UFSFC is implementing many projects in more than 150 countries. Free primary and secondary school for children.

Benefits to children: Every child has the right to education.

A good education enables a child to learn and to grow, developing their gifts and potential. Going to school helps a child to learn how to learn and how to relate to other children. It provides children with the tools for learning, such as reading, writing and manipulating numbers. School introduces children to the richness of the wider world and gives them the chance, later on, to obtain work and make a contribution to society.

However, this is not the case for millions of children. It has recently been recalculated that there are around 77 million children who do not go to school at all. For many more, school does not provide benefits of high quality or lead to

UFSFC has recognized primary and secondary education as a right because it has such a positive impact on people's lives and on society. They :

• gives children tools to understand the world and participate in society;
• means that girls marry later, take greater care of the health of their children and make sure that they too get an education;
• helps in the fight against child labour and exploitation, and against HIV and AIDS;
• is vital for economic development, giving children the chance to earn more and be more productive;
• enables children to have a voice in politics and in society in future.

Primary and secondary schooling also gives access to further learning opportunities and, at its best, brings out the particular gifts and strengths which children can build on throughout life.

Education is about giving people the opportunity to develop their potential, their personality and their strengths. This does not merely mean learning new knowledge, but also developing abilities to make the most of life. These are called life skills - including the inner capacities and the practical skills we need.

Education will help children to meet the challenges of poverty and exclusion by acquiring life skills and access to the professional world, in particular through technical and vocational education

- Learning to know: Thinking abilities, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making, understanding consequences - Learning to be: Personal abilities, such as managing stress and feelings, self-awareness, self-confidence - Learning to live together: Social abilities, such as communication, negotiation, assertiveness, teamwork, empathy - Learning to do: Manual skills, such as practicing know-how required for work and tasks.

In today's world, all these skills are necessary in order to face rapid change in society. This means that it is important to know how to go on learning as we require new skills for life and work. In addition, we need to know how to cope with the flood of information and turn it into useful knowledge. We also need to learn how to handle change in society and in our own lives.

Benefit to teachers:

. good teaching: well-trained teachers who are paid adequately, using methods focusing on the learners' needs;
. Better teaching and learning: for example, adequately trained teachers, learner-centred methods, appropriate class size, sufficient learning time, appropriate curriculum and relevant materials.

Benefits to parents:

Schooling should be free of charge. This means that parents should not have to pay for their children to go to school, but more than that - they should not have to pay other charges which may keep poor children out of school. Such charges may be for buying textbooks, paying into a school fund or participating in the costs of sporting activities.

Benefit to community:

. well-equipped schools and learning centres: books and other materials and equipment available to stimulate learners;
. safe schools: places where every learner, especially girls, is safe from danger or harassment;
. well-managed schools: local boards and committees where parents and community leaders can make sure the school serves their children well and has the resources it needs;

Better school environments: for example, good facilities including water and sanitation with facilities for girls, a safe and secure environment, attitudes of respect and tolerance, nutrition and health support and accountable management processes.

Current challenges

Getting every child into school: this is essential so that each child can enjoy the right to be educated. It is not such a simple matter, though, since many of those who are not yet in school suffer particular disadvantages.

They may be:
. girls - not sent to school by their parents, or doing household chores and looking after smaller brothers and sisters; the school may be too risky for girls to go there;
. poor, and unable to afford schooling, or needing to work to support the family;
. in a conflict area, where schools are disrupted or destroyed;
. disabled or affected by HIV/AIDS, unable to get to school or without adequate care;
. in remote or rural areas, where the schools are too far away, or there just aren't any;
. moving around - in nomadic or migrant families and not able to spend time at school;
. on the street - orphans and others having to live as best they can without help;
. from minority groups - not speaking the language of school, or looked down on by others.
. We need to recognize the importance of life skills - both practical and psycho-social - as part of education which leads to the full development of human potential and to the development of society;
. The links between psycho-social skills and practical skills must be more clearly spelled out, so that educators can promote both together and find effective ways to do this;
. Since life skills are taught as part of a wide range of subjects, teachers need to have training in how to put them across and how to monitor learners' growth in these areas;
. In designing curricula and syllabuses for academic subjects, there must be a balance between content teaching and attention to the accompanying life skills;
. A more conscious and deliberate effort to promote life skills will empower learners and lead to more active citizens in the life of society.
. Quality for everyone: this will mean special approaches for disadvantaged children and adults, such as those in conflict zones and emergency situations, those with disabilities, those in remote areas, minorities and indigenous peoples, orphans, abandoned children, and those affected by HIV and AIDS. Many of these will not be able to receive a quality education without special measures and attention to address their needs.

Above all, a quality education is for everyone, not only a few people or a few places. A high quality education is not just for elites or for those in large towns - indeed, it is for the poor and disadvantaged that quality education will make the biggest difference.

