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MESSAGE FROM
MR JACQUES CHIRAC
PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

TO THE PARTICIPANTS
IN THE THIRD MEETING OF
THE HIGH-LEVEL GROUP ON
EDUCATION FOR ALL

NEW DELHI, 10-12 NOVEMBER 2003

Prime Minister,
Heads of State and Government,
Director-General of UNESCO,
Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Among the Millennium Goals, those concerning education are perhaps the most significant, because no society can look to the future with confidence unless it provides its children with a quality education.

I am therefore delighted to have this opportunity to speak to you, as members of the high level group in charge of monitoring the Education For All programme adopted after the Dakar Conference, on the occasion of your third meeting.

It is highly symbolic that you are meeting in India, home to a great civilisation that has developed and flourished over the millennia. India has endowed humanity with innumerable artistic, philosophical and religious treasures. It has also assimilated contributions from other cultures with remarkable ease. It tackles contemporary challenges from an original standpoint, of which the world must take the greatest account. And it has always placed the highest value on matters of the intellect and education.

We are committed to giving all the world's children-boys and girls without discrimination-access to quality primary education by 2015. To achieve this ambitious target, we must intensify our efforts, in North and South alike.

This is particularly true in Africa, where more than half the children of school age do not attend school or leave school prematurely. The young people of Africa, so numerous and bursting with energy and vitality, are the promise of renewal for the African continent. But if they are denied education, the first step towards exercising responsibility, we can fear that they will express their anger.

Each and every one of you is aware of the issues at stake.

First of all, education is a political issue, because democracy, good governance and freedom can only thrive if every person, through their knowledge, is able to defend and exercise their rights. Any society that fails to react to the shortcomings of its school system is in breach of its democratic duty.

Education is an economic issue, conditioning growth and the inclusion of poor countries in globalisation. Modern economies are increasingly based on knowledge, information and technology, which remain out of reach for anyone who is not proficient in basic skills.

Here in India, experiments conducted in villages have shown how quickly farmers who can read and write can learn to use a computer and move from a precarious survival economy to the relative comfort that comes from knowing how to use the instruments of the market.

Education is a social issue, because equal access to education, without distinction as to social origin or gender, is the very condition of human development. How can a young mother who has never been to school pass on to her children the elementary knowledge they need to cope with the vicissitudes of life and participate in the movement of their generation?

To address the sensitive issue of non-discrimination, I urge you to remember that it is a fundamental right of the human person, recognised by the Universal Declaration of 1948. Denying girls access to school, or allowing a system of discrimination to persist is not only an economic and social error, it is the violation of a right.

You will also be working to mobilise financial resources, since your action will only be meaningful if it is supported by budget commitments by developing countries and donors.

Some progress has already been achieved. I am thinking, for example, of action by French development cooperation and Francophonie. In this regard, I will ensure that the Francophone Summit to be held in Ouagadougou next November, that will be devoted to sustainable development, will also monitor the Millennium Goals on education.

I am also thinking of poor countries that are using forgiven debt wisely to rebuild their school systems.

Above all, I am thinking of the World Bank's laudable Fast Track Initiative, associating the main bilateral and multilateral donors in the field of education, which France has supported from the outset, and which already includes some ten beneficiary countries. The initiative is now at that crucial point between resounding success and part failure. I therefore suggest that, on all our behalf, you send a vigorous message to the World Bank's managers and member states, to accelerate implementation of the initiative.

Inspired by the commitments made at Monterrey, the logic underpinning our efforts is one of partnership and no longer one of aid. An excellent illustration of this are the new relations that developed countries are building with Africa through the NEPAD. This new logic is based on the conviction that education is not only a national issue of concern to individual countries. It is a universal issue, a global public good. Of course, it is the primary responsibility and in the vital interest of each country to ensure that its population receives a good education. But it is also clearly in the interest of humanity as a whole that all people have access to quality education in order to be aware of the issues that face them, to determine their own destiny and to approach the globalised world with the appropriate instruments.

And in a world driven by contradictory forces, a world threatened by a clash of civilisations, a world made vulnerable by the persistence of mass poverty, a commitment to education for all is one of the best responses-a response of humanity, hope, confidence and progress.

Thank you.