On the way to UPE

 

The MDG Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, set up about eighteen months ago, is working to identify ways in which education policies and practices must be transformed to achieve the goal of universal primary education. It presented its Interim Report, which is intended as a vehicle for broader consultation. The Working Group was thus an opportunity to solicit feedback, mainly on a set of recommendations to the international community.

The key messages of the report focused on ensuring that primary education is part of wider efforts in education and in the community, to make sure that children can make good use of it in their lives. The Working Group was asked to consider three questions:

What efforts should go in to adult literacy – does it help parents to send their children to school?

What about education beyond the primary school – how far should EFA efforts include that?

If parents are to be more engaged with their children’s education, what kind of information do they need?

The Working Group responded to the first two questions by noting how crucial adult literacy is and emphasizing that post-primary education is necessary to ensure useable skills. Uganda is an example of efforts to answer the third question – financial information at school level gave parents the chance to know about management decisions.

Presentation:

The Interim Report on Achieving the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education