‘No jobs for millions without new education funds’

Gordon Brown told a press conference that this represents half the world’s 1.6 billion children. If action isn’t taken now, he said, the UN goal of ensuring that every child has a quality secondary school education by 2030 won’t be met, even in 2050 or in 2100. 

Brown proposed the creation of a new International Finance Facility for Education which he said would unlock nearly USD 10 billion annually for new investments in education and would help achieve the UN goal by 2030. 

Under the proposed facility, he said developing countries will be asked to sign a compact with donors to raise the educational outcome for students to the level of the top 25 per cent of best performing countries in the world, and to increase their investment in education from the current 4 per cent average of national income to 5.8 per cent. 

In return, Brown said donor countries will raise the share of their aid budget earmarked for education from 10 per cent to 15 per cent and provide new guarantees to multilateral development banks enabling them to increase their support for education.