Education for All > Background Documents > Mid-Decade Meeting 1996 >
Speech
Education for All:
The Vision to be Grasped
Concluding Statement by Richard Jolly,
Special Adviser to the Administrator
of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

It is my privilege to give this final statement on behalf of the sponsoring agencies. In doing so, let me deliver to you all greetings from Mr. Gus Speth, Administrator of UNDP and his best wishes for your efforts in carrying forward the cause of education for all in every country.

This conference has had three purposes:

  • to reaffirm our commitment to the goals established in Jomtien

  • to review progress towards these goals

  • to find ways of overcoming persistent problems and confronting new challenges
    • We can be pleased, I believe, that we have made real progress on all three of these fronts. It has been a fascinating and stimulating four days, full of intense interaction. We have all learnt much. On behalf of all of us, may I thank and congratulate all who have helped organize, especially those in Amman, the steering committee, and the UNESCO secretariat, led by Mr Michael Lakin.

    And may I thank all of you who have come and by your participation and contributions have helped to make it such a lively and important interchange, in the plenaries, the commissions, the working groups and in the corridors.

    But in this final session, our task is not to rest on laurels of the last four days or even the last six years. Now is the moment to summarize our commitments and resolve for the next four years.

    WHAT HAVE WE COMMITTED OURSELVES TO DO?

    As 250 participants from governments and non-government organizations, from research institutions and universities, from donors agencies and international organisations, covering in total people from some 75 countries from all parts of the world, we have all - in the words of the communiquÈ - re-affirmed our commitment to the goals of Jomtien. We have restated the need and our intention in this communiquÈ to move forward to fulfilling the goals of Education for All - and to move forward with renewed vision and vigour.

    If Jomtien was the turning point and 1990 to 1995 the years of recovery, Jordan must now mark the point of acceleration.

    For our discussions have left no doubt about it. Over the last five years, we have done well, but over the next five we must do better. Or, as Helen Stills, President of the Jamaica Teachers Association said she would summarise it when she got back home, "We're on the right track, guys. But let's do it a little faster".

    Jomtien, we can now see, was indeed a turning point.

  • It set the goals and laid out an agenda for action.

  • Over 100 countries subsequently set their own EFA goals and developed strategies and plans to achieve them.

  • A large number of countries have expanded enrolments, bringing the goal of EFA substantially nearer in all regions.

  • Beyond the formal school system, an impressive diversity of new approaches to learning are underway, often at a gathering pace and with a new vitality.

  • School enrolments have risen by about 50 million and enrolments in the 6 to 11 year old group by some 70 million.

  • The levels of adult illiteracy have been falling in most parts of the world.

  • Notwithstanding a growth of population of some 50 million in the meantime, the number of 6 to 11 year old children out of school is less by some 20 million today than it was six years ago at the time of JOMTIEN.
    • The broad record is very impressive, even allowing for the uncertainties and weaknesses of some of the statistical data. And let me add, that all of us need to work to improve the quality and timeliness of the data, especially at country level. But in the meantime, let us not hesitate to welcome the forest which is clearly beginning to grow, through our frustrations over not knowing the precise height of every tree.

    All this considerable progress must now encourage us to be bolder. For the task ahead is still immense. Some 60 million additional children will enter the 6 to 11 year old group over the next 5 years. Even if school enrolments continue to expand at their recent impressive rates, the out of school population will still fall by only a further 20 million, and this mostly in China and Asia. By the turn of the century, the out of school population is projected to total some 85 million, coming down but only slowly in south Asia and being unchanged or even slightly rising in Latin America, the Arab States and in sub-Saharan Africa. Clearly we need acceleration if the EFA goal is to be reached.

    All of this powerfully demonstrates why we must also work towards a slowing of the rate of population growth. Population growth still adds over ten million each year to the size of the challenge we face. Education and empowerment, especially for girls and for women, is an urgent priority for the next few decades and will help greatly to slow population growth and, in turn, help slow the growth in the costs of education.

    Six Priorities for action

    Our challenges is acceleration. To set rapidly in place the further policies and actions required to achieve quality education for all. The communiquÈ and the Commission reports identity much of what is needed. Let me here underline six core priorities for action.

    First, all countries must take steps to raise the quality of schooling, for ensuring its relevance, for improving learning, for strengthening the teaching force and process.

    Here we can draw on some of the other positive developments since Jomtien. Many countries have embarked on new ways to improve the relevance and quality of learning - giving us all new examples to learn from. Commission I in this meeting has well summarized some of the specifics - and others are documented in the main report and in some of the background papers for this meeting.

