The United Nations claims that 776 million adults, two thirds of them women, cannot read or write, though the true figure is probably well over one billion. The links between literacy and poverty are proven and strong. Educated citizens are more likely to take an active part in their communities and help change the world around them as much as they can.
Education is a right recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Despite this, one of the biggest distinguishers between the world's rich and the world's poor is education. We have it as a right - they have it if they're lucky.
Gaining access to education in poor countries depends where you live, how old you are, what sex you are and how much your parents can afford to pay.
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VIDEO: Find out how these Ghanaian girls learned how to empower themselves through ActionAid's educational 'Girl's Camps'.
Quality Counts
From the perspective of a poor family, an investment in education is an expensive and often unrewarding gamble. In most areas where ActionAid works the education system is in a state of crisis. In many countries a majority of primary school leavers are achieving well below their countries minimum performance standards.
Families may well wonder, what's the point in sending my child to a school that I have to pay for up front? She might be sitting on the floor of a classroom with 60 other kids. She won't get to read an actual book, as there won't be enough books to go around. She will turn up on time, but the teacher may decide not to turn up at all that day. And if the teacher does turn up, he might exclude her because she's a girl, so she won't actually learn to read after all. I may as well have kept her at home to help me with the farming and the babies.
ActionAid is firmly committed to addressing these types of issues. We work with the parent community to become more involved in their childrens' school, encouraging them to stand up for their childrens' right to be educated by qualified teachers that care. We work at local, national and international levels to secure actual literacy and numeracy rights for all.
We work with people to ensure their governments are held accountable to adequately manage basic education, while forming part of an international alliance to hold UN agencies, the World Bank and developed countries accountable for their promises on education funding.
Killer Facts
776 million adults - that's about one in eight people - are illiterate and cannot read and write. Ninety-two countries charge children to go to primary school. Fifty-four per cent of those denied an education are girls, but the true figure is higher as girls who are enrolled in school are often kept out by family obligations. Educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunise their children. [Net Aid] Literacy and numeracy skills, especially women's, have an impact upon fertility. [EFA Global Monitoring Report]
FIFA and ActionAid
In 2009, ActionAid helped launch the 1Goal: Education for All campaign in Australia along with the Football Federation of Australia. The 1Goal campaign aims to seize the power of football to ensure education for all is a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Reflect
Reflect literacy circles help women to learn to read and write and discuss village concerns by using their own local maps and diagrams.
The circles have become a means for women to address practices that place them in positions of powerlessness and even physical danger.
We have developed relevant teaching and learning materials for schools, provided in-service teacher training, introduced new teaching methods, worked with children's clubs, peer educators and student councils, and we have built the capacity of parents associations and school management committees.
"I am Nafisa, I am 45 years old, and have always wanted to read and write. Before joining the Reflect circle my life was a routine of looking after the household without knowing what is going on outside that domain.
"I wanted to read newspapers like my daughter and son, and I wanted to organise the household budget in my own way.
"Sometimes I would pay the wrong amounts to the shopkeeper and this made me feel embarrassed when he returned the money back to me. I wanted a change in my thinking.
"I am now mobilising resources from the neighbourhood to make a sandouq (revolving fund) for the production of food that will be sold for the benefit of the women in the quarter. The facilitators are good for socialisation of the community and can guide us well.
"I now feel that I am ready to play a larger role in leading the community."
Nafisa is a member of a Reflect circle in Sudan.
Our Global Campaign for Education
ActionAid co-founded the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) in 1999 that managed to get 185 governments to commit to a strong framework for action on education. The campaign has helped more than 20 million children go to school for the first time and will continue until all children are in school.
The GCE persuaded the Tanzanian government to abolish school fees in 2002, giving a further one million children access to an education.
