Education Financing Needs A Bigger Push
11th June 2021
The new UK contribution to Global Partnership for education announced by Boris Johnson at G7 Summit falls short of expectations of global education community
UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just announced that UK will support the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) with £430m of new aid. This figure falls short of expectations of global education community, specially taking into account that UK will co-host (together with Kenya) the Global Education Summit next month in London. In the last replenishment period, UK committed to GPE £252m over three years, which amounts to an average annual pledge of £84m. This new commitment – £430m over five years – represents an increase of just £2m per year, far behind of what was expected of a country that plays a leading role in this process.
As Boris Johnson said himself during this first session of G7 Summit, “the best way we can lift countries out of poverty and lead a global recovery is by investing in education”. This is especially true in the context of the current education crisis: During the peak of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 1.5 billion learners had their education stopped or interrupted, and there is a serious risk that education progress achieved in the last decades may be reversed.
However, there is still time for the UK to show a bolder commitment to education financing at the Global Education Summit that will take place in London 28th-29th July. GCE will continue working to try to make it happen.
