Letters: Effective aid

Your article (“£1bn of aid fails to teach basics”, 18 May) criticised the Department for International Development’s (DfID) efforts in getting children to achieve basic literacy and numeracy in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania, following an independent report out on Thursday.

The Global Campaign for Education UK (GCE UK), a coalition of international development organisations and teachers’ unions, although wishing to see learning outcomes for children in these counties improved dramatically, would like to acknowledge the important role the UK government has played in getting millions more children into school in east Africa and other parts of the developing world.

GCE UK is working closely with DfID to increase the quality of education in the poorest parts of the world and welcomes the report, as it will provide extra impetus for that. It must not be a trade-off between quality and quantity. We need a mobilisation of financial resources, both domestically and globally. DfID needs to ensure its investments are effective, working with communities to help them monitor what is happening is an essential element that DfID should prioritise.

Joseph O’Reilly

Global Campaign for Education UK

St Johns Lane

London