Oxfam praises poor countries for increasing spending on education

BRUSSELS, June 26 (KUNA) -- A support required to get 57 million children into primary school fell more than a USD billion short of its target, a disappointing outcome of the Global Partnership for Education's (GPE) replenishment conference in Brussels Thursday, said the international aid agency Oxfam.
Key donors Germany, the US and the Netherlands, made minimal pledges, while the European Commission, Britain, Norway, Sweden and Denmark offered substantially more, it said in a statement.
"But, in an unprecedented move, 27 developing countries came up with strong commitments to increase their education spending by USD 26 billion over the next four years," it noted.
Sandra Dworack, Oxfam's education expert, said "57 million children are still not in primary school. It is unacceptable that major donors like Germany, the US and the Netherlands have not stepped up to the challenge of getting them learning. If these governments care at all about supporting a partnership that will get more boys and girls into education - and train their teachers - they can redeem themselves by putting more cash on the table in the next months.
"Developing countries are doing their part by boosting education spending. Donors should be providing more money to help these poor countries raise their own resources through more and fairer taxation," she added. (pickup previous) nk.bs