In 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, Canada joined 189 world governments in the commitment to achieve the MDGs, a set of 8 goals aimed at improving the lives of the world’s poorest by 2015.

The Target

Ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

The Facts

Worldwide, primary school enrolment has been improving, rising from 80% in 1990 to roughly 85% now. But this means that, of the 680 million children of primary school age, 115 million are still not in school — 97% of them in developing countries.

Ironically, countries can usually spend more on education as their economies grow. The poorest countries need to spend more on education to escape their poverty – but they do not have resources to make such an investment.

The Opportunity

Education is a critical factor in fighting poverty, improving health, reaching gender equality and achieving economic prosperity.

More effort is needed to get all children, especially those living in rural communities, into schools. The quality of primary education also need to be significantly improved so that children remain in school and learn the skills needed to contribute to their societies to their full potential.

Inequalities in education based on gender and ethnicity, and among linguistic and religious minorities, must be eliminated.

Our Focus

We should continue to ask our government to keep its commitment on aid and to reach the 0.7% UN aid target. It should build a plan for more effective and better ways of financing for the education sector, and  provide our fair share of the $16 billion annual financing gap for education.

Canada should also support reform of the international aid architecture for education to better address accountability for results in the form of positive learning outcomes for all children, and urgent need to provide aid to countries most in need, in particular countries affected by conflict and those receiving small percentage of aid to the education sector.