AROUND THE WORLD:
Education is a fundamental right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and an important tool in the fight against poverty. The Incheon Declaration, a document in which the international community outlines an agenda for education that is holistic, ambitious and doesn’t leave anyone behind, was drafted during the 2015 World Education Forum. The declaration is based on the assumption that, besides being a public good, education is a fundamental right that allows all the other economic, social and cultural rights to be achieved. According to the Forum, sustainable development is really only possible through transversal efforts that start with an education that addresses the interdependence between environment, economy and society.
The United Nations also took the opportunity to include in its Sustainable Development Goals the completion, for all boys and girls, of cycles of primary and secondary education and that they should be free, fair and of a high standard.
In many countries, you have to pay to go to elementary school and it is too expensive for poor people, the quality of education is still poor due to a lack of trained teachers and in many communities it is simply not accessible due to their distance from schools.
ActionAid believes that poverty and illiteracy are closely linked and that access to education is essential for eradicating poverty and for the full exercise of other rights: with an education, people are more likely to find work, participate in their communities, claim the rights they are denied and work for the change they need.