    I recall my excitement in Costa Rica a few years ago when I visited a primary school with President Arias, to see in practice the pledge he had made to provide computers to half of all primary schools. He had made two conditions: that each school would have a suitable classroom, so the computers could be protected against theft; and that the class room should be open in the evening as well as during school time, so adults could use the computers. I marvelled at this practical example of bringing the frontiers of education to primary students and adults throughout Costa Rica within four years. But how can you afford it I asked? His reply - if you don't spend money on a military, you have enough in hand to afford good education for all. This is the challenge for every country - and a practical example of how saving money on the military bills can produce much of the finance required.

    Second, the gender inequalities in access to education and within education need to be rapidly ended - and education for all made a reality for girls and women.

    This is the area where in most regions of the world, least progress has been made in the goals of Jomtien. The ratio of girls to boys enrolled, the relative rates of drop out, the relative rates of continuation to higher levels of education have mostly continued with little change. This needs to be made a focus for priority action and accelerated improvement.

    And of all the areas of challenge, this is the one which can produce rapid and widespread benefits. There are many examples showing the release of energy which can follow for a school or a village, a township or even a whole country, when girls and women are given opportunities to demonstrate their skills and leadership. As the Vice President of Uganda stated so eloquently this morning, "the literacy of women is absolutely critical for development, indeed for survival".

    We have had much rhetoric on girl's and women's education since Jomtien - but not enough action and too little funding. We need a substantial increase of new funds for female education, as well as better use of existing funds.

    Third, all countries which have not yet reached the goal of education for all must accelerate the quantitative steps to achieve it.

    The latest statistics suggest that some 30 developing countries have achieved net enrolment ratios of 95 per cent or more. Another 40 or so stand between 80 and 95 per cent. And some 60 countries are below 80 per cent, 20 of them below 50 per cent.

    Those with the high net primary ratios of 95 or more are almost there - they have mostly achieved the quantitative challenge of primary schooling for all children. Their challenge is quality and relevance in the schools - and all the challenges in the rest of education.

    The forty countries with enrolment ratios from 80 to 95 should surely embark rapidly on the actions required to complete the most basic of the Jomtien goals - to ensure that all children enter school and complete a basic cycle of learning, at least of minimum quality. For most of these 40 countries, the challenge is not of first year entry but of finding ways for all children to complete the cycle without dropping out, so that they can at least get a start on the basic lifetime skills. In this respect - and it is only one, though an important one - the goal of education for all is achievable in these forty countries within a few years at most.

    The sixty countries with net enrolment ratios below 80 - including a third or so below 50 - face by far the biggest challenge. Indeed, for these countries, achieving the goals of education for all represents one of the world's biggest challenges on the eve of the next century. For to achieve the challenge will take a new level of commitment - from the governments and leaders of these countries, from their people and from the international community, donors, non-governmental organisations and international agencies. The commitment must be initiated by the people of the country concerned. But it is a commitment in the achievement of which, the whole world has a stake.

    Fourth, a new sense of priority for basic education must be established to back up these actions with the national resources required.

    Some 40 to 60 of the countries which have not yet enrolled all their children have the potential of places and teachers to do this rapidly, provided they allocate their resources better. Their priority is rapidly to undertake this reorganization and restructuring, in order to deliver on the promise of education for all in the next few years.

    Our discussions over the last three days have shown - and that wonderful report from UNESCO has shown - that many more countries may be in this position than many people realize. Of course, education requires resources. Of course, many teachers deserve to be paid better and to be given the equipment they require. This we know. But too often many of us fail to realize that most of the resource required are already there within the education system, if determined leadership, cost consciousness and ingenuity can be combined to achieve the reallocations and mobilize the additional effort required.

    Zimbabwe in the 1990s showed what could be done, Malawi more recently. Zimbabwe increased its primary enrolments three time in three years, Malawi doubled its enrolments in less than three. But combined expansion with actions to strengthen the relevance and effectiveness of basic education. I learnt in this meeting that Guinea transferred nearly 2000 teachers from secondary to primary, thereby enabling primary enrolments to be almost doubled, from a very level to having nearly half the children in school. All countries with sizable proportions, make their children out of school need to explore such options, make plans, take decisions and demonstrate the courage of leadership. And all need to root out the inefficiencies especially to make possible achieving the goal of ensuring at least a basic minimum of quality education for all.

    A particular tragedy of the 1980s and the 1990s, is that the insufficient resources and priority for education for all at national level has too often been reinforced by international economic and financial pressures. Yes, education is important but this or some other part of economic and financial reform must come first. Whatever other reforms are necessary, education for all must be part and parcel of them.

