It’s
easy to take urgent action NOW!
- Check
to see whether your country is on track for
girls’ education at http://www.globalmarch.org/gaw
2003.php (the site will help you find
all the information you need to fill in the
Education Report Card below, including the
contact details of your Minister of Education).
- If your country is not on track, download
an "Education Report Card" to fill
in - don’t forget to print off lots
of copies and distribute them amongst your
friends and family!
- Grade your country’s progress in getting
girls into school - simply answer yes or no
to the evaluation questions. Remember, the
more you answer no, the lower would be the
grade!
- Send
one copy of the report card to your Minister
of Education and one copy back to us by email
or post at:
Global March Against Child Labour
L-6 Kalkaji,
New Delhi - 110019,
India
Email:
Make
the appeal to your government even stronger
by sending in the report cards with a community
petition or letter to your education minister.
The demands below may help give more ideas for
lobbying your government:
I
call on my government to:
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-
Establish concrete targets, and allocate the
resources needed to achieve them. Priority
measures to achieve the 2005 goal must be
included in national budgets, poverty reduction
strategies and education sector plans.
- Cut
the costs to families of educating girls.
Abolish fees and drop charges for essentials
such as books and uniforms. Provide a free
meal at school.
- Address
child labour. Many girls work instead of attending
school, often earning in order to send their
brothers to school. National governments must
ratify and implement ILO Convention 182 on
the Worst Forms of Child Labour and on the
Minimum Age for Employment. Governments should
formalise a coherent policy on the elimination
of child labour, linked to the provision of
full-time, formal education.
- Respect
girls’ rights at school. Ensure that
all schools provide for girls’ safety
and dignity - starting with the basics, such
as separate toilets. Enforce sanctions to
end violence against girls in the classroom.
Stop expelling pregnant girls and young mothers.
Include life skills and HIV-AIDS prevention
in the curriculum.
- Educate
women as well as girls. Women gain empowerment
through adult education, and literate mothers
are more likely to send their daughters to
school.
If
you live in a donor country call on your government
to:
-
Increase aid for education. Achieving universal
primary education and gender parity requires
only USD $5.6bn per year in aid. Yet rich
countries are currently giving only a quarter
of what’s needed. The Fast
Track Initiative provides a way to channel
more aid to countries that are serious about
the Education for All goals. It needs to be
expanded to all low-income countries with
good education plans.
- Ensure
that Overseas Development Aid for basic education
includes strategies for the removal of child
labourers from the workplace and integrates
them into the education system.
- Aid
donors should pool resources in support of
a comprehensive and co-ordinated national
effort towards 2005. It’s time to stop
diverting money into competing mini-projects.
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