The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth

Part of Royal Assent – in the House of Commons at 5:23 pm on 20 March 2008.

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Photo of Meg Munn Meg Munn Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) 5:23, 20 March 2008

The Commonwealth is not the "British" Commonwealth, so it would be for a range of countries to take a view on that. If Ireland wished to apply, it would be to the Commonwealth secretariat. I am sure that Ireland would meet the criteria, and that if it did want to apply, we would have not objection. We are keen for countries that meet the criteria to join; for example, I shall talk about Rwanda later.

The Government will be spending £8.5 billion on education globally by 2015. At present, about two thirds of our bilateral spending on education is in Commonwealth countries. At the end of 2007, the Government announced a new package of support for education in Nigeria, totalling £106 million. Overall, the Government are providing £50.8 million to support scholarships and study awards over the next three years, increasing our funding to £17.5 million per annum by 2011-12.

In Commonwealth countries, the number of primary-age children out of school dropped by 18 million between 2000 and 2005, but 30 million primary-age children still remain out of school, of whom 17 million are girls. We should be extremely concerned about that. At CHOGM in Kampala, the Heads of Government committed to redoubling their efforts to deliver education for all: to enrol the 30 million children now out of school, to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, and to strengthen education systems in countries affected by conflict. The UK will continue to support the Commonwealth in meeting educational aspirations. I am sure that all hon. Members agree that support for children of primary age is particularly important, because if children are not educated at that age they will have no hope of taking a scholarship later on.