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Skriven 2006-04-24 23:33:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0604243) for Mon, 2006 Apr 24
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the UNESCO Education for All Week Luncheon
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
April 24, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the UNESCO Education for All Week Luncheon
Blair House
Washington, D.C.



11:41 A.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, Secretary Spellings, for the very kind introduction,
and for the great work that you're doing for young people.

I also want to thank Ambassador Ensenat and the State Department for
hosting this event. Learning -- whether it's about other cultures and
countries, or about ourselves -- is at the heart of diplomacy. So I
appreciate your bringing us together today to discuss how we can better
educate the world's children.

I'd also like to acknowledge UNESCO's Assistant Director General for
Education, Peter Smith. Peter, thank you so much for joining us today. And,
of course, I want to thank all of Your Excellencies, the very distinguished
ambassadors who are here with us. We're joined today by all of the female
ambassadors here in Washington, and I knew there was a reason Ambassador
Ensenat was looking so sharp. (Laughter.) So thank you, ambassadors. Thank
you for coming, and for your commitment to education.

We're also joined by a number of people that I've known since my husband
was governor, as we've worked on reading issues, first in Texas and then in
the United States. Some experts in literacy are here with you today. I
think maybe everyone has at least one expert on literacy at their table, so
I hope you'll get to know them and talk to them.

As the Honorary Ambassador of the United Nations Literacy Decade, I'm happy
to be with you to mark the beginning of Education for All Week, and to talk
about why Every Child Needs a Teacher.

All of us can remember the teachers who made a difference in our lives.
Margaret just told us about her Ms. Brown. My favorite was my second grade
teacher, Ms. Gnagy. I wanted to grow up and be just like her. And I did, so
I became a teacher, and then a librarian. And I was with her last week in
Midland, Texas, when I was out there when the George Bush childhood home
was dedicated, the home that President George Bush Number 41, as we call
him, and President Bush Number 43 and Governor Jeb Bush from Florida all
lived in in the 1950s. It was a house the Bushes bought in 1951. And while
I was there, my second grade teacher, Ms. Gnagy, was there at the luncheon,
and George's second grade teacher, Ms. Watson, was there, as well.
(Laughter.) So that's so fun to have this long history with teachers that
meant so much to us.

I know that who we are today, all of us, every one of us in this room, who
we are is because of teachers that we had throughout our lives. Many
children across the globe, though, are growing up without teachers and
without any hope for a formal education. Around the world, more than 100
million children do not have access to schools. The situation is especially
serious in Africa, where HIV/AIDS is devastating the teaching population.

Training more teachers is vital to UNESCO's goal of making sure every child
has access to a basic, quality education by 2015. This is important for
every country, but especially for developing countries, where limited
resources often mean that the neediest children are not educated. We have
to make sure that all children -- boys and girls, rich and poor -- have
access to a good education.

One of the best ways we can improve educational opportunities for all is by
spreading literacy. And one of the most important reasons every child
should have a teacher is so that every child can learn to read.

There's no such thing as a quality, basic education for a person who cannot
read or write. Reading is the bedrock on which the entire mind is built --
one book, one essay, one instruction manual at a time. And reading doesn't
just allow people to enjoy literary treasures. It allows them to become
entrepreneurs, or engineers, or lawmakers, or doctors. In villages around
the world, mothers who read can then teach their children how to read.
Literate mothers can also participate in their economies, and they can earn
a living for themselves and their families. So widespread literacy isn't a
luxury for healthy societies -- it's a basic requirement.

Across the globe, more than 800 million people are illiterate. Eighty-five
percent of them live in just 34 countries, concentrated in regions affected
by poverty. And more than two-thirds of the 771 million adults who cannot
read a simple book, or write a basic sentence, are women.

I've visited many countries around the world, and I've seen how efforts to
expand literacy are improving lives, especially for women and girls.

Last year, I visited the Women's Teacher Training Institute in Kabul, which
was established through a partnership between the government of Afghanistan
and USAID. At the Institute, which is also a dorm so that women who come in
from the provinces to study have a safe place to live, women are then
trained to be teachers. Then they go home and they train more teachers in a
cascading effect with an attempt to train about 6,000 teachers in a very
short amount of time so that the schools in Afghanistan, as they're being
rebuilt, will have teachers.