    In arguing this case with your Minister of Finance, I would offer you all a quotation from the World Bank.

    "It is intolerable that, as the world approaches the 21st century, hundreds of millions of people still lack minimally acceptable levels of education, health, and nutrition. Investing in people must therefore be the highest priority for developing countries..." Armeane Chocksi, Vice-President, The World Bank

    Fifth, the international community needs to form new alliances in support of poorer and least developed countries truly committed to the goals of education for all.

    The vision of JOMTIEN correctly set this out as a challenge for the world as a whole. The Convention on the Rights of the Child explicitly specifies in Article 28 the obligation of the 187 signatory parties to "promote and encourage international co-operation" in supporting poorer countries in achieving access to education for all children - for all children, not just for 80 or 90 per cent as Stephen Lewis said in the first panel session on Sunday. The world community needs to assist just as these countries need to strain every nerve to use their limited resources ever better to achieve these most fundamental goals.

    The basis for this has already been laid. In early May this year, the donor community in their high level meeting of DAC committed themselves to a vision for the 21st century, with the explicit goals of working with developing countries to achieve a halving of absolute poverty and primary education for all by the year 2015 at the latest. Countries need to build on this commitment, to form partnerships of long run support, linked to a national plan and strategy for moving to the EFA goals. The 20/20 guideline can also help with this process.

    The international agencies also have an important role in this process, by ensuring a priority place for education for all in international support of national efforts to reduce poverty and accelerate human development. New forms of collaboration have recently been agreed and set in motion which can help with this. Four task forces have been set up to bringing together the UN agencies, including the World Bank, in following up the commitments of All the major World Conferences of the last few years. On of the task forces focuses on Basic Services for all, chaired by Nafis Sadik, and covering education for all as well as health for all and reproductive health.

    Debt reduction for the poorest and least developed countries needs also to be pursued with new vigour. Debt service payments in most African and least developed countries take a larger share of the public expenditure each year than all forms of education. All who care about education for all need to join the chorus of protest against this distortion of priorities.

    Sixth, countries in conflict need to be helped rapidly and creatively to move towards education for all.

    Some of our biggest failures in basic education have been in countries in conflict. In many of these countries, enrolment ratios in 1990 were already low. With conflict, chaos and disruption, enrolments have often collapsed. This challenge is far from easy. Some progress is being made, especially as conflict subsides in some of these countries - and as more and more it is realized that schooling for children is part of the solution to conflict, not a luxury to await the return to "normal times".

    But as a global community and as individual policy makers, too rarely do we act upon the fact - underlined by Dr. Mayor in his opening address - that conflict prevention is cheaper than conflict control. And it is safer too!

    Such are the priorities and commitments.
    What are the benefits we will reap if these goals are achieved?

    JOMTIEN already recognized many of the benefits to be gained if only we can advance education. Most of us know the arguments - but we need to marshall them more effectively to convince those who hold the purse strings.

    The gains to young children in having their minds opened, their curiosities stirred, their confidence and skills enhanced.

    The benefits to girls of being true equality in the opportunity and challenge of schooling, and not merely left with frustrated hopes and ambitions. And without education, there is no real basis for empowerment.

    The benefits in the form of peace and stability for the whole of society, through helping to build values of understanding and community, and to help break down prejudice and suspicion even in most fraught of circumstances.

    Schools at their best can do all this. And education, formal and informal, can open opportunities and prepare the next generation for use of new technologies - so much a part of the world which will face us in the next century.

    These benefits, already recognized, have been demonstrated a thousand times over. But research in the last five years has developed yet new evidence documenting the importance of basic education for all.

  • The Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century has with fresh vision underlined the fundamental role that education will play in the coming century, identifying four pillars as the foundation of this education and stressing the "universal basic education is an absolute priority".

  • the World Bank's many studies on economic development have once again demonstrated the high returns to basic education, with the highest return of all primary education for girls.

  • UNICEF's latest report has demonstrated the vital importance of education for reducing maternal mortality

  • UNFPA's whole programme and leadership for basic social services for all has identified the central role of education for all and its critical role for ensuring equality and opportunity for women and women's empowerment

  • UNDP's forthcoming Human Development Report 1996 documents the vital importance of education for all and greater equality as the two essential factors for ensuring rapid economic growth and rapid advance in human development . Basic education for all contributes to both - as demonstrated in the historical experience of Japan and the more recent experience of rapid growth in Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and several other successful rapidly growing countries of Asia.
    • All this we have heard many times - and now we have yet new evidence to prove the case. Must wait another 10, 20 or 20 years for yet further proof before we act? Basic education for all is an essential in modern society, a key step for more rapid advance in all countries, an essential move to ensure greater development and a more just and effective society. If all this is clear, what holds us back.

