UNESCO - Education for All - Background Documents - Mid-Decade Meeting 1996

Education for All > Background Documents > Mid-Decade Meeting 1996 >

Education for All: Are countries on the right track?

In 1990, 155 nations pledged to provide basic education to all children and massively reduce adult illiteracy before the end of the decade. Six years later, a majority of nations are on track to achieve the goals.

Since the World Conference on Education for All, a large number of countries have improved school enrolment, and taken steps to boost quality and learning outcomes. "Considerable practical as well as political momentum has been mobilized behind the cause, despite an unfavourable economic situation in most countries," said Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO.

The emerging picture

The Education for All Forum, an inter-agency watchdog that monitors progress, has taken a "snapshot" of basic education in the world today. The photo is built up from a country-by-country review, from case-studies on interesting education experiences and from seven regional seminars.

That photo shows that most developing countries, struggling against heavy odds, are surmounting the phase of educational decline, decreasing school enrolment, and growing school drop-out numbers, which prevailed in the 1980s. Despite unchecked population growth, economic recession and a stifling debt burden, the 1990s may prove to be a decade of educational recovery.

Significant progress towards education for all has been made in all regions of the world. The number of children attending primary school in developing countries jumped by some 50 million in the past five years, from 496 million in 1990 to 545 million in 1995. Today, four out of five children aged 6 to 11 go to school. For the first time in many years, the number of school-age children who work in factories and fields, or live on the streets of large cities rather than attending school, is actually declining.

"What countries have achieved over the past five years is the answer to those who believe that world gatherings only produce fancy declarations and no action, and that there are only disasters to report from the developing world," said Mayor.

There has also been some, but less spectacular, progress in world literacy: the estimated literacy rate among adults has increased from 75 per cent in 1990 to 77 per cent today. Most of the progress has been in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab States.


This man in Nicaragua is getting a second chance to learn how to read and write. Since 1990, great efforts have been made to educate the world's some 885 million illiterate adults. (UNESCO/Ministry of Education in Nicaragua)

But certainly not all news is good. The progress in enrolments has, in many countries, masked continuing problems of poor quality, low learning achievement, and unequal opportunities for rural children, indigenous populations, and the urban poor. Also, despite some progress in reducing the gender gap, most nations still have to try harder to educate their women and girls: while 84 per cent of men know how to read and write, only 71 per cent of women are literate. The gender gap is most pressing in the Arab States, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

South Asia

Since 1990, many South Asian countries have increased their education budget, and steady progress is being made: the number of children between 6 and 11 years old with a place in school increased from 131 million in 1990 to 153 million in 1995. But rapid population growth has outstripped much of the gains and universal access to education remains elusive: there are an estimated 37 million children still out of school, eight out of ten are girls.

"Had the school-age population remained at the level it reached in 1980, universal primary education would already have been achieved in nearly all countries," says a document prepared for the mid-decade review in the region. Progress in adult literacy is patchy: data indicate that the number of literates has increased in only three countries: Bhutan, Iran and Sri Lanka.

Despite the problems, a number of countries have taken concrete steps towards Education for All: India doubled its budget allocations for education from 1991/92 to 1995/96 and is overhauling its education system by decentralizing, shifting planning and authority from the state to district and local levels. Bangladesh is involved in an enormous effort to provide free textbooks to all pupils in Grades 1 to 5 and, to boost girls' enrolment, has established a policy that 60 per cent of new teachers must be women. In Nepal, 300 new schools will be opened during the next ten years in areas where girls' enrolment is lowest and scholarships will be given to encourage girls to attend school. Pakistan has revived its mosque schools, making them secular as well as religious places of learning.

Some countries, especially those coming out of devastating wars, have not been able to make progress. In strife-torn Afghanistan, for example, it is estimated that 2,000 teachers have been killed and several thousands more forced to flee their schools and homes. In 1993, only twelve out of twenty-eight provinces had access to textbooks and only an estimated 20 per cent of children entered first grade.

East Asia and the Pacific

Considerable progress has been made towards universal primary education in East Asia, with almost 90 per cent of all school age children enrolled in primary school. Gender disparities in educational access are relatively minor at primary school level, but women's literacy is still far behind that of men: 90 per cent of all men are literate, compared with only 76 per cent of women.

What is perhaps most interesting about this region is the creative way that new technologies are being used to reach those whom the classical education system never reached. While the potential of media is far from being fully exploited, most countries have taken concrete steps to involve the media in education. The Republic of Korea is opening thirty television channels for educational purposes while Mongolia has launched a distance education programme for nomadic women through the use of radio. The Philippines is using radio to reach out-of-school working children who can not easily be assembled for face-to-face teaching. And throughout China, school teachers are trained through correspondence courses.

"We believe that the potential of the media can be exploited much more, in East Asia as in all regions, to provide education to hard-to-reach groups," said Michael Lakin, executive secretary of the Education for All Forum.

Arab states

Arab countries have increased funding for education only slightly since 1990, and enrolment of school age children has gone up, but 8 million children of school-age are still out of school. Adult literacy levels are on the rise: in 1990, 52 per cent of adults in the region could read and write; 57 per cent can today. In Arab primary schools, girls are catching up with boys more rapidly than in any other region. Eighteen out of twenty-one Arab States are reporting a rise in the proportion of girls attending school. However, there are still gross disparities between men and women: only 44 per cent of women in the region are literate, compared with 68 per cent of men.

