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Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brend addresses the summit

World leaders have committed today to urgent action to reverse the decline in support to education around the world.

The decision came at the �鶹APP� the day after new figures showed the number of children out of school has gone up while aid to education has dropped.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende revealed the action points and committed to double his country�鶹APP�s funding for global education. 

He said: �鶹APP�What is holding back progress is first and foremost a lack of commitment. The Oslo summit has helped mobilise this commitment.�鶹APP�

The includes these announcements:

• The launch of a high-level International Commission on the Financing of Global Education Opportunities to explore and invigorate the case for investment in education and reverse declines in funding
• An agreement to set up a common platform to improve how aid is provided in emergencies �鶹APP� including conflicts and natural disasters �鶹APP� and urgently address the gap in funding of education in emergencies

Gordon Brown in a panel discussion on stage at Oslo

Gordon Brown, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, will chair the new commission and gave his full backing to the moves.

On the aid for emergencies initiative, he said: �鶹APP�While we do something about shelter, food and healthcare, we are doing almost nothing about education.

�鶹APP�There is agreement now that we must go ahead at speed. There will be a meeting at the United Nations in September to finalise plans. This couldn�鶹APP�t have happened without Norwegian leadership.�鶹APP�

The European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, announced his objective to dedicate 4% of the EU humanitarian aid budget to education for children in emergency situations. He said: �鶹APP�No child should miss out on education. We want to make education a priority in emergency situations so that more children can have access to learning, to teachers, to a brighter future. I am truly committed to this cause�鶹APP�.

Before the summit, hosted by the Norwegian government, world leaders had been urged to act quickly to create a fund for education in emergencies. Led by A World at School, calling for a public commitment for such a fund to be made in Oslo.

Global Youth Ambassador Hellen Griberg makes her plea

The two-day summit was organised to mobilise strong and renewed political commitment to reach the 59 million children who are still being denied their right to education, and to improve learning outcomes for those who attend school.

On its opening day, showed that globally one in 11 children �鶹APP� or 59 million �鶹APP� children were not at primary school in 2013, a rise of 2.4 million since 2010. International aid to education has dropped to below 2010 levels and is grossly insufficient to meet education targets to achieve universal primary and secondary education.

Today the summit heard a �鶹APP� one of A World at School�鶹APP�s 500 Global Youth Ambassadors in 85 countries. She said , which demands world leaders keep to their promise to get all children into school and learning.

She added: �鶹APP�This is a civil rights movement led by young people demanding our right to an education. We need to see urgency and political leadership equal to the scale of this crisis. It�鶹APP�s time for action.�鶹APP�

Ben Hewitt, A World at School�鶹APP�s Director of Campaigns, said: �鶹APP�The demands of eight million people who have signed the #UpForSchool Petition have been shared with world leaders. They heard our outrage that last year only 1% of all humanitarian aid went to education, leaving millions of children out of school due to wars and natural disasters.

�鶹APP�Today in Oslo these leaders have publicly backed our call for action on funding for education in emergencies and further announced an important new international commission to reverse the wider funding crisis in global education.

Malala says spend money on books, not bullets

�鶹APP�This is a crucial first step, the result of increased momentum over the past couple of months thanks to campaigners all around the world and the leadership of the Norwegian government. The hard work starts now to turn these commitments into increased resources and increased access to education.

�鶹APP�We must now build the campaign in the run-up to the UN General Assembly in September and continue to remind world leaders that we are watching and they must deliver.�鶹APP�

Earlier, education campaigner Malala Yousafzai addressed the summit on her return to Oslo, where late last year.

She said the Millennium Development Goal of the right to primary education had been set too low. She said the new Sustainable Development Goals �鶹APP� the roadmap for the next 15 years �鶹APP� should include the right to secondary education.

Malala said the $39 billion extra needed to fund global education each year is the same as the amount spent every eight days on weapons and military. She added: �鶹APP�Books are a better investment in our future than bullets. Books, not bullets, will pave the path towards peace and prosperity.�鶹APP�

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also addressed the summit today and paid tribute to the Pakistani schoolgirl, saying: �鶹APP�Malala and her schoolfriends embody the courage of girls resolved to claim their rights. They are the world�鶹APP�s best answer to global threats.�鶹APP�

Ban Ki-moon and Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg

He added: �鶹APP�This Oslo summit is a chance to reaffirm the human right to education. It is an opportunity to mobilise political commitment.

�鶹APP�And it is our moment to galvanise international support for education as the world prepares to adopt a new set of sustainable development goals to guide the struggle to achieve a life of dignity for all.�鶹APP�

In a passionate closing address to the summit, Gordon Brown spoke of the 30 million children around the world who have been displaced by conflicts or natural disasters. He described them as: �鶹APP�Many of them fearful for their future, most of them never getting the chance to ever return to school, some of them young enough to have never been at school and may never be at school at all.

�鶹APP�They desperately need us to speak up for them and to make sure that they too have the right to education in the future.�鶹APP�

Mr Brown said the new UNESCO report showed that �鶹APP� on current trends �鶹APP� it would be 2086 before every child is in primary school. He added: �鶹APP�We have got to do something about this crisis.�鶹APP�

He said the average amount of aid going to education in developing countries is far too little to make a real difference. Mr Brown added: �鶹APP�Even when we combine all the money that is going to education �鶹APP� then the average amount of money spent on the education of a sub-Saharan Africa child is only $80 per year compared with the $8000 spent on children in Norway, in Britain, in America.�鶹APP�

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