Global funding for education facing stagnation: Satyarthi

<g data-gr-id="17">Rueing</g> that global funding for education has stagnated over the past four years, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on Friday said an additional $22 billion annually, which is just four-and-a-half days of global military expenditure, can bring all children to school.

“Unfortunately, only 4 per cent of total ODA (Official Development Assistance) spending goes on education. Unfortunately, only one per cent of the total humanitarian aid goes for education and what we are asking for is an additional $22 billion annually can bring all children to school. “And that is just four and a half days of global military expenditure,” Satyarthi said, launching the World Report on Child Labour 2015 of the International Labour Organisation.

Satyarthi, whose decades-long campaign to end child labour in India and elsewhere won him the Nobel Peace prize last year, said global funding for education -- the best means to fight child labour -- has stagnated over the past four years.

“In last 15 years there has been an increase from about a billion dollars in ODA spending in education for children to about three and a half, almost four billion. But there has been a stagnation in the last four years, rather a decrease in the global ODA spending on education and that is a big fear. So that is the gap $22 billion and that is a big gap,” he added. Satyarthi said global funding for education has not increased in recent years partly due to <g data-gr-id="33">economic</g> recession and donors’ perceptions that education had made huge strides in developing countries is not really true.