Following on from my post about the $100 laptops (and linking to quite a few of the comments in Will Richardson’s post)…
As quite a few of you know, I spent over two years in Papua New Guinea, working with children with disabilities (on page 4, you’ll see an article about Imelda – who I worked with when I was at the centre. It’s fabulous to see her progress!).
To return to the present VSO (who I went with) are taking part in the Global Campaign for Education week which has has the focus:
JOIN UP: Education Rights Now!
In 2007, more than 6 million campaigners in over 120 countries will ‘JOIN UP!’ and create the world’s longest ever people and paper chain, asking for ‘Education Rights Now!’ As part of this campaign, evidence on the violations of education rights will be delivered to world leaders.Campaigners will ask why after so many promises and commitments by world leaders, 80 million children and 800 million adults are still being denied their right to education.
While we can get excited about the prospects that the $100 laptops can bring – we still have the issue of 80 million children (often girls) who are not in education at all.
Gapminder, while not having a variable for % in school in total, can show the proportion of girls/boys in school.