Despite international declarations asserting that children have a basic right to free elementary and fundamental education, this essential foundation for life is denied to millions of children around the world. As the international aid organization Oxfam has observed, “No human right is more systematically or extensively violated by governments than the right of their citizens to a basic education” (Watkins 2000: 1). Currently, more than 113 million children of primary school age are not in school, while as many as 150 million may not complete their primary schooling, dropping out before they have achieved sustainable mastery of basic literacy, numeracy, and social competencies (World Bank 2002). Moreover, in a disastrous feminization of illiteracy, two-thirds of those not attending school or dropping out early are girls.

Vacillating political commitment, inadequate vision, and lack of financial resources have helped create this situation, but over the past two decades the HIV/AIDS pandemic has played a major role in sustaining it.