(MENAFN- The Peninsula) H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser yesterday addressed the high-level plenary session "2015 Education Countdown: Failure is Not an Option" in New York and urged the global community to drive further targeted efforts for innovative funding models and increase focus on universal primary education for millions of disadvantaged children.
The session was moderated by UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.
Sheikha Moza argued that universal primary education has not been prioritised. She said education has been forgotten and has been an orphan policy.
"We are now seeing the impact of this neglect and for the first time since the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were launched in 2000, Unesco reported an increase in the numbers of out-of-school children to 58 million. Half of these are living in conflict zones."
She said this summer saw over 116 schools bombed and destroyed in Gaza, and statistics from Save the Children show that 2.8 million Syrian children are now out of school.
She called on the international community to realise the potential of education as an enabler of sustainable global development.
Sheikha Moza asked the audience why basic education has been unable to mobilise more support from the business sector.
She said: "Education benefits all areas of development. Education makes good economic and business sense; every dollar invested in primary education generates $10-$15 in economic returns. The costs of not educating out-of-school children far outweigh the investment needed."
Brown echoed her views on the importance of increasing focus on universal primary education.
He praised the work of Educate a Child and said, "It is tempting to talk about the future goals between 2015 and 2030, but in my view, the credibility depends on us doing everything in our power to achieve the existing ones. Educate a Child is the biggest foundation outside government to do the most to achieve the goals of universal education."
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