A number of innovative programmes have been launched, aiming to increase access and boost quality. In 1992, the Egyptian government and local non-governmental organizations with UNICEF support launched a programme to reach out to disadvantaged children in remote areas, 80 per cent of the enrolled are girls. Some 113 community schools have been set up and the government has announced plans to extend a similar programme to 3,000 rural hamlets. The Palestinian people are making a major thrust to rebuild their education system and UNESCO is helping the new Ministry refurbish schools, set up a curriculum development centre and train educational managers. Jordan is engaged in a comprehensive reform programme to boost the quality of education.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Unlike Africa and Asia, where huge numbers of children do not get into primary school, between 85 and 90 per cent of all children enter school in Latin America and the Caribbean. But educational quality is sometimes so poor that it may take ten years or more for children to complete a six-year primary education cycle. Several Caribbean countries report that boys are losing out to girls in terms of school enrolment, retention and performance, and large numbers of unschooled youth create problems of delinquency and drug abuse.

"Education is going through a highly dynamic and transitional phase," concluded an internal UNICEF education consultation in October 1995. "Decentralization and a new wave of reform in several countries have taken place, but it is still unclear whether these changes mark positive and sustainable trends." Countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico are radically transforming their education systems, following the passing of new education laws and national agreements on basic education.

Brazil has launched a massive programme covering the nine poorest states in the country. Aiming to increase enrolment, prevent school repetition and spread literacy, the US$600 million programme is receiving support from the World Bank. Renewed efforts have been made to promote education for indigenous populations in most countries where bilingualism and multilingualism is the norm, including Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico. And due to a massive literacy campaign, Mexico managed to cut its illiteracy rate from 12 per cent in 1990 to 10 per cent in 1994.

However, the news is not good for teachers whose conditions further deteriorated in the past five years. In Argentine, for example, teachers' real salaries in 1993 were only a little more than half of what they received in 1981. And throughout the region, teacher morale is low, teacher strikes frequent and prolonged, further reducing instruction time.

Africa

The good news is that the steep downward trend in enrolment experienced during the 1980s has been reversed in more than half of the African countries, including some of the poorest and the least developed.
Many countries have taken concrete steps to follow-up on the pledges made in 1990. For example, Mozambique, a post-conflict nation, was able to increase primary-level enrolment by 155,000 in the last five years and expects to reach an estimated 1.6 million pupils by the end of the decade. Malawi abolished all school fees in 1994 to boost enrolment. Tanzania has more than doubled the number of pre-schools, from 914 in 1990 to over 2500 in 1995. And post-apartheid South Africa in February 1996 launched a nationwide literacy campaign in order to reach 10,000 youth and adults in every province per year.

While educational self-reliance is the goal for most countries, there is growing consensus that the worst hit, simply cannot make it alone. "Debt is a mill-stone around countries' necks", explained Fay Chung, head of UNICEF's education cluster. Sub-Saharan Africa pays more than US$20 billion each year in debt service charges for its staggering US$300 billion external debt, yet only some US$2.5 billion per year would be needed to provide universal primary education in that continent.

Industrialized countries

Few industrialized countries saw any implications for themselves when the Education for All movement was launched in 1990, but this outlook may be changing. A survey published in 1995 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed that over 20 per cent of adults in some of the world's richest countries have literacy and numeracy skills that are too low to handle everyday tasks.

This realization has prompted many countries to take action. In France, the army conducts literacy classes for the many young recruits who have reading difficulties. The United States, Australia and New Zealand, among others, are making efforts to introduce family literacy programmes to prepare children for school and boost reading skills among their parents.

The challenges

One glaring lesson at mid-decade has been that without better statistics, databases and quality indicators, it is impossible to assess achievements and plan in detail for basic education provision. Central government statistics services are often the first victims of public spending cuts, creating serious problems. Some donor countries are now helping with training and equipment to set up databases.

Another overriding need is for better treatment of teachers. According to the International Labour Organization, the situation has reached "an intolerable low point". In a just-released report, the organization draws attention to the drastic erosion of teachers' working conditions worldwide and the consequent massive exodus of qualified and experienced teachers to better-paid jobs.

Early childhood care and development is another area where experience has brought shifts in thinking, but not yet in funding. "There needs to be more emphasis on integrated early childhood facilities, taking such factors as nutrition and mothers' literacy into account," said Colin Power, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education. Progress in literacy has also been patchy. Adult literacy and early childhood education are two areas which donors find difficult to fund. "It is seen as easier to build a school than support a community," Power points out.
More generally, governments, donor agencies and non-governmental organizations still have to find ways to reach the lowest income groups.

Despite efforts to involve local communities in education, much more needs to be done. "Successful education arises from the inventiveness, experience and dedication of educators, parents and community leaders at the grassroots," said Dieter Berstecher from UNESCO's Basic Education Division. "While we have seen real efforts to decentralize to involve the grassroots since the early '90s, much more needs to be done."

A major challenge for all countries is to boost educational quality. Far too often, even those children who finish primary school are not able to meet the academic standards set by their own countries. "There are solutions," said Berstecher. "Problems of educational quality are being dealt with creatively all over the world, and many countries clearly need an injection of fresh ideas, a broader vision of how basic learning needs can be met, and the courage to turn this vision into practice."

Looking Ahead

The mid-decade meeting of the Education for All Forum in Amman has the task of going back over the problems and achievements along the road since 1990 in order to trace the path ahead. Both case-studies and fundamental issues of principle are under scrutiny. The EFA initiative has raised questions about the nature of education systems, about the wisdom of following Western models when a new kind of community learning center might better answer specific needs.

"Education for All is not a distant dream," said Chung. "There are models that we know work well and, in all regions, there have been successes in a short period. We can do it!"