Rwanda has joined other world leaders in pledging support for a newly-established high-level commission on financing for global education that was launched on Tuesday at the Education For Development Summit held in Oslo, Norway.

The summit, which was hosted by the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, was attended by policy makers and world leaders, including President Paul Kagame, who also featured as a panelist in a session dubbed "Investment in Education”.

Other dignitaries included the prime ministers of Haiti, Niger and Pakistan; the foreign affairs ministers of Niger and Palestine, and over 10 education ministers from around the world.

According to UNESCO, there is a global financing gap of US$39 billion annually between the available domestic resources and the total needs required to ensure that all children in the world get quality education.

Rwanda’s Minister of State in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Albert Nsengiyumva, who attended the launch in Oslo, said Rwanda, which has been a model performer in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for education, welcomes the initiative.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Rwanda has one of highest enrolment levels for primary schools. The country is also one of the few countries to have gone beyond the nine-year basic education set by MDGs and now offers universal 12-year basic education.

"We are entering a new phase of education financing, where we must focus our resources on improving the quality of education and I believe the new financing commission will boost efforts of attaining that aspiration,” Nsengiyumva told The New Times by phone from Oslo.

According to Nsengiyumva, governments alone cannot manage to fill the glaring annual deficit of US$39 billion needed to finance quality education globally, the reason he hopes the new high-level commission will get support from private sector players.

"Money is needed, to not only recruit more teachers, but to also train them in order to improve the quality of education at all levels,” Nsengiyumva said.

The financing commission was flagged off by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

It is expected to invigorate global education financing and identify more effective ways to deploy resources ensuring that children are in school and learn. The commission will make recommendations to the UN Secretary General in September 2016.

During the Education for Development Summit, world leaders agreed that the financing gap for education can only be closed by a combination of increased domestic funding, more efficient use of existing resources as well as new and innovative partnerships.

The Summit also called for cooperation with civil society as well as results-oriented, well-coordinated and catalytic development aid for education financing.

"We must encourage the contribution of parents and local communities to be more actively involved in expanding access to education,” President Kagame said at the Oslo Summit.

The new post-Millennium Development Goals global agenda will be announced by the UN in September in New York, to ensure sustainability of gains made during the MDG campaign.

According to Julia Gillard, the Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), domestic spending is the most important source of financing for education, but more donor aid is needed to close the existing gap.

"Aid can play an important role and often has a catalytic impact for more and more efficient education financing,” said Gillard, adding that GPE is a central platform through which the ambitious post-2015 education agenda can be achieved.

Currently, 37 million children and youths are out of school due to conflicts, disasters, displacements and epidemics. The Summit discussed the need to review and improve global aid for education in emergencies and protracted crisis situations.

"The GPE is committed to continuing to work with key partners to develop the operational structure needed to support and fund education in emergencies and protracted crisis,” said Alice Albright, the chief executive officer of the GPE.

Rwanda has a substantial number of children that have been displaced by conflict in neigbouring countries that urgently need to return to school.

According to relief agencies working to contain the Burundian refugee crisis, at least 7,800 Burundian children in Mahama refugee camp in Kirehe District are expected to start school at the beginning of next academic year.

Rwanda is hosting over 43,000 Burundian refugees, majority of children who left schools due to political instability in their country.

The children have since been enrolled into an orientation programme, which will help acquaint them with the Rwandan education system.

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