Last week, we asked you to submit questions about global education to Andris Piebalgs, European Union Commissioner for Development.   The response that came in via our blog, Twitter and Facebook was overwhelming and we would like to thank everyone who contributed.  Below are answers from Commissioner Piebalgs to the top five questions.

The European Commission is a strong partner of the Global Partnership for Education and committed to ensuring that by 2030 every child will be able to complete basic education, regardless of their circumstances, and have basic literacy and numeracy skills.  In June 2014, Commissioner Piebalgs and the European Union will host the Global Partnership for Education’s Second Replenishment Conference in Brussels, Belgium, where we are calling on the international community to commit to giving all boys and girls in the poorest countries access to school and learning.

1. #AskEU Does EU recognize power of #education to mitigate tensions during reconciliation? Does EU highlight inclusive education in post-war?

#AskEU Does EU recognise power of #education to mitigate tensions during reconciliation? Does EU highlight inclusive education in post-war?

— Nitin Sood (@nnsood) April 8, 2014

Education in post-conflict situations has the powerful force of acting for peace, reconciliation and conflict prevention. But, education systems can also fuel the fire of underlying tensions between groups, especially if they do not bridge differences and promote mutual respect to lead societies towards sustainable peace.

Urgent action is needed as half of the world’s out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries. If we want to achieve the Education for All goals, it is imperative for the global community to provide greater and more effective support to countries most in need, particularly since many of these countries are fragile or in a post-conflict situation. This is reflected in the EU’s Agenda for Change, the policy  we intend to implement in the coming years. This is why we are working on reinforcing the education systems in places like Myanmar, Somalia and Nepal. We are also supporting the Global Partnership for Education in their efforts to ensure that fragile and conflict-affected countries are able to develop and implement their education plans and looking into options for more effective support.

2. Does Mr Piebalgs agree with Ban Ki-moon that Citizenship Education is crucial 4 global education? Will EU support this in Post2015? #AskEU

Does Mr Piebalgs agree with Ban-Ki Moon that Citizenship Education is crucial 4 global education? Will EU support this in Post2015? #AskEU

— mcoertjens (@mcoertjens) April 8, 2014

On Facebook:
Dear Mr Piebalgs
Ban-Ki Moon considers that Global Citizenship Education is a crucial part of the quality education that should underpin the new Post-2015 Framework. Do you, and the European Commission agree?
And will you also support it during the Post2015 negotiations?
With kind regards
Maarten

Teaching children how to read and write is not enough and UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has underscored the importance of education in ensuring that young people can become global citizens to transform lives and build sustainable societies.

In 2012, I was invited by the Secretary-General to participate in the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In this role, I underscored that much work still needed to be done to achieve the education goals, and that increasing the number of children attending school is important, but not sufficient. An estimated 250 million children are still not learning basic skills, and poor quality in education is mainly to be blamed for this. In the panel’s report to the Secretary-General, we recommended that everyone should have access to quality education and skills. I continue to support this vital goal in my ongoing work to define the post-2015 development agenda with the international community.

3. What measures are you putting in place that will specifically target children with disabilities, especially in the poorest countries so that they are not left behind as the case has been in the past?

Disability and poverty form a vicious circle. People with disabilities are too often faced with additional barriers to education and training which limit their job opportunities leading in turn to poverty, social exclusion and restricted access the basic human rights. Here is what the EU is doing about it: The European Commission currently runs about 350 development projects in almost 90 countries specifically targeting persons with disabilities. These projects build, for example, accessible school infrastructure for children with disabilities. In addition to these projects, which are worth around €150 million, many other projects address disability as a cross-cutting issue.

These projects are implemented both in the EU’s bilateral cooperation with partner countries and in partnership with civil society organizations (including disabled people’s organizations).

The EU’s Agenda for Change was designed to give our development policy greater impact and aims to set aside at least 20% of future aid for human and social development. This included social protection and social inclusion. The UN report on the post-2015 development agenda, also paves the path for greater inclusion of people with disabilities.The EU will continue to pursue the objective to include disability and ensure accessibility in all development-related policies, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  

4. What steps are being taken to ensure gender equality is placed as a central focus when working on global education? #AskEU

What steps are being taken to ensure gender equality is placed as a central focus when working on global education? #AskEU

— Liam Beattie (@Liam_Beattie) April 9, 2014

UNESCO figures show a reality that we can't ignore, nor tolerate: The higher the level of education, the smaller the difference in salaries between men and women. If all women in sub-Saharan Africa completed primary education, the maternal mortality ratio would fall by 70%. If all girls had a secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, child marriage would fall by 64%.  

The EU has a crucial role to play in ensuring that every women and girl is given the chance to fulfill her potential -  no matter where she lives. Here’s one example of how we do this:  We work to eliminate barriers that prevent girls from  pursuing their education. The EU has supported the construction of several "Girl Friendly Spaces" in Somalia, which are multifunctional spaces with basic services like study rooms or libraries, especially reserved for girls. Other projects aim to provide training to female teachers and provide scholarships for girls. The overall objective is to increase the number of girls who receive an education and to improve the participation of those who do.

These are just some examples, but the truth is that we focus on women and girls in everything we do. Whether it is agriculture, energy, trade or health. Each and every one of our programs has to take women and girls into account.
Although we still have a long way ahead of us, EU support to partner countries has contributed to more than 300,000 female students having access to secondary education since 2004.

5. Dear Commissioner Piebalgs, please elaborate on the financial support of the European Commission for global education in the next MFF. How much money will be dedicated to the support of global education, will there be any significant increase? Thank you Michal

Education is the best investment against exclusion, inequalities and poverty, and it makes good economic sense. It has also proven to work. Since 2004, thanks to European Commission support, almost 14 million students  have been enrolled in primary education.
The EU is committed to continue playing its part as a responsible donor and partner.

EU education assistance amounted to €4.2 billion between 2007 and 2013: €2.9 billion for basic (primary and secondary) and vocational education in 42 countries and €1.3 billion for higher education programs.

In the 2014-2020 EU budget, as much as €4.5 billion is expected to be mobilized for education. €2.8 billion of this amount  will go into basic and vocational education, confirming it as a priority for EU development cooperation in the years to come. The objective is that by 2030 every child in the world will be able to complete basic education, and have basic literacy and numeracy skills.