School' in much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is a crumbling building without a roof, without access to clean water, and often without toilets. Millions of children are being taught by poorly trained teachers in classrooms which lack a blackboard, chalk, chairs, or desks. The costs of educational deprivation are incalculable. Lack of basic education undermines efforts to generate the sustained and equitable growth needed for poverty reduction. It also hampers progress towards human development goals such as reduced child and maternal mortality, improved public health and nutrition, and strengthened opportunities for more secure and productive livelihoods.
Education is also a necessary foundation for improved governance and thriving democracies.
The international community has embraced a new set of international development targets for 2015. These include halving the proportion of the world's population living in poverty, Universal Primary Education, and targets for child and maternal mortality. Achieving the education target is a vital pre-requisite for meeting all of the other targets. Oxfam believes that the UK Government and the Prime Minister are in a unique position to drive forward the goal of education for all. The Government has rightfully won plaudits for taking the lead over international debt, using its influence to secure agreement and funding for a more generous package of debt relief.