Accra, April 16, GNA - A tune was struck, the flute responded in the tropical morning sunrise with brightness and the assembly ground broke into a brisk march with the music blending, arms swung, heels hit one another and the pupils marched into their various classrooms with joy and giggles to begin their lessons.

Such was the joy of going to school in those days and in almost all schools in the villages, towns and cities; children yearned to go to school especially when they saw their play or age mates going to school whilst they were not.

So Kofi at the age of seven years, who accompanied the mother to the village market on that day seeing his friends smartly dressed to school under the captivating music; cried 93Mama, I will also go to school. Mama, take me to school, I also want to be like those children." He sustained his cries and his parents eventually had to send him to school but the fact was that Kofi and the parents lived in a farming cottage, which was about two kilometres walk through the bush path to the school. Kofi's parents had to look for someone in the town with whom Kofi could stay to attend the school.

Initially, things worked out well but along the line complications set in, Kofi got to know knows what hunger was. He had to do house chores and run errands, things he did not see in the beautiful 93we are marching to our classes".

Kofi's right to education, his own enthusiasm to go to school and his cleverness began to suffer. Thus the right of the child to education had so many limitations depending on the social standing of parents, geographical location, stability and peace in an area. Hence adults and especially politicians owe it to society to ensure that the rights of the child to education is enhanced and promoted removing all obstacles that impeded a child's right to education. No one doubts the importance of education and the often repeated axiom that the Government alone cannot provide for education is not only true but goes deeper and contains critical issues and that analysing it could continue ad infinitum since so many factors contribute to the achievement of 93Education of All" clich=E9.

With that in mind it should be right to say that success can only be achieved within a certain socio-economic environment and society as a whole has the responsibility to be involved in ensuring that this Millennium Development Goal was achieved.

UNESCO estimates that at least 80 million children are still out of school and many more are dropping out before they complete primary school and that progress needed to be accelerated 93if we are to reach the goal of having all children complete primary school by 2015". It regrets that 2007 is the midway point for the Education for All policy and at current rates of progress these are not going to be met and leaders are being requested to begin to do something about it now before it is too late.

It is in this context that the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), a non governmental organization plan to network with other civil society organizations to jointly celebrate the Global Action Week for 93Education For All" (EFA) should be seen as a practical demonstration of an organization that is willing to support the Government and society to achieve the tenets of the Dakar Declaration at the World Education Forum in 2000.

That Declaration among other things states that; 93all children, young people and adults have the human rights to benefit from education that will meet their basic learning needs=85 ensuring that by 2015 all children=85have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality."

According to Mr Michael Ansa, Coordinator of the GNECC, specific steps were being taken to celebrate this year's Global Action Week to support the Government in that respect and to add meaning to the Global theme: 93Join Up for Education Rights Now!"

He said the coalition has tasked researchers to conduct investigation into some specific areas why some schools in some particular districts could score zero in their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and that a community durbar would be held at Ankamu School Park, Gomoa on April 20, 2007 for children and parents to tell their own stories as far as education is concerned. To ensure that Ghana joins the world to celebrate the Big Chain Reaction a procession would be held from the GNAT Headquarters, Accra through the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; Ministry of Education, Science and Sports and to Parliament where the research material collected and documented in the Central Region will be presented to the Speaker of Parliament.

The research aimed at looking at the state of educational resources in the community as a way of highlighting their inadequacy in terms of access and quality. To provide explanation for some of the dismal performances registered in the BECE in some schools in the District and to help to awaken the consciences of all those who matter in civil society that in spite of the best efforts, there is much more to be done to fully elevate education to the status of a right.