16 Amendments of Dominique BILDE related to 2021/2209(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the lack of adequate national regulations and strategies, as well as the lack of trained professionalsthe growing insecurity in some regions including those in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, inadequate national budgets affected in some cases such as in the Sahel by increasing security and military expenditures, as well as the lack of trained professionals across all national territories and rural areas in particular, of the necessary infrastructure and safe conditions and of proper equipment and facilities, are barriers to quality education in several developing countries;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that in the Sahel in particular, jihadist violence has led to school closures, with ‘the number of school closures in Central Sahel [having] increased sixfold between April 2017 and December 2019 due to the fact that attacks on schools, teachers and pupils are becoming increasingly common’, and that ‘over eight million children aged 6 to 14, around 55% of this age bracket, are out of school’1a; __________________ 1a‘Les violences au Sahel ont un “impact dévastateur” pour les enfants’ Agence Télégraphique Suisse, 28 January 2020.
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Also emphasises the impact that Islamist ideology and Islamist terrorism have had on education and effective access to a comprehensive, quality education, affecting in particular but not only girls, notably owing to the fact that these armed groups oppose ‘education they perceive as secular or “Western”’1b and, in Sahel, education in French1c; __________________ 1bThe worsening impact on children of conflict in the Tillabéri region of Niger, Amnesty International, 2021 1c‘Since the beginning of the conflict, ISGS has targeted what they believe is secular or “Western” education. They have burned schools and attacked and threatened teachers and other education officials, prompting massive school closures.’ The worsening impact on children of conflict in the Tillabéri region of Niger, Amnesty International, 2021
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Takes note of the fact that Africa’s population will double by 2050 and that a majority of the current population is under the age of 25; underlines that young people are the most valuable assets for Africa to boost the continent’s economic development; and innovation in particular, but also to cater for the needs of a number of critical sectors, such as the agricultural sector in particular, which employs more than 60% of the population in West Africa1d; __________________ 1d‘In a region where 60% of people are employed in agriculture, the political weight of bottom-up, farmer-driven alliances should not be under-estimated.’ The added value(s) of agroecology: unlocking the potential for transition in West Africa, Mamadou Goïta and Emile Frison, IPES Food, July 2020
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Emphasises that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the existing vulnerabilities in social services in Africa, in particular in the field of education, has highlighted the need for rural electrification and connectivity and that, moreover, the insecurity stemming from Islamist terrorism has led to the closure of many schools, in particular in rural areas in Mali and in the Sahel, further exacerbating existing imbalances;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Acknowledges that education is a cross-cutting issue relevant to all dimensions of sustainable development; points out that education is also a tool to empower young peopleinform, train, teach and empower young people, particularly with a view to filling current and future recruitment needs, and to support sustainable economic growth in Africa, and that in the long term, it indirectly paves the way to eradicating poverty;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines that access to comprehensive, quality education for all must be ensured regardless of socio- economic status, cultural background, religion and the rural- urban divide; notes the particular importance of supporting girls in accessing quality education and of addressing the issue of girls dropping out of school at an early stage, particularly in cases where it is for cultural or religious reasons;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Stresses that the issue of girls dropping out of school at an early stage must be addressed jointly with the issue of child marriages, which is one of the main causes of such drop-outs, as in Niger for example, ‘76% of girls married before the age of 18 and 28% married before the age of 15’ and ‘child brides are often deprived of their rights to health and education’1f; emphasises that according to former Nigerian President Mahamadou Issoufou, the high rate of child marriages results in particular from a ‘misinterpretation of Islam’1g; __________________ 1fThe worsening impact on children of conflict in the Tillabéri region of Niger, Amnesty International, 2021 1ghttps://www.bbc.com/afrique/region- 50101538
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Stresses that, particularly in sub- Saharan Africa, to the extent of their capabilities and drawing on measures implemented in other countries like Morocco to compensate teachers and school directors working in remote areas, developing countries need to develop innovative strategies, and in particular introduce incentives, to close the gap in education between rural and urban areas, so that rural areas receive enough teachers who are equally as qualified as those in urban areas;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated education funding gaps, adding up to one third to the annual funding gap and reaching USD 200 billion, and that some African countries also have no choice but to allocate an increasing share of their national budget to military and security expenditures to combat Islamist terrorism, to the detriment of other sectors such as education, which is nevertheless crucial for long-term development1 ; __________________ 1 https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-warns- funding-gap-reach-sdg4-poorer-countries- risks-increasing-us-200-billion-annually
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers that in the context of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, particular efforts must be undertaken to invest in well-trained teachers in order to equip children with skills which are relevant to the job market in their own country;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission to establish a road map to provide technical assistance in the education sector, together with Member States, to developing partner countries in order to draw up proper national regulations and strategies, and to share best practices in this context, especially in connection with international organisations working in this field, such as the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie in particular;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to take the absorption capacities of partner countries into account in the context of increased funding for education; emphasises the need to engage with reliable local partners, particul in the implementation of education funding, where necessarly with local faith-based organisations, in the implementation of education funding. faith-based organisations such as the Catholic Church, provided that these organisations help offer comprehensive educational programmes that do not focus solely on religious education and that they are not promoting fundamentalist ideologies, such as Islamist fundamentalism in particular, bearing in mind that some Islamist groups, in the Sahel in particular, have made it clear that they wish to replace the national education programmes of the countries in question with almost exclusively religious-based, Koranic in this case, teaching;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to contribute to the pooling of resources and expertise in developing countries, in particular in conjunction with existing, recognised international initiatives such as the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie's francophone initiative for distance training of teachers1h; __________________ 1h https://www.francophonie.org/formation- des-instituteurs-ifadem-12
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Calls on developing countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel, to strengthen the security of schools, especially in areas of armed conflict, and to implement specific strategies for the education of internally displaced children, and calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure that aid is better targeted at these populations and these issues.