Education & Educational Work

 

 

Education – a human right – plays a pivotal role concerning poverty reduction and has a substantial impact on the access of people to health, alimentation, income and employment. Moreover, education empowers people to unfold their skills, to actively participate in societal and political processes and decisions, to discern their rights and to support and codetermine the democratic development of their nation.

 

The UN Millenium Development Goals envisage universal primary education as an instrument and objective regarding poverty reduction. However, about 75 million children worldwide are lacking in education. Although rates of school enrollment increased in recent years, still many children drop out of primary school because of poverty. Poor quality of classes and school buildings as well as high costs for learning materials, school fees and school uniforms count for children not completing primary education.

 

Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the situation is precarious. Only two-thirds of boys and barely more than the half of girls pass primary school. Notably, in rural areas which are exceedingly affected by hunger and poverty, a lot of children do not attend school. Many of them reside illiterate their whole life and find it difficult to get an apprenticeship or employment. Hence, they are eminently threatened by poverty and exploitation.

 

In addition to securing universal primary education, the rising demand for occupational training and higher education has put also tertiary education on the agenda of development policy stakeholders. Through the promotion of higher education, expertise can be set up and qualified labor can be trained.

 

Thus, cooperation in the field of tertiary education and primary education contributes to the attainment of the UN Millenium Development Goals as well as to a sustainable social and economic development.

 

With its projects in South Africa, Uganda and Western Sahara, GEZA joins exactly at this point. It supports the improvement of the infrastructure of educational institutions and assures collateral research work in the education sector.

 

Educational work concerning development policy gives people in the so called “North” an understanding of development cooperation issues. The interest in and comprehension of complex global developments are to be boosted. In turn, it contributes to a critical reflection and refurbishment of those developments. Moreover, people are to be supported to discover own possibilities for participation.

 

In Austria, GEZA realizes educational work concerning development policy in the areas of information, education, science and culture. Alongside school and discussion events, GEZA organizes exhibitions about its projects in countries of the “South” and informs about the UN Development Millenium Goals, the complex of problems concerning Western Sahara as well as about important global issues such as health and HIV/AIDS.