President Zuma to host 1Goal Education Summit

7 July 2010

President Jacob Zuma invites South Africans and the world to support the campaign to ensure universal access to education in the world, ahead of the 1Goal Education for All Summit that the President is hosting on 11 July, just before the FIFA World Cup Soccer final kickoff.

The Summit will be attended by African Heads of State and Government, senior officials of the United Nations and African Union as well as several eminent persons and football stars.

The aim of this two hour summit is to use the World Cup event to promote the importance of education for development. It is intended to promote the United Nations and African Union goals for education at an intergovernmental level, and to give impetus to the popular international 1Goal Education for All Campaign at a civil society level.

The 1Goal initiative is campaigning to enrol all children worldwide into schools by 2014. Key patrons are Archbishop Desmond Tutu, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Her Majesty Queen Rania of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The international community has adopted two overarching goals in the field of education. These are the Millennium Development Goal 2, which is the goal to achieve universal primary education and Education for All, which is an international initiative first launched in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990 to bring the benefits of education to “every citizen in every society”.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reports that access to schooling in developing countries has improved since 1990. About 47 out of 163 countries have achieved universal primary education and an additional 20 countries are estimated to be “on track” to achieve this goal by 2015. However, huge challenges remain in 44 countries, 23 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa. These countries are unlikely to achieve universal primary education by 2015 unless domestic and international efforts are accelerated substantially.

Globally, an additional 42 million children have entered primary education since 2000, notably because of increased political leadership and national resources for education. However, progress has been slow and formidable challenges remain.

Approximately 72 million children are still denied their right to education and 759 million adults lack basic literacy skills.

“We want education to be the lasting legacy of the 2010 World Cup, as the first World Cup soccer tournament on African soil. We urge all nations of the world to mobilise in every corner to ensure that every child is in school, especially at the primary school level. The Summit is intended to emphasise that message," President Zuma said.

Details are as follows:

Date: 11 July 2010
Time: 14h00 (media arrival time is 13h30)
Venue: Presidential Guest House (use gate 10) Pretoria.

Media RSVPs must be sent to jonas@po.gov.za before or on 9 July 2010.

Enquiries: Zizi Kodwa
Cell: 082 330 4910

Issued by: The Presidency
7 July 2010
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)