Mauritius summit ends with pledge by education ministers on collective input to UN discussions
Education ministers concluded their 18th conference in Mauritius today (Friday) with a pledge to ensure a strong Commonwealth voice in the process of formulating the next generation of global development goals.
They have agreed to set up a Commonwealth Ministers Working Group to feed into discussions taking place at the United Nations on a framework for post-2015 anti-poverty targets.
“Ministers noted that unless robust advocacy for the pivotal role of education post-2015 - in the economy, for society, for democracy and for development - is made, there is a risk that it might lose its place in the global priorities,” they said in their final communiqué.
The Mauritius Communiqué acknowledged that solid progress had been made towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals in education and the Education for All goals by 2015, particularly in universal primary education. But they noted that 23.3 million primary age children were still out of school in Commonwealth countries and identified quality education and equal access as common challenges.
Members of the working group on recommendations for the post-2015 development framework are Bangladesh, Barbados, Cyprus, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.
The 18th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers took place from 29 to 31 August and was attended by 39 countries, of which 34 were led by ministers.
The 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers will be held in The Bahamas in 2015.
