World News | World Pledges $4B in Push to Repair COVID's Education Damage

London, Jul 29 (AP) International governments and companies have pledged more than USD 4 billion to educate 175 million children around the world and prevent a generation's chances being blighted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The commitments came Thursday at a conference in London hosted by Britain, Kenya and funding organization the Global Partnership for Education.

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who chairs the partnership, said the donations put it on track to meet its goal of raising USD 5 billion over the next five years, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who addressed the conference alongside Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, has made girls' education a flagship project of his Conservative government, and is pushing to get 40 million more girls in school around the world by 2026.

He told conference delegates that education was “the silver bullet … that can solve virtually every problem that afflicts humanity.”

Britain has pledged 430 million pounds (USD 600 million) to the Global Partnership for Education.

But Johnson is facing criticism for slashing the U.K.'s international development budget from 0.7 per cent of national income to 0.5 per cent, cutting around 4 billion pounds (USD 5.6 billion) from projects that help the world's most vulnerable.

The government says the cut is temporary and is necessary because of the economic blow caused by the pandemic. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)