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Background
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Education for All –
An International Concern
Until the late 1980s, developing and donor countries viewed the promotion of basic education as a national issue, to be managed from the country's own resources. It had very low priority in development cooperation.
However, the critical situation in the education sector in most developing countries forced a rethink: school enrolment rates had fallen to almost one third by the end of the 1980s in some developing countries, and around 50 per cent of children were breaking off their education during the first four years of primary school. The number of illiterate adults hovered at around one billion.
Today, education is recognised as a public good. The international community agrees that human development is impossible without education. Promoting education has therefore been made one of the key objectives of international development.
1990 World Conference on Education for All
The critical situation in the education sector in developing countries prompted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to organise the first World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand in March 1990. Participants adopted the World Declaration "Education for All" (EFA) and a "Framework for Action", in which they pledged, among other things, to provide universal access to primary schools by the year 2000, to improve the quality of primary education and to reduce adult illiteracy rates by around 50 per cent compared to 1990 figures. These targets follow on directly from the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2000 World Education Forum in Dakar
The World Education Forum took place in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000. The international community was forced to admit that it was a long way off from achieving the goal of "Education for All". There were still some 875 million people who could not read or write, and some 113 million children who had no opportunity to attend school.
The 164 countries that took part adopted a new action plan (the Dakar Framework for Action), which essentially took over the targets that had already been adopted in 1990, and set a new deadline for their realisation in 2015.
The "Education for All – Fast Track Initiative" (EFA-FTI) was launched in 2002. It contains a plan for the accelerated implementation of the targets referring to primary schools in those countries that are committed to pursuing an active educational policy but lack the resources to implement it.
Every year UNESCO publishes a Monitoring Report documenting progress made and problems encountered in the implementation of the Dakar objectives. The most recent Report contains a list of 29 countries that will probably not achieve the goals of universal primary education, the elimination of gender disparities in the school system and the abolition of adult illiteracy by 2015.
The goal of eliminating gender disparities worldwide by 2005 was not achieved. Equality between girls and boys in primary and secondary education was only registered in 59 of the 176 countries surveyed. There continue to be great disparities in Arab states, in countries in South and West Asia, and in sub-Saharan Africa, where girls continue to suffer great discrimination.
Follow-up conferences
The Dakar objectives were reaffirmed at the Millennium Conference in September 2000. The second and third Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (universal primary education, gender equality) have a direct bearing on the education sector. Education is also a prerequisite for achieving the other MDGs, for instance reducing by half the number of people living in poverty (MDG 1) and environmental sustainability (MDG 7).
The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in September 2002 reaffirmed the applicability of the international development goals in the education sector. The UN was called on to declare a "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development". The UN General Assembly thereupon declared the period between 2005 and 2014 the "Education Decade" in an attempt to make progress in achieving the goals set by the international community in the education sector.
In spring 2009, the World Conference "Education for Sustainable Development" was held in Bonn as part of this UN Decade. More than 700 participants from 150 countries attended the conference.
Information
See also
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- World Bank Group
External links
- World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien
- World Declaration on Education for All
- Education for All – Fast Track Initiative (EFA-FTI)
- World Education Forum in Dakar
- Dakar Framework for Action
- UN Millennium Development Goals
- World Conference Women 2000 in New York
- Genoa Summit
- World Summit for Children
- Education for Sustainable Development (United Nations Decade)
