Robin Hood could send 29 million children to school

Authored by Owen Tudor, Head of the TUC’s European Union and International Relations Department and Spokesperson for Robin Hood Tax UK.

This Wednesday afternoon, the Global Partnership for Education is holding a conference in Brussels to seek contributions of US$3.5bn (£2.1bn) to pay for 29 million more children to go to school. Donor countries like the UK will be meeting with developing countries, civil society organisations like global teachers’ union Education International and ActionAid and international institutions like UNICEF, with former Australian Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard in the chair.

The TUC and British teacher unions will be calling on the UK delegate from the Department for International Development – in the past, the biggest single donor - to pledge UK funds again for what is known in the jargon as a ‘replenishment’ of the multilateral resources used to support education in developing countries, especially those undergoing conflict.

But there is a lot more that the British Government could do to support the goal of getting every child into school: it could introduce a Robin Hood Tax and, together with the 11 European countries who are already committed to its implementation, some of the money raised could be allocated to global education.

Working with our partners in the Robin Hood Tax campaign, Oxfam International and the Global Campaign for Education, we’ll be encouraging you to send a message to the UK delegation reminding them that an EU Robin Hood Tax could raise in just over a week enough money to send 17 million children to school – more than half of the Global Partnership for Education’s target. Even if you hadn’t had an education, that would be a no-brainer!

Also, please share this infographic for the global petition for a Robin Hood Tax.

Here’s what US$3.5bn from 2015 to 2018 could deliver in 66 eligible countries:

• Support the annual school cost of 29 million children in primary and lower-secondary school; 23 million will be in fragile and conflict-affected states
• Reduce the number of children not completing primary education from 7.6 million to 4.8 million (2014-2018)
• Help more girls complete primary & secondary school: increase primary completion from 74% in 2014 to 84% in 2018; increase secondary completion from 44% to 54% between 2014-2018
• Improve learning: increase of core reading and numeracy skills by 25% (from 16 to 20 million children between 2014-2018)
• Reduce drop-out rates in primary and lower secondary school by 10%
• Reduce repetition rates in primary and lower-secondary school by 10%

>>>---Send a message to politicians that a Robin Hood Tax must help fund education here--->