Future of education is here Post master general’s offer
is a band aid, not solution
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, August 21-27, 2020
By Yasmine Sherif
Yasmine Sherif, director of
Education Cannot Wait
NEW YORK, Aug. 19 2020
(IPS) — There are moments
when the world has no choice
but to come together. Those
moments become historic
turning points. This is one
of them. We are now faced
with the greatest education
emergency of our time. Over
one billion children are out
of school. The COVID-19 pandemic
has created an unprecedented
crisis of such magnitude
and depth that the next
generation might neither have
the capacity and tools, nor the
will, to rebuild — let alone
build back better.
The world has not planned
well for the future. At its worst,
education has for too long
been underprioritized, and at
its best, has been viewed as just
one among many competing
priorities. Before COVID-19,
the funding gap for education
in low-income and middlelow
income countries – many
already plagued with extreme
poverty, weak infrastructure,
armed conflicts, climateinduced
disasters and forced
displacement – amounted to
$148 billion. This funding gap
is now estimated to increase by
up to one-third.
COVID-19 has laid bare our
collective failure to prioritize
education. “The pandemic has
exacerbated inequalities and
magnified the global learning
crisis. The future of an entire
generation is at risk,” warned
United Nations Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres when
launching his Policy Brief on
Education earlier this month,
“The COVID-19 pandemic has
created the largest disruption
of education systems in history.”
The number of out-of-school
children who may never set foot
in a school again is now rapidly
escalating. An estimated 30
million children and youth are
of immediate concern, according
to UNESCO’s assessment.
In a letter to the international
community, UN Special Envoy
for Global Education and Chair
of the Education Cannot Wait’s
High Level Steering Group,
the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown,
together with 275 world leaders,
politicians, academics and
civil society, calls for urgent
action to address the global
education crisis triggered by
COVID-19.
In support of the mission of
Education Cannot Wait, they
state: “We cannot stand by and
allow these young people to be
robbed of their education and
a fair chance in life. Instead
we should be redoubling our
efforts to get all children into
school – including the 260 million
already out of school and
the 75 million children affected
by protracted conflicts and
forced displacement, including
35 million children living as
refugees or internally – with
the comprehensive help they
need – and to make it possible
for young people to start or
resume their studies in school
further and higher education.”
Similarly, the Geneva Global
Hub for Education in
Emergencies, composed of UN
agencies and non-governmental
organizations, has issued
an urgent call for firm political
action to make financial investments
in education for those
left furthest behind in armed
conflicts, forced displacement
and climate-induced disasters,
calling on the international
community to “act fast and
keep recovery and preparedness
in sight.”
In the same spirit, the global
education community has
come together to Save Our
Future, a coalition composed
of the UN, the World Bank and
civil society, raising the alarm
of an entire generation at risk
due to the rapidly escalating
learning crisis, as a result of
the massive funding gap, “The
Covid-19 pandemic brought
about the biggest cataclysm
to education any of us have
seen!”
On the ground, joint programming
supported by
pooled funding keeps delivering
results. Education Cannot
Wait’s 2019 Annual Results
Report, Stronger Together in
Crisis, launched on 11 August,
illustrates that it is possible
to deliver quality education to
those left furthest behind –
provided we come together,
politically, strategically, programmatically
and financially.
As the global fund for education
in emergencies and
protracted crises, ECW’s joint
investments are rolling out
the New Way of Working and
ensuring humanitarian-development
coherence, bringing
together all partners: hostgovernments,
affected populations,
UN agencies, civil society,
private sector, the World
Bank, the Global Partnership
for Education, and the International
Facility for Financing
Education, among others.
Stronger together, we share
a sense of absolute urgency
and uncompromising commitment
to results, which is put
into action thanks to sustained
funding by our strategic donor
partners.
As a result, Education Cannot
Wait has already reached
3.5 million children and youth
since its inception. Yet, the scale
and the depth of the education
emergency in crisis-affected
countries needs to be matched
by adequate and scaled up
financial investments to end
the learning crisis for those left
furthest behind, and to swiftly
shift the course towards the
SDGs. With 20 times more
funding, the estimated 75 million
children and youth can
be reached. Indeed, financing
stands between what is possible
and what is not for these
vulnerable girls and boys.
This truly is the defining
moment in our time. There
can be no sustainable development
goals without education.
By Jonathan Smith, President of
the New York Metro Area Postal
Union, APWU
A reminder to the Postmaster
General Louis Dejoy. The United
States Postal Service has a mission
to provide prompt, reliable and
efficient service to the American
people. This mission does not exist
just during the election season,
but all year long. Your recent cuts
in service have had a damaging
impact on the delivery of mail to all
Americans. While elections are of
extreme importance, to
millions of Americans receiving
their life-saving prescriptions
through the mail in a prompt,
reliable, and efficient manner is
absolutely essential. To small businesses,
being able to conduct their
day-to-day operations knowing that
they can rely upon the prompt,
reliable and efficient service of the
Postal Service, is a major factor in
their success. To members of our
armed forces, knowing that they
will receive those life and spirit-sustaining
packages and letters from
home, no matter where they are
stationed, is paramount.
The overwhelming majority
of veterans receive their medical
prescriptions from the Veterans
Administration through the Postal
Service. The prompt, reliable and
efficient service that the post office
provides them, helps them maintain
a decent quality of life. To those
who receive unemployment checks,
dividend checks, and yes, paychecks
through the mail cannot tolerate
a slowing of the mail. These basic
services to the American people
cannot vanish after the November
3 election cycle ends.
Postmaster General Dejoy apparently
is pulling back his service
cuts temporarily. This may seem
like a victory of sorts, but until this
pull back is permanent, we have
a lot of work to do. Many of these
changes cannot be undone. There
was no commitment to return the
postal sorting machines that have
already been removed from many
mail processing facilities. While he
was careful to say that he
would return the overtime as
needed. There was no commitment
to evaluate the drastic shortage
in staffing, which is the real problem.
There was also no pledge to
return the mailboxes that have
been removed from the streets of
our cities.
Also, there has yet been no transparency
on his financial conflicts
of interest with his and his wife’s
substantial investments in postal
competitors and contractors.
PMG Dejoy has proven to us
quickly, that you cannot go by what
he says, you must watch what he
does. What needs to happen is that
the impact of the ongoing CQVID-
19 pandemic effects on Postal
operations cannot be ignored any
longer by Dejoy and Congress. He
needs to join us and lobby for the
much needed relief funds for the
Postal Service. He also needs to
rally for the
elimination of the Postal
Accountability and Enhancement
Act (PAEA), the initial culprit
behind the post office financial crisis.
It is necessary that Congress
vote for relief funds for the Postal
Service now! With both Houses of
Congress coming back into session,
now is the time for such
action. The Postal Service should
receive the $25 billion dollars that
was included in the Heroes stimulus
package that passed the House
months ago. The Senate needs to
do the same.
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