- One in four adults in the developing world - 872 million people - is illiterate.(Oxfam UK - Education Now Campaign)
- More than 100 million children remain out of school. (Source:UNFPA)
46% of girls in the world's poorest countries have no access to primary education. (Source:ActionAid) - More than 1 in 4 adults cannot read or write: 2/3 are women. (Source:ActionAid)
Universal primary education would cost $10 billion a year - that's half what Americans spend on ice cream. (Source:ActionAid) - Young people who have completed primary education are less than half as likely to contract HIV as those missing an education. Universal primary education would prevent 700,000 cases of HIV each year - about 30% all new infections in this age group. (Source:Oxfam)
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 2 urges people around the world to take action to ensure that, by 2015, every child is able to complete a full course of primary schooling. This is a noble human effort towards attaining what has already been encouraged by the founders of world religions. And that is only 1 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN through the Millennium Declaration in 2000. A grand commitment indeed. Note how the other MDGs fall within the fields of poverty alleviation, sustainable development, peace building and conflict resolution, and yet responses to them continue to remain aloof of the spiritual purpose of man on earth and how Divine guidance and prescribes remain root to success of all these efforts. Take a principle behind any of the MDGs, they boil down to basic Divinely Ordained principles pivoting morals and ethics....
The right to education is, in the view of the Bahá'í International Community, one of the most important rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Indeed, the very mission of the founders of the great religions throughout history has been to educate humankind. Education is critical to the development of each individual's potential and to his or her enjoyment of the full range of human rights. At the same time, education must serve society as a whole by instilling in individuals an unwavering respect for the rights of others and a desire to uphold and defend those rights. Spiritual and moral education would need significant attention over the other aspects of education. "Good behaviour and high moral character must come first", say the Bahá'í Writings, "for unless the character be trained, acquiring knowledge will only prove injurious. Knowledge is praiseworthy when it is coupled with ethical conduct and a virtuous character, otherwise it is a deadly poison, a frightful danger". The function of moral and spiritual education is to guide the use of human capacities for the good of all. The goal of education should be not only the acquisition of knowledge, but also the acquisition of spiritual qualities such as compassion, trustworthiness, service, justice, and respect for all......
All developmental gains take concrete shape from spiritual foundations http://statements.bahai.org/
And why not join the Millennium Campaign.....its worth being part of the making the global 'fantasy a feasibility'....... http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/pp.asp?c=grKVL2NLE&b=138312
great piece man
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