The Progress of Nations in Educating Children

ACEI is dedicated to serving the needs of the world's children. The recent launch of the International Focus Issue of Childhood Education is evidence of our association's attempt to "respond to the needs of the global community." Yet, how do we determine those needs? One of the best sources of current information about the condition of children and their education around the world is the annual UNICEF publication The Progress of Nations. The Progress of Nations is dedicated to the day when progress is measured in terms of the educational, nutritional, health and political status of all citizens and not in terms of a nation's military or economic strength. Statistics and essays in each of the first four editions focus on nutrition, health, education, the condition of women, and the rights of children. The publication has also covered topics related to family planning, international aid and the industrial world. UNICEF claims that its information is "the best and latest available," despite difficulties with data that must be gathered from many countries and is sometimes incomplete or out-of-date.

Data in the 1996 edition clearly point to unequal education opportunities for the world's children. While nearly 100 percent of primary school-age children in the most industrialized countries of North America, Europe and Asia attend school, nearly half of the primary school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa are not in school.

In almost every region of the globe, fewer girls than boys attend primary school. Educating females is a powerful force in nation-building and progress, and it is linked with lower maternal and child deaths, better family health and nutrition, delayed age for marriage and population control. An essay by Patricia Lone in the 1996 edition, "Keeping Girls in School," is an excellent synopsis of the factors that thwart the ed-ucation of girls, "chief among them being poverty." Lone also recommends several potential solutions to the problem, including building schools closer to communities, involving parents and community members in running the school, training more female teachers, creating flexible school schedules, expanding preschool education, expanding public relations and providing cash incentives to families who keep their daughters in school.

There may still be inequalities in school standards for children who are able to attend school. A 1995 survey found that the average 1st-grade class size in Equatorial Guinea was 112 students, that 79 percent of the classrooms in Burkina Faso had no usable chalkboards and that 72 percent of the pupils in Ethiopia were in schools without water. While a country's economic development is related to the amount of money available for education, the 1995 edition of The Progress of Nations points out that some developing countries, such as Kenya, China, Sri Lanka and Egypt, have a much higher-than-expected percentage of children reaching grade 5 than countries with similar gross national products.

In the 1994 edition, Fay Chung, former Minister of Education in Zambia and current UNICEF Chief of Education, wrote an essay titled "Education for All Can Still Be Achieved." Chung lists four elements required for expanding education opportunities in developing nations: 1) using more paraprofessional teachers who receive decent pay and continued training; 2) developing parent and community involvement, with school fees retained by the local community to pay teachers and upgrade schools; 3) maintaining a long-term, stable commitment to education from both the government and high-level personnel; and 4) redirecting the 80 percent of inter-national education aid that now goes to post-secondary and tertiary education toward basic ed-ucation for all children.

As The Progress of Nations indicates, children around the world have many needs, and we have made progress in meeting some of those needs for some of the children. Continued progress depends on our commitment to all of the world's children.

Note: The Progress of Nations is published by UNICEF House, 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. The 1996 edition is available on the Internet at: http://www.unicef.org/pon96.

--Joseph Donaghy and Mary Donaghy, International/Intercultural Committee