MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Sullivan
The launch of the publication 'Gift of Knowledge' highlights the achievements of the Australian Government's aid programme in raising literacy and basic education levels for children in developing countries.
One in five children in developing countries cannot go to school, either because of a lack of schools or the cost of education. The situation for girls is worse - they comprise two out of three of those children excluded from school.
Australian taxpayers, through the Government's overseas aid programme, are helping poor children in developing countries to learn to read, write and count. $54 million annually is provided through the aid programme for basic education, literacy and numeracy. 22% of all education funding in the aid programme is spent on basic education - almost double the average share of education funding spent by other donor countries.
Our projects include providing teacher training and building schools in PNG, Fiji and in isolated parts of the Pacific Islands. In China, Australian taxpayers are funding UNICEF to give school books to 100,000 children who live in isolated communities. (45 per cent of the world's school age children live in either China or India.)
Education is an important weapon against poverty. Being able to read and write opens new horizons: for children, their parents, their villages and their society. Education can help create wealth and well being. It lays the foundations for democracy and promotes self-reliance. It gives people a chance to improve their own world and to control their own future.
Launch: 2.00pm, Wednesday 8 September 1999, Telopea Park Primary School, New South Wales Crescent, Barton. Classes of Year 4 students from Telopea Primary will present letters to the Papua New Guinea High Commission. These will be sent to primary school students at St John's Primary school in Port Moresby with a large shipment of text books from Australia to PNG.
Media contacts:
Judi Nixon (Mrs Sullivan's office) 07 5591 1011 / 0411 287 258
Kirsten Hawke (AusAID) 02 6206 4971/ 0417 90 3429