Rieky Stuart, Executive Director, Oxfam Canada. Providing children with the chance to go to school is one of the most effective ways of ending exploitative child labour. When children are at school, they are not in the sweatshop. Education gives children the tools to improve their lives and break the chains of poverty and oppression. When girls and women are allowed to have an education, the health care of their families and communities improves.
Fewer children die of illness.
Education helps create more stable and democratic societies. People who receive an education gain the confidence and skills to participate in the governing of their society. Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the corner-stones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations.