More money needs to be spent
on education than defence. *1
Graca Machel said this at the 16th
Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, which kicked off at the Cape
Town International Convention Centre yesterday.
The four-day conference
is made up of five parts - a youth forum, a stakeholders' forum, a teachers'
forum, a senior officials' meeting and a ministerial meeting. The theme of the
event, held every three years, is Access to Quality Education: For the Good of All.
Speaking as president of the
Community Development Foundation, Machel emphasised the need for governments to
prioritise education and challenged the conference to come up with real
solutions by "changing the way they do business".
"If you compare the
education and defence budgets of countries, the resources can be found if we
reallocate priorities," she said.
"I would like to pose a question
which, I am well aware, will be sensitive for many: are our constituent
countries moving budget allocations from defence to
education? And if not, why not?" Machel added, to applause.
She
said there had been several gatherings and conferences, but the "goal of
education for all" remained elusive.
"We have defined and analysed the
problem and the challenge very well.
"It is time to concentrate on an
action plan that confronts the fact that in spite of all our efforts, millions
of children and young people and millions more older people are still denied
access to the education that ... would empower them and contribute significantly
to economic growth and sustainable development.
"We cannot simply get
used to a ritual of reviewing the problem every 10 years or so and restating it
yet again."
The Commonwealth had been in the "front ranks of the
struggle against apartheid".
"I believe it must today be at the
forefront of the struggle against the apartheid of grossly unequal and uneven
access to high-quality education," Machel said.
Countries making up two
thirds of the world had been disappointed too often in the past 30 years.
"On its current path, the world will fail to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals by 2015."
Education Minister Naledi Pandor reiterated
that all members of the Commonwealth needed to act together.
"If we do
not succeed through education, we fail in democracy and in the enjoyment of
rights," she said.
Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon said more
than 30 million children in the Commonwealth did not receive primary schooling
and more than 45 million did not receive secondary schooling.
"The
developing world in particular needs more teachers and better teachers. Africa
alone needs another five million if it's going to achieve universal primary
education."
*1This is probably true, but
actually in most countries there would be sufficient for both.
The
problem is that, in most of the developing countries to which Ms Machel refers,
is that vast levels of national resources are diverted by corruption.
In
many countries corruption is supported by policy: in Malaysia there is
bumiputera, in South Africa there is black economic enrichment.
In South
Africa, if corruption was limited to paying R100 per pop to get one's ID in
three months instead of three years, there'd be enough for education,
healthcare, housing, toll-free roads, safety and security, defence, even a
modicum of environmental
rehabilitation.
*2Because moving budget
allocations from defence to education is simplistic. That's why not.