Irish Campaign for Global Education

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement that aims to end inequality in global education.  The GCE's mission is to ensure that governments act now to deliver the right of every girl, boy, woman and man to free, high quality public education.  The Global Campaign for Education advocates at national and international government level, seeking action on their promises made to provide Education for All. GCE also campaigns to raise awareness and promote action in over 200 countries and will continue to campaign until the Education For All goals are achieved.

In Ireland The Irish Coalition for the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) was founded in 2000 and is a member of the Global Campaign for Education. It is made up of various civil society organisation including the following: ICTU, INTO, ASTI, TUI, NYCI, Oxfam, Suas, SARI, Concern, VSO Ireland, NYCI, Sightsavers Ireland, Link Community Development Ireland and KADE. Our focus is to raise awareness in Ireland  of the Education for All agreements in the education sector and in broader Irish society.

History of GCE 

In April 2000 in Dakar, Senegal, 164 governments, including the Irish government, agreed to an international Education for All framework to provide a primary education for all the world’s children. That same year, the United Nations adopted Education for All as a Millennium Development Goal to be achieved by the year 2015. Since then worldwide, groups have come together as the Global Campaign for Education to ensure that governments keep their commitment to ensuring that all the world’s children and adults have access to education by 2015.

• Currently, more than 100 million children are denied access to education, leaving them trapped in poverty.
• For another 140 million children, lack of teachers, classrooms and textbooks means that their education is of poor quality. 
• Most children denied an education are girls.
• HIV/AIDS is undermining education through the loss of students, parents and teachers.
• The national governments who signed the Dakar Programme have an obligation to work towards the achievement of Education for All.