education

$1.64 billion needed annually to educate rural people and lift them out of poverty – UN

13 June 2006
With just over half of the world’s population living in rural areas, international donors would have to give $1.64 billion each year to meet the basic education needs of these people in low-income countries, with particular focus on the more than 94 million children who are out of school, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

UN-sponsored Arab regional forum focuses on supporting girls’ education

3 May 2006
Arab media professionals, human rights organizations, academia and United Nations agencies have begun meeting in Dubai to hammer out ways to improve girls’ access to quality education, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, highlighting that while there have been advances in the Arab world, out of 70 million illiterates an estimated two-thirds of these are women and girls.
Peter Smith briefs UN correspondents

Global teacher shortages threaten goal of quality education for all

25 April 2006
With a projected worldwide shortage of 18 million teachers over the next decade, most critically in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States, a United Nations report released today advocates training parents and teaching assistants to fill the gap, along with other innovative solutions.

Abolition of school fees receives boost at UN-backed meeting

6 April 2006
Countries seeking a breakthrough in universal basic education by abolishing school fees will soon have a detailed blueprint based on the experience of African states that have already taken that step, thanks to a new United Nations-backed initiative.