Education is the key to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. Once people can read, they can vote. Once people can add and do basic math, they can run a business effectively. Education allows people to be more productive, earn better wages, protect their health and have a voice in their society. The power of education extends across generations. Children of mothers who have been to school are healthier, better nourished and more likely to attend and succeed in school than children of mothers who have never gone to school; education is one of the most effective weapons against HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and raises awareness of living conditions and environmental protection. Life expectancy rises by as much as 2 years for every 1 per cent increase in literacy.

The 1990 Conference on Education for All pledged to achieve universal primary education by 2000. But in 2000, 104 million school-age children were still not in school, 57 percent of them girls and 94 percent were in developing countries - mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Millennium Development Goals set a more realistic, but still difficult, deadline of 2015 when all children everywhere should be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

The Conference on Education For All recognized that there was chronic neglect of children's right to education especially girls' education. It helped re-establish that education is at the heart of development and recognized the importance of closing the gender gap. However, it mistakenly assumed that the general drive towards education for all would automatically reduce the gender gap. Local beliefs, traditional practices and attitudes about gender roles often hold girls back from school. Parents' objections to their daughters' going to school are also often caused by safety or economics rather than a belief that girls should not be educated. They fear that the school is unsafe or the journey is perilous or too long. Families believe that they cannot afford to sacrifice their daughters' help or income. The problem of basic education is also on the supply side the availability of safe, accessible, gender-sensitive schools, employment possibilities for women, or educational information for families. In many countries, when the importance of education is explained or tuition fees eliminated, parents eagerly send their daughters to school.

A recent report on poverty found that 135 million children in the developing world between the ages of 7 and 18 had no education at all, with girls 60 per cent more likely than boys to be so 'educationally deprived'. Educational deprivation and poverty go hand in hand. Gender disparity in education is significantly greater for children living in poverty. Reforms to help girls enrol and stay in school can have similar effects on boys, advancing the aims of 'Education For All' and the Millennium Development Goal of universal education. Both boys and girls benefit from early childhood programmes. Flexible scheduling helps boys and girls who work inside or outside the family. Schools closer to children's homes make it easier for all children to attend. Providing latrines and water to schools helps girls who are more likely affected by the lack of these facilities, but boys benefit too. And violence-free schools are good for everybody. The development of child-friendly, gender-sensitive teaching methods that reach out to children's individual needs improves the learning experience for all students. A USAID study in eight countries concluded that addressing girls' education improves school quality and helps improve boys' attendance.

Different countries have adopted different strategies for reaching the goal of Universal Primary Education. Let us look at an example from Pakistan.

Sesame Street in Urdu
ALIF, non government organisation based in Pakistan, initiated an innovative basic education project for pre-schoolers based on the 'Sesame Street' series produced by US-based Chidren's Television Programme. ALIF's version of the programme is called Khul Ja Sim Sim (KJSS) programme which is an Urdu adaptation of Sesame Street. The Sesame Street series is viewed in 88 countries including Pakistan. KJSS familiarises children with the puppet characters and concepts of the Open Sesame show within a thoroughly Pakistani frame of contexts.

The 104-episode KJSS series was an effort to enrich the pre-school children's environment, which has otherwise been invaded by tunes from movies meant for older audiences. KJSS targets children of 3-7 years of age from lower middle class families, many of whom are probably the first generation going to school. To fulfill the learning needs of the children, teachers are encouraged to view the overall social and physical environment as a vast learning resource. Parents and communities also actively participate in the learning process.

KJSS revolves around the concept of multiple intelligence, which is based on the assumption that each learner is intelligent and talented, no matter what the background or exposure. The theory proposes that all individuals possess several different kinds of intelligences which could contribute and enrich the classroom environment. Multiple-intelligence acknowledges that there are sources other than the conventional class room where the learning experience occursincluding watching TV, visiting places and ordinary interaction with parents and elders.

ALIF requires teachers in conventional classrooms to include TV programmes in their curricula to standardise and enrich the pre-school environment of all children in the country. KJSS shows have around 12-13 explicit curricular messages with goals including numeracy, communication and language, critical thinking, environmental concerns/ecology, health and hygiene, character-building self-development, and social awareness.

A preliminary impact assessment carried out on 400 children in both rural and urban areas showed the programme to have captured the attention and curiosity of not only the targeted group but also older children in the 7-11 age group.

Facts:

• One in four adults in the developing world - 872 million people - is illiterate.
• More than 100 million children remain out of school.
• 46 per cent of girls in the world's poorest countries have no access to primary education.
• More than 1 in 4 adults cannot read or write: 2/3 are women.
• Universal primary education would cost $10 billion a year - that's half what Americans spend on ice cream.
• Young people who have completed primary education are less than half as likely to contract HIV as those missing an education. Universal primary education would prevent 700,000 cases of HIV each year - about 30 per cent all new infections in this age group.
• 82 per cent of children in the developing world are enrolled in primary school, nearing the global level of 84 per cent.
• Enrolment is as high as 95.7 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and as low as 62.2 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 115 million children still do not gain a basic education. In Djibouti only 34 per cent of children are enrolled in primary school.
• In Bangladesh, 73 per cent of children completed primary education in 2001. Around half of 15 to 24-year-olds are literate.
• In Congo, only 50 per cent completed primary education but 97.8 per cent of young people can read and write.
• Many children who enrol do not finish their education. In sub-Saharan Africa, the completion rate was only 53 per cent in 2002. In Sudan it was 42 per cent.
• Aids in sub-Saharan Africa has decimated teaching staff and forced children to leave school. An additional $1bn a year is needed to offset its impact.
• Girls often suffer more when resources are scarce. In southern Asia, there are 12 per cent more boys enrolled than girls.
• In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger less than 25 per cent of young people are literate.
• $7bn-$17bn annually is needed to ensure that every child is enrolled at primary school level by 2015.
  

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