Education spending in Moldova gets largest GDP share in the region, global report

The 2010 “Education for All” Global Monitoring Report, launched on January 19 in New York, mentions Moldova among the countries that have an “Education for All” National Action Plan, and rank it the 56th out of 128 countries, with an Education Development Index (EDI) of 0.959, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a press release from the Moldovan Ministry of Education. The 2010 Report, themed “Reaching the Marginalized”, mentions Moldova among the 37 countries in the world whose National Development Plans include EFA goals. The Report's regional analysis of progresses and challenges of the Central and East European countries shows Moldova as the country that allocated to education the largest share of GDP – 7.3 percent. The country that ranked first according to EDI is Norway (0.995). EDI includes the following components: primary enrollment ratio; adult literacy rate; gender specific index; and survival rate to grade 5. The 2010 “Education for All” Global Monitoring Report was launched at the United Nations Headquarters by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO director. The report assesses the impact of the global financial crisis on education, charts advances in education over the past decade, and presents solutions to include marginalized children in education. The Report also urges rich countries and the Group of 20 to scale up the concessional aid required to avoid damaging budget adjustments in the poorest countries.