DHAKA: The World Cup soccer which kicks off on June 11 will dedicate its first goal to the noble global cause of education for all, a UN-designated recipe that largely failed to catch up with the target time.    

Organizers say the plan is to draw world leaders’ attention to the Education for All (EFA) programme.

Education campaigners informed that a total of 75 million children across the world do not have chance to go to school. So a breakthrough is needed through creating mass awareness about taking the universal goal forward.

World Cup, organized by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), is the world’s largest sporting event with over three billion fans around the world watching the extravaganza.

Taking the opportunity of the fantastic event, Campaign For Popular Education (CAMPE), Bangladesh Football Federation and Grameen Phone have jointly come up for EFA campaigning titled “1GOAL”.
 
“1GOAL is a campaign seizing the power of football to ensure that education for all is a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,” said Rasheda K. Chowdhury, Executive Director of CAMPE, at a press briefing at a city hotel Saturday.

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE), an international civil-society movement, is coordinating “1GOAL Campaign”, and as part of the campaign, CAMPE also has taken up various programmes in Bangladesh.

“We will arrange the screening of the opening match of the World Cup 2010 in three stadiums-- Bangabandhu, Mirpur and Sultana Kamal Krira Complex-- in the city and all district headquarters on 11 June,” She said.

Rasheda, an adviser of the past caretaker government, also informed that the main objectives of the campaign are to achieve a big breakthrough on EFA in 2010 by creating massive awareness regarding the issue by mobilizing the mass people as well as policymakers and making the campaign better and more nationally focused to reach the goalpost by 2015 for achieving EFA.

Syed Tahmeed Azizul Huq, Head of Corporate Communications Division, and Monjur Hossain Malo, Vice-President of Bangladesh Football Federation, were present at the press briefing.

BDST: 1320 HRS, May 29, 2010
RT/LY/MUA