Education provides individuals with the power to reflect, make choices and enjoy a better life, stresses the Dakar Framework for Action. Education has powerful synergistic effects on other development objectives:empowerment, protection of the environment, better health and good governance. Education of mothers has a strong impact on health, family welfare and fertility.

According to a recent OECD report, investment in education results in a clear economic pay-off:one extra year of education leads to an increase in an individual ’s output per capita of between 4 and 7 per cent (in OECD countries).

Education is important for other reasons too,specially the cultivation of values, attitudes and conduct essential for living tog ther in peace,and for personal growth and fulfilment.

EFA: looking back

Since the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien,Thailand,1990),real progress towards EFA targets has been made:10 million more children attend school each year; adult literacy rates rose to 85 per cent for men and 74 per cent for women; primary school enrolment increased from 599 million in 1990 to 681 million in 1998; the number of out-of-school children fell from 127 million to 113 million.

At the same time,over 100 million children,mostly girls,were still out of school and risked joining the 875 million illiterate adults, nearly two-thirds of them women.

Educational quality often remains low and uneven.In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa less than three-quarters of pupils reach Grade 5. Yet research indicates that six years of primary education is needed to reach sustainable levels of literacy and numeracy.

Many individual countries hav achieved dramatic progress in xpanding enrolments, improving schooling r tention and completion rates,and reducing gender disparities. For example,enrolments in Uganda,Malawi and Mauritania hav doubled in a matter of five years, approaching 100 per cent gross enrolment ratio. Benin and Guinea-Bissau have steadily expanded primary enrolments.

Some regions are also close to the goal of universal primary education.This is already a reality in developed and transition countries,and East Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean are close to reaching the goal.

Although this expansion of enrolment has outpaced population growth, it still falls short of the pace necessary to meet the goal of universal enrolment in all regions.

EFA: looking forward

Is the goal of universal primary education as difficult as it was in the past decade? For most countries,school enrolment growth of 5 per cent per year over the next 15 years would suffice to achiev EFA goals, though several will need to grow at up to 10 per cent per year.

In deve loping countries primary schools will need to accommodate about 156 million more children than in 1997,an increase of 27 per cent.

A particular effort will be needed in sub-Saharan Africa,which will hav to accommodate more than half of the additional school places r quired at the global level: roughly a 150 per cent increase from its 1997 enrolment level,almost three times the effort undertaken during the period 1990-97.

Angola,the Central African Republic,the Democratic R public of Congo,Lesotho, Liberia,Niger and Somalia will need to increase their efforts ten-fold. South Asia will have to enrol about 40 million more children –an increase of one third – requiring at least the same pace of ffort as in the 1990-1997 period.

The Arab States need twice the previous effort to accommodate some 23 million additional children, representing an increase of 72 per cent.

The Six Dakar Goals 1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. 2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children,particularly girls,children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities,ha e access to and complete,free and compulsory primary education of good quality. 3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes. 4. Achieving a 50 per cent impro ement in le els of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women,and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. 5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005,and achie ing gender equality in education by 2015,with a focus on ensuring girls ’ full and equal access to and achie ement in basic education of good quality. 6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

EFA is politically and economically feasible

While the challenge is considerable,there is reason to be optimistic. Many countries, including some very poor ones, have demonstrated that with political leadership and commitment it is possible to attain rapid progress.

Projections show that for almost all of the very low-enrolment countries,once the system stabilizes after an initial surg in enrolments has moved through the system (a period of about 10 years),national resources should be able to sustain efforts.

In the meantime,significant external financing will be r quired to cover the additional direct costs of enrolling all children in school,improving quality and reducing the direct costs of education. Higher levels of international aid, how ver,will be related to more effective utilization of resources and increased national effort.

EFA is achievable

Achieving EFA will r quire better systems of gathering,analysing and disseminating information from individual countries. Specifically, there are urgent needs for:

- Better mechanisms for monitoring and valuating national plans;
- Better data on the functioning of national education systems;
- Better information on what works;
- Better tracking of educational xpenditures;and
- Focus on quality of education and on all six Dakar goals.

Achieving these goals will require sustained, intensiv and co-ordinated action on several fronts .Transforming resource inputs into learning outcomes requires not just financial investment but also effective education systems, the right mix of resources (e.g.teachers and learning materials)and an overall national context of sound economic and social policies. Without significant policy changes, existing structural imbalances will hinder the attainment of the Dakar goals.

For further information,contact:
The Dakar Follow-up Unit,Education Sector,
UNESCO
7,Place de Fontenoy,75352 Paris 07 SP,France
Fax:33 (0)1 45 68 56 26/27
E-mail:efa@unesco.org
Visit the Education for All website on
www.unesco.org/education/efa