Meeting Basic Learning Needs
Preamble
More than 40 years ago, the nations of the
world, speaking through the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, asserted that "everyone has a
right to education". Despite notable efforts by
countries around the globe to ensure the right to
education for all, the following realities persist:
More than 100 million children, including at
least 60 million girls, have no access to
primary schooling;
More than 960 million adults, two-thirds of
whom are women, are illiterate, and functional
illiteracy is a significant problem in all
countries, industrialized and developing;
More than one-third of the world's adults
have no access to the printed knowledge, new
skills and technologies that could improve the
quality of their lives and help them shape, and
adapt to, social and cultural change; and
More than 100 million children and countless
adults fail to complete basic education
programmes; millions more satisfy the attendance
requirements but do not acquire essential
knowledge and skills;
At the same time, the world faces daunting
problems: notably mounting debt burdens, the threat
of economic stagnation and decline, rapid
population growth, widening economic disparities
among and within nations, war, occupation, civil
strife, violent crime, the preventable deaths of
millions of children and widespread environmental
degradation. These problems constrain efforts to
meet basic learning needs, while the lack of basic
education among a significant proportion of the
population prevents societies from addressing such
problems with strength and purpose.
These problems have led to major setbacks in
basic education in the 1980s in many of the least
developed countries. In some other countries,
economic growth has been available to finance
education expansion, but even so, many millions
remain in poverty and unschooled or illiterate. In
certain industrialized countries too, cutbacks in
government expenditure over the 1980s have led to
the deterioration of education.
Yet the world is also at the threshold of a new
century, with all its promise and possibilities.
Today, there is genuine progress toward peaceful
detente and greater cooperation among nations.
Today, the essential rights and capacities of women
are being realized. Today, there are many useful
scientific and cultural developments. Today, the
sheer quantity of information available in the
world - much of it relevant to survival and basic
well-being - is exponentially greater than that
available only a few years ago, and the rate of its
growth is accelerating. This includes information
about obtaining more life-enhancing knowledge - or
learning how to learn. A synergistic effect occurs
when important information is coupled with another
modern advance - our new capacity to communicate.
These new forces, when combined with the
cumulative experience of reform, innovation,
research and the remarkable educational progress of
many countries, make the goal of basic education
for all - for the first time in history - an
attainable goal.
Therefore, we participants in the World
Conference on Education for All, assembled
in Jomtien, Thailand, from 5 to 9 March,
1990:
Recalling that education
is a fundamental right for all people,
women and men, of all ages, throughout our
world;
Understanding that
education can help ensure a safer,
healthier, more prosperous and
environmentally sound world, while
simultaneously contributing to social,
economic, and cultural progress,
tolerance, and international cooperation;
Knowing that education is
an indispensable key to, though not a
sufficient condition for, personal and
social improvement;
Recognizing that
traditional knowledge and indigenous
cultural heritage have a value and
validity in their own right and a capacity
to both define and promote development;
Acknowledging that,
overall, the current provision of
education is seriously deficient and that
it must be made more relevant and
qualitatively improved, and made
universally available;
Recognizing that sound
basic education is fundamental to the
strengthening of higher levels of
education and of scientific and
technological literacy and capacity and
thus to self-reliant development; and
Recognizing the necessity
to give to present and coming generations
an expanded vision of, and a renewed
commitment to, basic education to address
the scale and complexity of the challenge;
proclaim the following
World Declaration on
Education for All:
Meeting Basic Learning Needs
EDUCATION FOR ALL: THE PURPOSE
ARTICLE I - MEETING BASIC LEARNING NEEDS
1. Every person - child, youth and adult -
shall be able to benefit from educational
opportunities designed to meet their basic learning
needs. These needs comprise both essential
learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression,
numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic
learning content (such as knowledge, skills,
values, and attitudes) required by human beings to
be able to survive, to develop their full
capacities, to live and work in dignity, to
participate fully in development, to improve the
quality of their lives, to make informed decisions,
and to continue learning. The scope of basic
learning needs and how they should be met varies
with individual countries and cultures, and
inevitably, changes with the passage of time.
2. The satisfaction of these needs empowers
individuals in any society and confers upon them a
responsibility to respect and build upon their
collective cultural, linguistic and spiritual
heritage, to promote the education of others, to
further the cause of social justice, to achieve
environmental protection, to be tolerant towards
social, political and religious systems which
differ from their own, ensuring that commonly
accepted humanistic values and human rights are
upheld, and to work for international peace and
solidarity in an interdependent world.
3. Another and no less fundamental aim of
educational development is the transmission and
enrichment of common cultural and moral values. It
is in these values that the individual and society
find their identity and worth.
4. Basic education is more than an end in
itself. It is the foundation for lifelong learning
and human development on which countries may build,
systematically, further levels and types of
education and training.
