The leaders of the world's eight wealthiest countries, who have gathered Okinawa, Japan, to talk about what President Clinton calls "globalisation with a human face", would do well to remember the story of two teenagers from Guinea.
A year ago, Yaguine Koita (14) and Fode Tounkara (15), set out to stowaway to Europe. They knew they were risking their lives, but wrote that at home there was not enough education or training. "We want to study and we ask that you help us study to be like you, in Africa." They reached Bamako, Mali, where they hid in the landing gear on a Sabena jet. Their note was discovered with their frozen bodies after landing in Brussels.
On July 21st, exactly a year after the boys set out on their journey, the G8 leaders have a chance to redeem themselves and a generation of empty promises on education. They can address the living crisis among the 125 million children who never see the inside of a school. In Tokyo, Timbuktu and Topeka, parents know the future of their children depends on education, but in far too much of the world, education is too remote or expensive. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of children out of school is even growing.
The solution to this problem lies within the countries themselves. They must ultimately decide that educating their citizens is a better investment than upgrading their armaments. The nations that have benefited so lavishly from globalisation must also recognise that poverty is the greatest threat to their prosperity and that they have an interest in making education for all a reality.
The G8 - the US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy and Russia - is not a representative body. But so far, the great international institutions have succeeded only in making promises. Oxfam started the Global Campaign for Education last year because we believed education is far too important to leave to the educators and education ministers who go to international conferences. Presidents and finance ministers need to be involved to have success.
We have reason to be optimistic. President Clinton has put aid to primary education on the Okinawa agenda as one of three efforts needed to allow the poorest countries and regions to share increased prosperity. The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, also supports the move for a breakthrough on school for all at Okinawa.
At a recent seminar on Education for All, our own Development Minister, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said: "Education is the bedrock of democracy and sustainable development. In a world where knowledge knows no borders in a global economy, where political tension in one region can send tremors of unease around the globe - investing in global education helps to ensure Ireland's own stability."
But we have heard promises before.
In 1945, the United Nations affirmed that education was a universal human right. In Thailand in 1990, 155 countries promised to get every child in the world by into school by 2000. In 1995, two UN conferences supported that goal but pushed the date back - to 2015.
Last year, international citizen and teacher organisations formed the Global Campaign for Education to stop the promises and demand results in the run-up to the 10-year review of the 1990 conference. We hoped the review would be short, but the reality is there are 125 million children out of school and the trend is that by the new target date of 2015, 75 million children will still be out of school.
We believe a global action plan is needed to create the additional $8 billion per year needed for a decade to achieve education for all. This amounts to about the same as four days' world spending on arms. We reckon half the money needs to come from poor countries, who have the greatest responsibility for the problem, and should prefer schools over military spending. The other half should come from the rich countries.
While they should also favour schools over military spending, they could reach the goal by increasing the share of their current international aid budgets that go towards education. Additional resources should also be committed from the World Bank and other multilateral agencies.
If, as World Bank president James Wolfensohn says, basic education is the best investment you can make in a developing country, the World Bank ought to do more lending for education. Global co-ordination is needed to ensure the resources go to where they are needed, and to governments which have also committed their own money and are prepared to use more better.
In Dakar, in April, a UNESCO and World Bank-sponsored conference, in which Ireland participated, and which reviewed 10 years of "progress", agreed that a global initiative is needed to get every child in school and reduce adult illiteracy - but not what it should be. They agreed every country should come up with a plan to get there by 2002 - but not on a worldwide effort.
The G8 must do better.
Yaguine Koita and Fode Tounkara have already died in vain. How many million more children must live in vain before the world acts?
Brian Scott is director of Oxfam Ireland