DHAKA, Nov 2, 2017 (BSS)- Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid today urged the international communities to fulfill their commitment of financing in education to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals-4 (SDG-4) and targets within the given time.
He made the call while addressing a ‘High Level Ministerial Panel Discussion on SDG-4 Education 2030’, on behalf of the E-9 countries at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris during the 39th Session of the UNESCO General Conference, said an official release here.
The Bangladesh education minister Nahid is the current Chair of this E-9 Forum since February, 2017.
The E-9 countries represent more than 50 percent of the world’s population with a high rate of adult illiteracy (70 percent), according to the release.
Referring to ‘The Global Education monitoring Report’, Nahid said that the low and middle income countries would face an annual financing gap of US$39 billion in 2015-2030 which will consequently affect the E-9 countries.
He also said the challenges for implementing SDG-4 in the E-9 countries are diverse and conversely the SDG-4 financing gap and potential sources of finance are also not same in those nine countries.
So, in spite of increased spending on education, the varied financing gap would also be a concern for the E-9 countries in the coming years, the minister added.
The Bangladesh education minister also attended a breakfast meeting on Capacity Development for Education (CapED) there.
According to the release, the head of the states and governments and the ministers of the UNESCO member states are attending the ongoing UNESCO General Conference which usually meets in every two years to finalize the programmes and budget of this organisation for next two years.
Nahid is leading a high-level Bangladesh delegation in the conference that comprised of Secondary and Higher Education Division Secretary Sohorab Hossain, Additional Secretary Chowdhury Mufad Ahmed and secretary of the Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO (BNCU) Md. Monjur Hossain, among others.