Education for All

The Education for All movement took off at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990. Since then, governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and the media have taken up the cause of providing basic education for all children, youth and adults.

From Jomtien to Dakar: Ten Years of Education for All
In 1990, representatives from 155 countries and 150 organizations pledged to provide education for all by the year 2000 at the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand). Their intention was that children, youth and adults would 'benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs'. The World Declaration on Education for All thus defined a bold new direction in education. It rang the death-knell of rigid, prescriptive education systems and ushered in an era where flexibility could thrive. From now on, education would be tailor-made, adapted to the needs, culture and circumstances of learners. The decision to review progress a decade later was taken in Jomtien.

The World Education Forum 2000
The Education for All decade culminated at the World Education Forum (26-28 April 2000, Dakar, Senegal) which adopted the Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments. This document commits governments to achieving quality basic education for all by 2015, with particular emphasis on girls' schooling and a pledge from donor countries and institutions that 'no country seriously committed to basic education will be thwarted in the achievement of this goal by lack of resources'.

The biggest review on education in history
The Dakar Framework for Action draws on the results of the global EFA 2000 Assessment involving more than 180 countries. Launched in 1998, this global exercise was the most comprehensive study ever made of basic education. It was carried out by national teams assisted by ten regional advisory groups, comprising UN agencies the World Bank, bilateral donor agencies, development banks and inter-governmental organizations.

Preliminary results were debated at five regional preparatory conferences and a special gathering of the nine high-population countries (E9) between December 1999 and February 2000 (in Johannesburg, South Africa; Bangkok, Thailand; Cairo, Egypt; Recife, Brazil; Warsaw, Poland; and Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic). National assessments were complemented by 14 thematic studies on educational issues of global concern, surveys on learning achievement and the conditions of teaching and learning, as well as twenty case-studies.

The findings
The assessment revealed a mixed scorecard. The number of children in school soared (from 599 million in 1990 to 681 million in 1998) and many countries were approaching full primary school enrolment for the first time. On the other hand, some 113 million children were out of school, discrimination against girls was widespread and nearly a billion adults mostly women were illiterate. The lack of qualified teachers and learning materials was the reality for too many schools.
While the donor community was criticized for dwindling aid commitment, some countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil and Egypt were earmarking close to 6 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) for education. For some African countries, education absorbs up to a third of the national budget, although several of them spend as much on debt repayment as on health and basic education combined.

Disparities in quality were also widespread. Over-conservative systems were out of touch with young people's needs, in sharp contrast with the plethora of initiatives that successfully adapted learning to local needs or reached out to marginalized populations. New media and virtual networks had also started to shake the dust off education systems.

Looking ahead
There are daunting challenges ahead: how to reach out with education to HIV/AIDS orphans in regions such as Africa where the pandemic is wreaking havoc; how to offer education to the ever-increasing number of refugees and displaced people; how to help teachers acquire a new understanding of their role and how to harness the new technologies to benefit the poor. And probably the most daunting challenge of all in a world with 700 million people living in forty-two highly indebted countries how to help education overcome poverty and give millions of children a chance to realize their full potential.

The Dakar Framework for Action gives the international community an opportunity to redefine education strategies to cope with the legacy of the 1990s and to help learning keep up with the pace of change.

Some interesting Regional Facts:

AFRICA

• In Kenya, new government regulations have made education free, allowing 1.3 million more children to go to school in 2003.
• Tanzania, like Kenya, has made education free, enrolling an additional 1.6 million children into school.
• Studies from West Africa report that, due to the effect of AIDS on teachers, 119,000 school-age children in Côte d'Ivoire received no education in 1997/98.
• An estimated 860,000 children lost their teachers to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in 1999.

ARAB STATES

• The ratio of students to teachers has been rising in recent years, to a regional average of 25 students per teacher.
• In Iraq, nearly one in four children age 6-12 is not in school.
• In Afghanistan, since the fall of the Taliban in 2002, an estimated 3 million children now attend some form of school, the vast majority at the primary level.
• The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar have committed to making major improvements to their educational systems, including increased teacher training and the construction or repair of schools.

SOUTH ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

• Of the world's 862 million illiterate adults, 61 per cent live in India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• Throughout most of China, primary education enrollment rates are as high as 97 per cent.
• There are 1.5 million girls out of school in Bangladesh.
• Although enrollment rates for boys and girls are equal in Cambodia, only 38 per cent of girls complete at least four years of schooling.

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

• Countries such as Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria have 95 per cent primary-school enrollment rates.
• In Turkey, one in eight girls is not in school.
• While Turkmenistan's overall enrollment rate is reported to be around 95 per cent, enrollment rates are declining and drops-outs are on the rise.
• Although 98 per cent of Kazakhstan is literate, primary-age children face major teacher and supply shortages.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

• In Haiti, a vast majority of childrenabout 65 per centdo not attend school; the country's adult literacy rate is less than 50 per cent.
• About 80 per cent of primary-age children are in school in Nicaragua; however, only 29 per cent complete primary school.
• Although Jamaica claims a high enrollment rate, nearly 30 per cent of boys are functionally illiterate by the time primary school ends.
• In Cuba, Belize, Brazil, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina and Mexico, 100 percent of children are enrolled in primary school.