Thanks to a concerted effort from world leaders, NGOs, and regular citizens, there has been progress in global education, but not nearly enough. Here is the situation and how you can fix it.

The problem: 58 million children still do not go to school.

Since the announcement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the number of out of school children has significantly decreased. Between 2000 and 2007 the number of out of school children was reduced by 40 million.

Although this is enormous progress, the number of out of school children has remained almost the same for the past half-decade. What’s even worse is that half of the 58 million children live in conflict­-affected areas. More than 1 in 4 children enlisted in primary education in developing regions are likely to drop out. In some regions, more than half of these out of school children are girls.

The difference you and I can make:

To address this inequity, the Global Poverty Project supports the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the only global and multilateral partnership that coordinates action to improve education and get children living in the poorest countries into school.

GPE has invested over 950 million US dollars in fragile and conflict-­affected partner countries, and between 2002 and 2012 the number of out of school children in these countries dropped by 15 million. Also, the rate of girls completing their primary education in GPE developing partner countries has increased by 13 percent between 2002 and 2012.

Financial contributions from donor countries like Belgium, Denmark, France and the Republic of Korea are crucial in supporting education strategies in developing partner countries.

By tweeting at these donor countries, your action will help stabilize school attendance in conflict­-affected areas, ensure that girls have access to an education, and increase primary education completion rates. GPE needs more resources to continue its good work, and your actions can urge funding nations to step up.

You Can Also Win: By taking action, you can go into the draw to meet and greet Usher at Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day! But more on that later.

What your action will accomplish:

Through your action, more kids will be sent to schools. We can make sure schools are safer and better equipped with the resources they need so that children receive a quality education. Getting children educated is one of the major steps to ending extreme poverty, and your action can give the 58 million kids who are out of school a shot at a better life.

Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day

In partnership with Earth Day Network, Global Poverty Project will host a huge event on April 18 in Washington D.C. where world leaders will be encouraged to support GPE. We need you and as many people as possible to help us create buzz and momentum before this event. Come Global Citizen Earth Day, your help will strengthen the urgency felt by partnering governments to support GPE and give this issue the attention it deserves. Thanks to your involvement, our objective is to have as many of these partners across the globe pledging their support. Together, we can make sure that everyone has the access to quality education in order to overcome extreme poverty.

Editorial

Defeat Poverty

Will you step up for education?

By Francis Bencik