Mr. President, Education for All will remain a dream until we address the deep poverty that keeps children out of school and often makes child labour necessary. Unless the 250 million children presently caught up in child labour are provided with meaningful and affordable educational opportunities of quality equivalent to that provided their more fortunate peers, we are wasting strategic human resources and perpetuating poverty in the next generation. The third essential action is to ensure that girls have full and equal access to, and achievement in, basic and secondary education. It is a global scandal that the vast majority of the more than 110 million school-age children not in school are girls. For All will surely fail.
Girls education is a proven best investment for human, social, and economic development.
This is why the United Nations Initiative on Girls Education that was launched by the Secretary-General on Wednesday is so important. This is also why the goal addressing gender issues in the Framework of Action we are now debating is so important. This Framework must single out girls education as a priority. We must aim for socialisation of girls and boys in a culture of non-violence and respect for each other s rights, inherent dignity, and equality. We must strengthen accelerated basic education and additional education opportunities for adolescent girls.