    WHAT HOLDS US BACK?

    This question - what holds us back - deserves more attention than usually we give it.

    Most of us genuinely convinced. Many in our governments are convinced - from the highest level of political leadership to the most sober and well-organized of administrators and managers. And we know also that voters the world over give high value to education and good quality education for all their children. All of us as parents know that we would gladly make any sacrifice if only we could ensure a better education for our children.

    When we know all this, what is it that holds us back? I believe that political leadership, and perhaps many of us also, though genuinely convinced, get derailed by several subversive arguments and attitudes when we start to follow through.

    There are the arguments and pressures of competing priorities. A brilliant study by Myron Weiner has documented the many times this argument was used in Europe in the 19th century and since, to explain why education for all was accepted as a fundamental goal - "but should not be embarked upon just yet" Weiner concludes that the time will never seem ideal. Only when a country embarks on education for all, will education for all start to be achieved.

    There is also the argument for making incremental advance but without setting goals. Yes, we must take progress towards education for all but it is unrealistic at the present to set a date and time for its achievement. Of course, we need quality education, but we can't afford it just yet. Of course, it is a shame that many girls do not get to school but it is not realistic to expect it now. Seriously to plan for EFA is just not realistic. We need to realize that such arguments for procrastination rapidly lead to procrastination forever.

    We need to build on those national goals and strategies to set realistic dates now for achieving education for all in each country or in each district. Then we must calculate what will be required to achieve this. Once we have set our plan for EFA, we can assess how best to cope with the competing priorities, the mobilization required, the special efforts which will be needed. But as long as we procrastinate on setting the goal, we will procrastinate on its achievement.

    A third argument against moving decisively to EFA in the poorer countries relates to the different views and uncertain long run commitments of the international community. Even at Jomtien there was debate about whether or not one should set a date for the goal of education for all. Surely, it was argued, a date could only be set at country level. And of course that is correct. Ultimately, a date for each country can only be set at country level.

    But too often, to say this becomes an argument against forthright and focused international action and strong international support for country. Jim Grant himself pleaded at Jomtien for clear goals and a defined timetable for action. This was his legacy to the international community, an example demonstrated by his whole life in his leadership in UNICEF. Only when you set clear goals with a clear timetable is there the basis on which to mobilize, for which to demand support, indeed for which to demand sacrifice.

    I plead in the name of Jim Grant therefore that we each go back to our countries, or to our agencies and ask: what will it take to fulfill these commitments to education for all, by which date and with what effort and resources. We must do this country by country. Then we must work, nationally and internationally, towards its achievement.

    But we are progressing! This is one major differences from JOMTIEN in these last few days. In JOMTIEN we had our hopes for the future but we had the sobering experiences of setbacks in the 1980s. The case for realistic caution was very strong.

    The voice of caution is still strong. But now we can build on the evidence of the last five years. In some of the largest countries and in many others we have seen that accelerated advance can succeed. We have proved examples of innovative improvements in the quality or education. We have increasing numbers of countries combining sober economic and financial policies with a restructuring of priorities in order to underpin education advance. And we have more examples of community action contributing to real advance.

    Most remarkable of all, but not yet fully grasped or widely know, we have the beginnings of trends and projections for a declining number of illiterates in the world. For the first time in human history, the numbers of those without the ability to read or write is beginning to fall. This is unprecedented, almost certainly since the beginnings of mankind.

    Over the course of three millennia, and probably more, the most wise and civilized of our distant forbears have recognized the need to bring education and the skills of reading and writing to an ever larger number of people. The sages of the East, the philosophers of the ancient world, the great reformists of the enlightenment, millions of humble teachers in religious schools have all recognized the need for literacy.

    And yet in spite of many centuries of human effort, the number of illiterates in the world has run ahead of the capacity of education and teachers. But for the first time, on the eve of the next millennium, the absolute number of illiterate people in the world is beginning to decline, the number of out of school children is falling, even as our efforts to provide schooling for all expand.

    Within our grasp is the capacity to provide education for all. The goals of Jomtien have proved their worth. Let us build on the achievements of the last six years and accelerate them, over the next five and over the next fifteen. For that is what it will take. Let us return to our countries, committed and determined, utterly determined, to do all that is needed to complete the task. Thank you.