In January, I was in Ghana, at the Accra Teacher Training College. Ghana is
participating in the Textbooks and Learning Materials Program. As part of
the program, six American universities, minority-serving universities, have
partnered with six African countries to produce and distribute 15 million
primary school textbooks -- that would be kindergarten through eighth grade
textbooks -- for African students. The Textbook program is part of
President Bush's African Education Initiative, a $600 million commitment
that's already helped to train more than 300,000 teachers in sub-Saharan
Africa.

And these textbooks, in the Textbook program, will be published in Africa.
They'll be written with the help of these U.S. universities, with African
educators, so that the books are Africa-centric, they're traditional, they
talk about things that children who are studying them know about and live
with every day.

Then, last month in Pakistan, I met with teachers and students involved in
UNESCO and Children Resources International programs that improve teacher
training and promote family literacy. I talked with Mehnaz Aziz, the
Pakistan country director for Children's Resources International. Mehnaz
shared with me how over the last three years, CRI has been training
teachers in new methodologies. Before, teachers lacked instructional
materials, and they used rote memorization and corporal punishment. Now
they have money for school buildings, teaching aids and materials, and
children can learn through drama and art.

Mehnaz also told me that before, parents had little involvement with their
children's schools. But now mothers were coming, Mehnaz said. "It's one of
the big changes. Reading -- the mothers are also learning, reading books,
and reading with their children."

Teaching people to read and write is about more than just improving
literacy skills. Another Pakistani educator, Fakhira Najib, said to me,
"The students aren't just learning reading and writing. They're curious
now." These are just some of the examples of the difference a commitment to
education and literacy is making worldwide. These strides come at such an
important time, as we witness a tide of freedom spreading across the globe.
This is not a coincidence. Literacy and freedom are inseparable.

Literacy is the foundation of personal freedom. Being able to read, and
choosing what we read, is how we shape our beliefs, our minds, and our
characters. Reading brings self-reliance and independence. For many women
and their children, literacy can even mean the difference between life and
death. A mother who can read can understand the label on a food container.
She knows how to follow the instructions on a bottle of medicine. She's
more likely to make wise decisions about her life that will keep her and
her children healthy.

Literacy is the foundation of economic freedom. Free markets require
informed consumers, and that means consumers who can read. Wider literacy
also increases economic participation, which leads to more stable and
vibrant economies. When we launched the U.N. Literacy Decade in New York,
we were joined by a woman from the Philippines, Pampay Usman. Growing up,
Pampay didn't have the opportunity to go to school. And although she
couldn't read or write, she was able to manage a small market. You can
imagine how hard and frustrating her work was, because she couldn't write
down the names of her customers, or the goods they bought. She had to
remember their faces, and every item they purchased.

The day Pampay joined an adult literacy class in her village, her life
changed forever. She learned to write her name and address. She learned to
read prices on groceries, and her business grew. Pampay is an example of
how teaching one woman to read can lead to greater prosperity for herself
and for the others who depend upon her.

Literacy is also the basis of political freedom. Around the world, more and
more countries are embracing democracy and liberty. But for people to
participate in a democracy, they have to be educated about their country's
laws and traditions, which means they have to be able to read.

We saw this last October, when millions of copies of Iraq's draft
constitution were printed and distributed to voters. Millions of Iraqis
read their proposed charter, and then braved the threat of violence to cast
their ballots. They risked their lives for a written document, language
that enshrines their rights, and charts their future course for their new
democracy.

Literacy improves the lives of mothers and children. Literacy boosts
economies. And literacy helps people make good, informed decisions about
their health.

Today, I'm delighted to announce that this September, during the opening of
the 61st session of the U.N. General Assembly, we'll convene a Conference
on Global Literacy in New York. Working in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Education, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for
International Development, and UNESCO, the United Nations Scientific and
Cultural Organization, we'll be looking at literacy programs that work, and
connecting countries with the information they need to implement similar
programs. The Conference will also encourage leaders from around the world
to become involved in literacy in their own countries, and then to learn
ways to support UNESCO's goal of Education for All by 2015.

This week, as we work to make sure that Every Child Has a Teacher, it's
important to remember that we're all teachers. A person who's never stood
by a blackboard still teaches by example. By demonstrating our commitment
to literacy, we can let millions of people know that reading and writing
are important.

So thank you for having me here today. Thank you for your commitment to
education. And I hope I'll see you at the Conference in New York in
September. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

END 11:55 A.M. EDT

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