EDUCATION FOR ALL:
AN EXPANDED VISION AND A
RENEWED COMMITMENT
ARTICLE II - SHAPING THE VISION
To serve the basic learning needs of all
requires more than a recommitment to basic
education as it now exists. What is needed is an
"expanded vision" that surpasses present resource
levels, institutional structures, curricula, and
conventional delivery systems while building on the
best in current practices. New possibilities
exist today which result from the convergence of
the increase in information and the unprecedented
capacity to communicate. We must seize them with
creativity and a determination for increased
effectiveness.
As elaborated in Articles III-VII, the expanded
vision encompasses:
Universalizing access and promoting equity;
Focussing on learning;
Broadening the means and scope of basic
education;
Enhancing the environment for learning;
Strengthening partnerships.
The realization of an enormous potential for
human progress and empowerment is contingent upon
whether people can be enabled to acquire the
education and the start needed to tap into the
ever-expanding pool of relevant knowledge and the
new means for sharing this knowledge.
ARTICLE III - UNIVERSALIZING ACCESS AND
PROMOTING EQUITY
1. Basic education should be provided to all
children, youth and adults. To this end, basic
education services of quality should be expanded
and consistent measures must be taken to reduce
disparities.
2. For basic education to be equitable, all
children, youth and adults must be given the
opportunity to achieve and maintain an acceptable
level of learning.
3. The most urgent priority is to ensure access
to, and improve the quality of, education for girls
and women, and to remove every obstacle that
hampers their active participation. All gender
stereotyping in education should be eliminated.
4. An active commitment must be made to removing
educational disparities. Underserved groups: the
poor; street and working children; rural and remote
populations; nomads and migrant workers; indigenous
peoples; ethnic, racial, and linguistic minorities;
refugees; those displaced by war; and people under
occupation, should not suffer any discrimination in
access to learning opportunities.
5. The learning needs of the disabled demand
special attention. Steps need to be taken to
provide equal access to education to every category
of disabled persons as an integral part of the
education system.
ARTICLE IV - FOCUSSING ON LEARNING
Whether or not expanded educational
opportunities will translate into meaningful
development - for an individual or for society -
depends ultimately on whether people actually learn
as a result of those opportunities, i.e., whether
they incorporate useful knowledge, reasoning
ability, skills, and values. The focus of basic
education must, therefore, be on actual learning
acquisition and outcome, rather than exclusively
upon enrolment, continued participation in
organized programmes and completion of
certification requirements. Active and
participatory approaches are particularly valuable
in assuring learning acquisition and allowing
learners to reach their fullest potential. It is,
therefore, necessary to define acceptable levels of
learning acquisition for educational programmes and
to improve and apply systems of assessing learning
achievement.
ARTICLE V - BROADENING THE MEANS AND
SCOPE OF BASIC EDUCATION
The diversity, complexity, and changing nature
of basic learning needs of children, youth and
adults necessitates broadening and constantly
redefining the scope of basic education to include
the following components:
Learning begins at birth. This
calls for early childhood care and initial
education . These can be provided through
arrangements involving families, communities, or
institutional programmes, as appropriate.
The main delivery system for the basic
education of children outside the family is
primary schooling. Primary education
must be universal, ensure that the basic
learning needs of all children are satisfied,
and take into account the culture, needs, and
opportunities of the community. Supplementary
alternative programmes can help meet the basic
learning needs of children with limited or no
access to formal schooling, provided that they
share the same standards of learning applied to
schools, and are adequately supported.
The basic learning needs of youth and
adults are diverse and should be met through a
variety of delivery systems. Literacy
programmes are indispensable because literacy is
a necessary skill in itself and the foundation
of other life skills. Literacy in the
mother-tongue strengthens cultural identity and
heritage. Other needs can be served by: skills
training, apprenticeships, and formal and
non-formal education programmes in health,
nutrition, population, agricultural techniques,
the environment, science, technology, family
life, including fertility awareness, and other
societal issues.
All available instruments and channels
of information, communications, and social
action could be used to help convey essential
knowledge and inform and educate people on
social issues. In addition to the
traditional means, libraries, television, radio
and other media can be mobilized to realize
their potential towards meeting basic education
needs of all.
These components should constitute an integrated
system - complementary, mutually reinforcing, and
of comparable standards, and they should contribute
to creating and developing possibilities for
lifelong learning.
ARTICLE VI - ENHANCING THE ENVIRONMENT
FOR LEARNING
Learning does not take place in isolation.
Societies, therefore, must ensure that all learners
receive the nutrition, health care, and general
physical and emotional support they need in order
to participate actively in and benefit from their
education. Knowledge and skills that will
enhance the learning environment of children should
be integrated into community learning programmes
for adults. The education of children and their
parents or other caretakers is mutually supportive
and this interaction should be used to create, for
all, a learning environment of vibrancy and warmth.
