52% more children enrolled into primary school in 22 African countries supported by the Education for All Initiative Fast Track Initiative
Most countries supported by EFA FTI on track to enroll all children into the first grade by 2010
Gains in education now under threat to unravel as the global food and economic crises push people back into poverty
January 5, 2009—On school holidays, nine year-old Tsitohaina, takes turns from her brothers and sisters selling fritters and sandwiches during a local festival in the village of Ambohimandroso in Madagascar.
She has no difficulties taking orders from the clients and giving back the change, even when clients pay with banknotes of 5.000 ariary, the second highest note in local currency.
“She is in the third grade of primary school and she is pretty good in mathematics,” her mother Bako says proudly.
Tsitohaina is the second youngest of the family’s eight children, and one of the few who attends primary school in the village.
Her father Bernard hopes she will have a long school career. “I hope that that she can at least go to high school,” he says. “It will allow her to have a better life than we have.”
Tsitohaina’s one older sibling never went to school, three attended two years of primary school, and two didn’t go beyond the fifth year.
Tsitohaina and her cousin Fitahiana on their way to the Ambohimandroso Elementary school, located in a small village at 13 km from the capital city of Antananarivo.
Tsitohaina’s parents, Bako and Bernard Rabemanantsoa, are farmers and, occasionally, street vendors, who often have difficulties making ends meet. A lack of money was the reason why their older children couldn’t continue their education.
But since primary school fees were abolished in 2003, Bako and Bernard haven’t had difficulties in sending their three youngest children to the village school and letting them attend it longer than the older children. “Our costs also went down as the state provides for school bags and school materials,” says Bako.
Madagascar is one of the countries endorsed by the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI). In 2005, the county received two grants from FTI’s Catalytic Fund totaling $145 million for the period 2005-2010. Since the number of children attending primary school has steeply increased and schools are often over-crowded, the grants will be used to train and hire new teachers, build schools and improve overall quality of education.
Today, it’s one of the 36 countries endorsed by the Education for All Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI), which have made tremendous progress in the education field over the last five years.
Unprecedented Progress in Basic Education in Africa
The EFA FTI Annual Report 2008, entitled “The Road to 2015: Reaching the Education Goals,” released last in November, documents the unprecedented progress in basic education in Africa.
Twenty-two of the FTI countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2000 and 2006, 52% more children (or 15.2 million) were enrolled into primary school in those countries supported by the EFA FTI, compared to 23 percent in non-FTI countries, according to the report.
Overall Education Gains in FTI-supported Countries
Overall, a large majority of the 36 countries supported by EFA FTI are on track to getting almost all children into the first grade by 2010, which is a vital step toward universal primary education by 2015.
EFA FTI
EFA FTI was launched in 2002 as a global partnership between developing countries, donor countries and the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO to ensure accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.
Almost half of the newly enrolled children (48%) were girls. 60% of the FTI countries already have an equal percentage of boys and girls enrolled in primary school or will achieve this objective within the next few years. At present rates, 27 FTI countries will achieve a Primary Completion Rate—the percentage of children entering the last grade of primary school measured against the total number of children in that specific age range—of at least 80% by 2015. “The FTI partnership has been praised by the international community as a good model for donor harmonization,” says Joy Phumaphi, the World Bank Vice-President for Human Development. “Early results show that the partnership has been effective in supporting countries to achieve ambitious education goals. In many countries the quality of learning is the next frontier”.
However, the unprecedented gains in education of the past years are now under threat. The global food and economic crises are pushing millions of people back into poverty who are making the painful choice not to send their children to school.
“We must not let the financial crises undermine what we have achieved so far, but deliver on our commitments,” Erik Solheim, Norway’s Minister of Environment and International Development, said at the launch of the report.
Madagascar
The total number children enrolling into primary school grew from 2.2 million in 2000 to 3.7 million in 2006. The primary completion rate—the percentage of children completing their primary schooling against the total number of children in that specific age range—increased from 30% in 2000 to 57% in 2006.
“Children living in fragile countries are vulnerable and difficult to reach, but it’s important that we give them special attention. Especially girls must be included in our common efforts if we are to succeed in giving education for all,” he said.
The launch of the Annual Report 2008 was part of a biannual meeting of the EFA FTI partners in Oslo, ahead of the UNESCO High-Level Group meeting dedicated to inequities in the education sector between and within countries.
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