The Educate A Child programme has seen $2.3 billion towards supporting education in over 50 countries.
Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has invested a whopping $1 billion to support children who have been denied an education.
Speaking at a United Nations summit in New York, the Minister of Education and Higher Education, Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi, said that Qatar is among the largest donors to humanitarian programmes and is committed to investing in education, health and economic support.
The ‘Transforming Education Summit’, which takes place from 16 to 19 September, seeks to mobilise political ambition and action to improve education worldwide.
Addressing delegates in a speech, the minister stated that Educate A Child, a global programme of Qatar’s Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, has further facilitated the spending of $2.3 billion to provide quality primary education to out-of-school children in over 60 countries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Qatar introduced a fund to alleviate the financial impact on education in 17 countries with low-resources, the official added. Doha’s EAA Foundation continues to support education in underdeveloped and conflict areas.
“Significant investments have been made to advance the national education system as well as generous contributions to the overseas development assistance programmes especially in the education sector,” Al Nuaimi said, during her speech.
“Our priorities are to assist provisions of quality education to those who have been left the farthest behind. A primary enabler of this work at various levels is the Education Above All Foundation. Through partnerships and collective efforts together, we can expand the reach and deepen the impact.”
The minister added that the summit presents an opportunity for collaboration in the development of educational systems, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put education at the top of the international agenda.
“As we draw closer to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2030), we must deliver on the promise of quality education to every child. This inevitably required greater investment in education as yet many countries have limited physical space to increase education spending,”
Al Nuaimi noted that the issue of funding education is a collaborative effort, which is dependent on the effort of other summit work streams.
“We would urge that reallocating any savings and additional resources should have a primary focus as a guiding principle, addressing exclusion in education especially those who are marginalised by displacement, poverty and disability.”
