Over the last decade, many developing nations have made substantial progress promoting basic education. Even so, too many children around the world – approximately 57 million – remain out of school and far more – 250 million – are in school but not getting the quality education they deserve. 

 “UNSECO is focused on opening up educational opportunities for these children in the under-developed countries and making education a lifelong learning process,” UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said in her keynote address.

Ms Bokova called on donors and nations to increase pledges for education to ensure that every child has the opportunity to access a basic education.

Vietnam’s Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan in turn said that Vietnam’s participation at the conference seeks support from developed nations for the country’s renovation of the educational system.

Minister Luan emphasised that Vietnam is committed to increasing expenditures for education and improving the quality of education with a focus on achieving good studying results, enhancing the quality of teachers and ensuring gender equality.

For his part, Mr. Pham Ngoc Dinh, Director General of Primary Education in Vietnam said that the nation has been implementing a new educational model for the past three years, which has been successful in providing disadvantaged children access to primary educational programmes.

With funding provided by the World Bank, the country has implemented the new school (GPE-VNEN) project in 1.447 schools and is planning to expand the programme to another 600 schools in the future.

EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs,  unveiled a new EU funding package of US$510 million to assist 60 nations implementing the GPE accomplish their educational goals. He also pledged to spend at least 20% of EU’s funding sources developing human resources and integrate socially.

The total EU budget for education in developing countries is forecast to reach EUR 4.5 billion in the 2014-2020 period.