ARTICLE VII - STRENGTHENING PARTNERSHIPS
National, regional, and local educational
authorities have a unique obligation to provide
basic education for all, but they cannot be
expected to supply every human, financial or
organizational requirement for this task. New and
revitalized partnerships at all levels will be
necessary: partnerships among all sub-sectors
and forms of education, recognizing the special
role of teachers and that of administrators and
other educational personnel; partnerships between
education and other government departments,
including planning, finance, labour,
communications, and other social sectors;
partnerships between government and
non-governmental organizations, the private sector,
local communities, religious groups, and families.
The recognition of the vital role of both families
and teachers is particularly important. In this
context, the terms and conditions of service of
teachers and their status, which constitute a
determining factor in the implementation of
education for all, must be urgently improved in all
countries in line with the joint ILO/ UNESCO
Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers
(1966). Genuine partnerships contribute to the
planning, implementing, managing and evaluating of
basic education programmes. When we speak of "an
expanded vision and a renewed commitment",
partnerships are at the heart of it.
EDUCATION FOR ALL: THE REQUIREMENTS
ARTICLE VIII - DEVELOPING A SUPPORTIVE
POLICY CONTEXT
1. Supportive policies in the social,
cultural, and economic sectors are required in
order to realize the full provision and
utitlization of basic education for individual and
societal improvement. The provision of basic
education for all depends on political commitment
and political will backed by appropriate fiscal
measures and reinforced by educational policy
reforms and institutional strengthening. Suitable
economic, trade, labour, employment and health
policies will enhance learners' incentives and
contributions to societal development.
2. Societies should also insure a strong
intellectual and scientific environment for basic
education. This implies improving higher education
and developing scientific research. Close contact
with contemporary technological and scientific
knowledge should be possible at every level of
education.
ARTICLE IX - MOBILIZING RESOURCES
1. If the basic learning needs of all are to
be met through a much broader scope of action than
in the past, it will be essential to mobilize
existing and new financial and human resources,
public, private and voluntary. All of society
has a contribution to make, recognizing that time,
energy and funding directed to basic education are
perhaps the most profound investment in people and
in the future of a country which can be made.
2. Enlarged public-sector support means drawing
on the resources of all the government agencies
responsible for human development, through
increased absolute and proportional allocations to
basic education services with the clear recognition
of competing claims on national resources of which
education is an important one, but not the only
one. Serious attention to improving the efficiency
of existing educational resources and programmes
will not only produce more, it can also be expected
to attract new resources. The urgent task of
meeting basic learning needs may require a
reallocation between sectors, as, for example, a
transfer from military to educational expenditure.
Above all, special protection for basic education
will be required in countries undergoing structural
adjustment and facing severe external debt burdens.
Today, more than ever, education must be seen as a
fundamental dimension of any social, cultural, and
economic design.
ARTICLE X - STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY
1. Meeting basic learning needs constitutes a
common and universal human responsibility. It
requires international solidarity and equitable and
fair economic relations in order to redress
existing economic disparities. All nations have
valuable knowledge and experiences to share for
designing effective educational policies and
programmes.
2. Substantial and long-term increases in
resources for basic education will be needed. The
world community, including intergovernmental
agencies and institutions, has an urgent
responsibility to alleviate the constraints that
prevent some countries from achieving the goal of
education for all. It will mean the adoption of
measures that augment the national budgets of the
poorest countries or serve to relieve heavy debt
burdens. Creditors and debtors must seek innovative
and equitable formulae to resolve these burdens,
since the capacity of many developing countries to
respond effectively to education and other basic
needs will be greatly helped by finding solutions
to the debt problem.
3. Basic learning needs of adults and children
must be addressed wherever they exist. Least
developed and low-income countries have special
needs which require priority in international
support for basic education in the 1990s.
4. All nations must also work together to
resolve conflicts and strife, to end military
occupations, and to settle displaced populations,
or to facilitate their return to their countries of
origin, and ensure that their basic learning needs
are met. Only a stable and peaceful environment can
create the conditions in which every human being,
child and adult alike, may benefit from the goals
of this Declaration.
We, the participants in the World
Conference on Education for All, reaffirm
the right of all people to education.
This is the foundation of our
determination, singly and together, to
ensure education for all.
We commit ourselves to act
cooperatively through our own spheres of
responsibility, taking all necessary steps
to achieve the goals of education for all.
Together we call on governments, concerned
organizations and individuals to join in
this urgent undertaking.
The basic learning needs of all can and
must be met. There can be no more
meaningful way to begin the International
Literacy Year, to move forward the goals
of the United Nations Decade of Disabled
Persons (1983-92), the World Decade for
Cultural Development (1988-97), the Fourth
United Nations Development Decade
(1991-2000), of the Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination against
Women and the Forward Looking Strategies
for the Advancement of Women, and of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
There has never been a more propitious
time to commit ourselves to providing
basic learning opportunities for all the
people of the world.
We adopt, therefore, this World
Declaration on Education for All: Meeting
Basic Learning Needs and agree on
the Framework
for Action to Meet Basic Learning
Needs, to achieve the goals
set forth in this
Declaration.
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