05, Feb 2018 | CJP Team

The Guardian reported that several heads of state, including six from Africa, gathered last week in Dakar, Senegal for a Global Partnership for Education (GPE) conference that was co-hosted by Senegalese President Mickey Sall and French President Emmanuel Macron. Donors, including the EU, the UK, France, and Norway, pledged $2.3 billion to be put towards education spending over the next three years. Senegal also pledged $2 million, making it “the first recipient country to contribute to the fund,” the Guardian said. The total amount pledged was nearly double that of the $1.3 billion pledged in 2015, but did not reach the GPE’s $3 billion target. 53 developing nations also pledged $110 billion to develop their own education systems in the next three years. The World Bank recently cautioned that globally, 260 million children are not in school, and that half of the ones in school are not learning. According to the GPE’s website, it is an international organisation supports 65 developing nations to secure a quality basic education for every child, prioritising the most impoverished, the most vulnerable, and those in countries struck by conflict.