Commonwealth Education Ministers stress importance of committing to Millennium Development Goals
16 Jun 2009
Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in education remains as good an investment as a country can make, agreed Commonwealth Education Ministers at the launch in Kuala Lumpur this morning of their 17th triennial conference since the first in Oxford exactly 50 years ago.
Some 700 delegates – comprising Ministers and senior officials, as well as four ‘parallel’ groups of Commonwealth teachers, young people, university vice chancellors, and ‘stakeholders’ from business and civil society – are gathered in Malaysia, and addressing the theme: ‘Towards and Beyond Education Goals and Targets’.
In his opening address, Malaysian Prime Minister His Excellency Dato’ Mohd, Najib Tun Abdul Razak said the struggle for a more hopeful future for generations to come would ultimately be won or lost in the classrooms of today.
He added that the conference theme is a timely reminder of commitments made under the Millennium Development Goals to improve education, as well as those of the Education For All targets, also by 2015.
“With more than half of the world’s 115 million children without an education residing in the Commonwealth, we must endeavour with an ever greater sense of urgency and commitment to ensure that these goals are realised,” he said.
The Malaysian Prime Minister highlighted his government’s commitment to provide equal access to quality education for all Malaysians, regardless of their economic and regional background. He said: “
Source:The Commonwelath Secretariat
