United Nations, Sep 27 (IANS): UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a new education initiative to make education a top global priority and boost progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education, Xinhua reported.

"Our shared goals are simple. We want children to attend primary school and to progress toward higher education that will help them succeed in life," Ban said Wednesday at the launching of the initiative -- Education First.

Education First initiative comprises three priorities -- putting every child in school, improving the quality of learning and fostering global citizenship, said UN officials.

Achieving universal primary education is part of the MDGs, a list of eight anti-poverty targets to be achieved by 2015.

Education First seeks to make a breakthrough to mobilise all partners -- both traditional and new -- to achieve universal primary education ahead of the 2015 target date for the MDGs.