IRIN – Free primary school education got off to a rocky start in Swaziland this week, five years after a new constitution mandated that the government foot the bill for the first few years of a child’s education.

The opening week was characterised by a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and confusion about the payment of school fees. “To say this week’s schools opening was a disaster would be an understatement,” an independent newspaper, The Times of Swaziland, said in an editorial, noting that the warning signs of unpreparedness had been apparent for months.

Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini acknowledged “teething problems”, and said efforts were underway to build more classrooms, provide learning materials and boost staff levels. “Newly recruited teachers may not reach the number we need, but we are already in the process of recruiting more,” he said.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87922

IPS – The Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 set out an agenda to address gender equality in priority areas, including poverty, education, and health care. It also committed governments to address violence against women, equitable access to economic resources and decision-making power.

“Overall, there has been progress made, but we are not yet there,” said U.N. Under-Secretary General Dr Abdoulie Janneh at the opening of a regional review of progress implementing the Beijing plan.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49364

Globally, 10.3 million teachers − 1.3 million teachers each year − need to be recruited over eight years (2007-2015) just to provide universal primary education by 2015, according to new figures released by UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics on World Teachers’ Day, celebrated on 5 October. 

This year, World Teachers’ Day puts the spotlight on the global teacher shortage and the challenge of increasing the teaching force and its capacity to provide quality education, at a time when the financial and economic crisis is placing increasing strain on education budgets.

“Many countries are making tremendous efforts to meet educational goals,” said Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. “But they will not make it without recruiting and training many more teachers. We cannot let the financial and economic crisis cut into education budgets. Lower spending on education will have dramatic short and long-term consequences on the quality of education.”

“This is a crucial period to keep our pledges,” he continued. “I am deeply concerned about the 22% drop in aid to basic education observed between 2006 and 2007. Further cuts in aid could seriously threaten progress made since 2000 in many low income countries, especially in Africa, where the teacher shortage is the most acute.”

Twenty-six out of 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa face a critical teacher gap, according to new projections from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. In these countries, 2.6 million teachers were in the classrooms in 2007. This number must grow to 3.7 million in just eight years to meet the UPE goal by 2015. This means that for every two teachers teaching in 2007 in the region, there must be three in 2015. The Central African Republic, for example, would have to expand its teaching forces by 18.5% each year in order to ensure that there are enough teachers in the classroom by 2015. Teacher gaps are also severe in Eritrea (15.9%), followed by Chad (13.8%), Niger (12.5%), and Burkina Faso (12.0%).

Read more – http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=46543&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Only seven years now remain before the 2015 deadline by which world leaders have pledged to reduce hunger and extreme poverty by half and to make substantial gains in education, health, social equity, environmental sustainability and international solidarity. 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2. Achieve universal primary education. 3. Promote gender equality and empower women. 4. Reduce child mortality. 5. Improve maternal health. 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. 7. Ensure environmental sustainability. 8. Develop a global partnership for development.