Some of these groups may require education which takes a form other than regular schooling. As long as the quality of education is maintained, there may be some innovative approaches which need to be tried - these should be recognized as valid. Ensuring that primary education is a good education: it is no good putting every child in school unless education really enables them to learn and grow. In many countries in all parts of the world, children leave primary school without the tools to go on learning - like reading and writing fluently. Or they may not acquire knowledge that they can apply to their daily lives. Children must leave primary school with a taste for learning and the skills to learn. A quality education is essential.

Learning basic skills may take eight or nine years of schooling, so it is important to advocate for the links between primary and (early) secondary education, as well as to recognize that the prospect of effective secondary education is an incentive to children and their parents to complete primary education successfully.

It is vital to ensure that schools work properly: children cannot learn easily if classrooms are crowded or there are no books for them to read - this is a constant challenge in many countries. School buildings may also be in need of improvement and repair. Children may have very little equipment in their classrooms.

Schools must also be managed well, with the input of parents, local leaders, the principal and the staff. It is important that local boards and committees have decision-making power, supported by information on curriculum, staffing, budgets and the teaching/learning environment. Where governments promote democratic participation, it is essential to build the capacity of these boards and committees to use information to make decisions about how the school should function.

What funding agencies should do

• support research for a better understanding and measurement of quality, in the diverse national and sub-national contexts, through research studies and capacity-building;
• support the initial and in-service training of teachers as key guarantors of quality;
• support studies into what quality means for vulnerable and marginalized groups;
• act as a catalyst for dialogue at local and national levels, and between them, on developing accountable management systems;
• facilitate exchange and lesson-learning between different countries and regions of the world, for teachers, school administrators and other education practitioners.
• Support research, exchange and debate, nationally and regionally, on ways of strengthening life skills education;
• Support innovative teacher training initiatives in order to embed life skills promotion into subjects across the curriculum and as a fundamental part of what school and education are about;
• Recognize the links between primary and secondary education in ensuring that children develop strong life skills;
• work for better coordination among themselves so that financial aid does not give governments so much work to manage it;
• avoid setting aid conditions which push governments in directions they do not wish to go;be a catalyst for dialogue among interested parties, particularly between local communities, and local and national government;
• give assistance to innovative strategies to reach those who are still excluded from school;
• provide help to make local school management systems function well, including help to collect and use information on the workings of the education system.

Everyone should be able to achieve learning outcomes that are recognized and can be measured, particularly with regard to literacy and other skills essential for life.

What governments should do

• Recognize and actively advocate for the transformational role of education in realizing human potential and in socio-economic development;
• Ensure that curricula and syllabuses address life skills and give learners the opportunity to make real-life applications of knowledge, skills and attitudes;
• Show how life skills of all kinds apply in the world of work, for example, negotiating and communication skills, as well as practical skills;
• Through initial and in-service teacher training, increase the use of active and participatory learning/teaching approaches;
• Examine and adapt the processes and content of education so that there is a balance between academic input and life skills development;
• Make sure that education inspectors look not only for academic progress through teaching and learning, but also progress in the communication, modelling and application of life skills;
• Advocate for the links between primary and (early) secondary education in recognition that the prospect of effective secondary education is an incentive to children, and their parents, to complete primary education successfully.
• increase the relevance of education by adjusting learning processes, curriculum content and school management to take account of the context of learning;
• emphasize sustainable development as the over-arching social outcome of education, and link this to curriculum development and teacher training;
• take special measures to reach vulnerable and marginalized groups; this may include school feeding programmes, itinerant teachers, health support, materials and instruction in minority languages, measures for the disabled;
• improve the school environment with special attention to the needs of girls in respect of safety, sanitation and the attitudes of teachers;
• strengthen the training, status and remuneration of teachers in order to improve teacher performance and motivation;
• invest in books, materials and equipment to provide a stimulating learning environment - at the very least, every child in school should have access to a book which they can read for themselves;
• Increase national funding to basic education and improve its quality;
  . Set up a clear legal framework so that local boards and committees can effectively participate in the management of schools;
• Train enough teachers, and improve their working conditions;
• Give families incentives to send their children, especially girls, to school, such as: stipends, free school meals, textbooks and paper, uniforms;
• Make special provision for the education of excluded children, such as the disabled and other children with special needs, including refugees and displaced children, orphans and working children, children from linguistic and cultural minorities;
• Make education relevant to local cultural and economic contexts so that parents see that education improves the quality of life;
• Make schools safe (especially for girls) and equip them with necessities such as drinking water, books, desks, and separate toilets;
• Increase access to secondary education for all children so that basic skills are fully learned and education leads to opportunities of productive work in society.  

Board of Directors

Sec of State Hermann COHEN (Ret.)

Irvin FOSTER

Virginia LORENZO

Dr William SCHIPPER

Staff

Dr Hassan YEMER