[afro-nets] Global Vote on Education for All

[Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima <dabesaki@yahoo.com>]

Global Vote on Education for All - Free or Low Cost?
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Hi everyone,

As you may know, I have been gathering information as well as
reviewing available literature about the global goal towards
education, with a 2015 mark placed on this goal in the MDG. This
is an ambitious goal, which does not seem feasible in many parts
of the world, owing a number of factors.

I have been sampling opinions on which works, Free Education for
All or low cost quality education for all. It is my thinking
that low cost access will create space for sustainability, where
as free education undermines the education in many countries.
The cause of this is two fold. One is because, most developing
countries do not have the resources to completely fund educa-
tion, and are still battling with issues related to teachers
salaries, stationery and infrastructure. EFA for free will make
these economies more vulnerable, and many governments have not
considered education a priority enough to make this level of
sacrifice. Free education seems to further undermine the quality
of education service delivery in many third world countries.

While the argument I have put forth could be true, the responses
I have seen and evidence from available show result in similar
lines and those in favour of free education for all. These peo-
ple believe that education is a major issue that governments
should pay any amount of sacrifice to receive. Another group has
argued that the investment in Education has more benefits than
any other kind of investment that can be made by any country. I
will make a summary of these findings and send to this group by
the end of April.

As a step forward, and a final step in this effort, we will be
conducting a global vote on Free or low paid education for all,
and the basis will form a final report which I hope to present
to UNESCO. I will be glad to learn ideas from this group, which
model will work and why. Education for all is imperative, but we
need to figure out what works.

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Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima
Director, Development Partnership International
9-11 Emenike Street Mile II Diobu
Port Harcourt 500001, Nigeria
Tel: +234-84-751-002
Fax: +234-84-751-002
Mobile: +234-805-518-2526
mailto:dabesaki@developmentpartnership.org
http://www.developmentpartnership.org

Co-Founder, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS
mailto:saki@youthaidscoalition.org
http://www.youthaidscoalition.org dabe