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| Education for All > Background Documents > Mid-Decade Meeting 1996 > | |
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Introduction
to the Final Report of the
Mid-Decade Meeting on Education for All 1996
Six years ago at the World Conference on Education
for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand, participants
from 155 countries pledged to take the necessary
steps to provide primary education for all children
and to massively reduce illiteracy. An important
milestone in the development of education, the
Conference was organised in response to the
widespread concern over the millions of children
and adults who remain illiterate and poorly
prepared for life in their societies.
Immediately following the Conference, the
International Consultative Forum on Education for
All was set up as a mechanism to promote and
monitor progress towards Education for All (EFA)
goals throughout the 1990s. The Forum periodically
brings together senior policy-makers and
specialists from developing countries,
international and bilateral development agencies,
and non-governmental organizations and foundations.
Some 250 participants from 73 countries came
together in Amman, Jordan (16-19 June 1996), at the
Forum's mid-decade meeting to assess the results of
the Mid-decade Review of Progress towards Education
for All - an ambitious, worldwide exercise that
began early in 1995 - and to find ways of
overcoming persistent problems and confronting new
challenges.
Due to a concerted effort by education
ministries, international agencies, researchers and
educators, the Forum was presented with a very
up-to-date diagnosis of the state of basic
education in developing countries at mid-point
between Jomtien and the year 2000.
The review process itself showed that there is
widespread support for the goals and principles
embodied in the World Declaration on Education for
All and its Framework for Action, the texts adopted
in Jomtien six years ago.
"There has been significant progress in basic
education, not in all countries nor as much as it
had been hoped, but progress that is nonetheless
real," said the Forum's final communiqué,
adopted as the Amman Affirmation.
Primary school enrolment has increased: an
estimated 50 million more children are enrolled
today than in 1990. The number of out-of-school
children of primary-school age children, which had
grown inexorably for decades, is also beginning to
decline: today there are 20 million fewer
out-of-school children than at the start of the
decade.
"Jomtien indeed made a difference," said Mr
Federico Mayor, UNESCO's Director-General, speaking
on behalf of UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World
Bank, the conveners of the Forum. "Despite the
economic crises affecting so many countries in the
'90s, the downward trend of falling enrolments that
we witnessed during the '80s has been reversed."
But, the discussions revealed that much remains
to be done if the goals are to be achieved. In the
words of Ms Helen Stills, President of the Jamaica
Teachers Association: "We are on the right track,
guys, but let's do it a little faster."
For full report (76 pages)
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