CONCLUSION

The participants at the Jomtien World Conference on Education for All in 1990 could not have anticipated the events of the 1990s:

• Conflicts and natural disasters have multiplied in number.
• Some regions have seen endemic conflict or recurrent natural disasters.
• Persistent poverty has undermined social cohesion and led to ethnic tensions.
• Epidemics such as AIDS have created new types of emergency.

The widespread outbreaks of civil conflict above all have made Education for All a distant prospect for many populations, contrary to the hopes of Jomtien. Educational infrastructure, both physical and institutional, has been damaged or destroyed in many countries. Many girls and boys, women and men have been displaced and traumatised, and also deprived of their education or the opportunity to teach. In many places, conflicts and their consequences have become the greatest barrier to EFA.

EFA policy for the next decade must therefore focus more strongly on the prevention of conflict and on restoration of the right to education to children affected by conflict and disaster.

EFA policy for the next decade must recognise that education in emergency is education for development and conflict prevention and can be the opportunity for educational transformation.

EFA policy for the coming decade must include the development of norms and standards for education in complex emergencies and post-emergency situations.

EFA policy for the next decade requires inter-agency co-operation and co-ordination, at international and field level, to restore access to education in emergency situations and to help governments and communities to rebuild their education systems with a focus not merely on bricks and mortar but on curriculum, textbooks, teacher education, community participation and the use of new technologies, to lay the foundations for a Culture of Peace for the new millenium.