Diplomats praise move to give children a chance

Dubai: With 'Dubai Cares' targeting primary education throughout the world, community figures in Dubai highlighted the importance for countries to work together to give children the opportunity to go to school.

Ebrahim Hafez, Egyptian consul general, described the initiative as significant and is keen to know which countries will be picked to benefit from the donations. According to Hafez around 6,000 schools need to be built in Egypt.

According to the General Consul of Chad, 99 per cent of girls in his country do not graduate from high school. "This initiative is very important because it concerns everyone," said Abdulkarim Abdullah Oubey.

Primary education

Bangladesh has placed education at the top of its agenda, according to consul general Mohammad Hye, with the government spending a greater proportion of the annual budget on primary education than any other sector.

"We hope that by 2010 we will have 100 per cent of children attending school," he said.

- With additional inputs from Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter