A convention on the Rights of a Child in 1989 and the World Declaration on Education For All in 1990 reaffirmed education as a human right and indicated a new environment of international cooperation. Unfortunately, these promises have not been lived up. Gene B. Sperling affirms in, “The Case for Universal Basic Education for the World's Poorest Boys and Girls,” that one of the “silent killers” attacking the developing world is the lack of quality basic education for large numbers of the poorest children in the world’s poorest countries. We know what tools are needed and what models are proven to work. We also know that the cost improving the education enrollment in these countries is somewhere around $7.5 billion to $10 billion per year.
Getting children into school is only part of the education battle; we must also ensure they learn once they are there. “Educating the world: how to get pupils in developing countries to learn,” by Howard White emphasizes that overcrowded classrooms, poorly qualified teachers and lack of teaching materials create a poor learning environment, exacerbated by uncontrollable absenteeism among both pupils and their teachers. Figure 1 shows the circumstances and environment in which some children in developing countries are supposed to be able to learn