7. Summary of follow-up actions

The recent events related to terrorist attacks in the United States and the consequent worsening of global security environments means that resources for education and other social purposes will be increasingly restricted. At the same time, these tragic events are a reminder of the overriding importance of reaching the goal of Education for All as a means of promoting international development and thereby laying the foundation for a world of peace, tolerance and mutual understanding.

The need is more urgent than ever to use available resources in the most efficient and effective way possible to achieve the broadened vision of EFA of providing all persons with the basic education that they need to become effective individuals, workers and citizens.

The ultimate goal of EFA is lifelong learning for all persons, and this objective is as relevant to low income countries as it is to developed ones. Universal primary completion and a vigorous learning environment for youth and adults are essential steps along the road to learning societies - upon which global development depends.

The feasibility of achieving EFA

The good news is that achieving EFA is feasible - politically, financially and programmatically.

While the political challenge of achieving this broader definition of EFA remains considerable, there is reason to be optimistic. Countries, including some very poor ones, have demonstrated that, with political leadership and commitment, it is possible to attain rapid acceleration of progress. In order for such progress to occur on a broad scale, reform strategies must be devised for dealing with difficult and highly political issues such as government commitment of education, inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral resource allocation, gender and regional equity. Links between formal and non-formal approaches to education and the role of the private sector are other areas that require astute political leadership.

Financial projections show that for almost all of the very low-enrolment countries, national resources should be able to sustain the system with rapidly declining external financial support once an initial surge in enrolments has moved through the system (a period of about 10 years). Sufficient resources will also be needed to ensure adequate opportunities to acquire basic skills for lifelong learning, in particular for youth and adults for whom the schooling system was unavailable or inadequate.

Pragmatically the realization of the goal of EFA means an end to 'business as usual'. Attainment of the Dakar goals will be impossible without significant policy changes at the national, regional and international levels and a willingness on the part of stakeholders at all levels to enter into new partnerships, including new relationships between government and civil society. Evidence abounds, however, that such partnerships are both effective and possible.

The need for a comprehensive EFA strategy

A comprehensive strategy for EFA is long overdue. There is a need to establish an action-oriented, outcome-based framework which would, inter alia, ensure effective co-ordination of global efforts on EFA and provide mechanisms for mobilizing additional resources, sharing of international experience and tracking EFA progress in a systematic way.
Such a framework would make it possible to provide expanded, more accessible and more stable external financing for education development in countries 'at risk' of not meeting EFA goals. In exchange, a more transparent international mechanism for monitoring progress would shift the focus towards increased national accountability for results.

While many donor agencies and partners are working with the countries most in need, the efforts should be consolidated in order to quickly develop the basis for a global framework and agreed action plan. The Working Group on this topic has made solid progress and will be ready to report by the end of the year.

The need for better monitoring

Reaching the goal of EFA will require better systems for gathering, analyzing and disseminating information from individual countries. Specifically, there are urgent needs for:

Better data on the functioning of national systems of education. The quality of existing data does not provide a sufficient basis for decision-making. Ministries of education must enter into conversations with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and other partners about what it would take to obtain nearly real-time data to be used as a basis for operational decision-making. One way could be for development partners to support and fund sample surveys annually, particularly in the most vulnerable regions. Data of higher quality are also needed to define new and more targeted learning opportunities for youth and adults.

Better information on 'what works'. Making knowledge of what works and what does not work available to the countries most in need would constitute an important element in accelerating progress.

Careful scrutiny of national EFA plans. An important task is to develop a process of assessment for national EFA plans in order to answer the question: what is a credible plan? A mechanism must be put into place to review national plans as they are being drafted before they are evaluated by governments.

After having been approved nationally, plans should be submitted to a sub-regional mechanism of peers and EFA partners. This sub-regional mechanism will provide recommendations and provide comments that would go back to the countries. Certain donors who receive these 'vetted' plans may feel more comfortable with funding them.

Better tracking of educational expenditures. Financing needs for EFA should be established through country-by-country analysis. This includes tracking of expenditures from debt relief and determination of the scope for additional resources. Such systems should also seek to identify funding gaps in countries.

The need to focus on quality of education and to target efforts towards what works

While realization of the goal of universal primary education is obviously an important priority, it is but the first step towards the ultimate goal of quality Education for All. UPE alone will not ensure that children receive the quality instruction that will allow them to continue learning in an autonomous way.

Policy-makers must keep in mind that the expanded interpretation of educational quality first put forward at Jomtien emphasizes the importance of establishing a productive and supportive educational environment. Increasing levels of literacy among youth and adults will contribute significantly to developing a learning environment, where the demand for education of high quality is heard from all sections of society and all age groups.

Close attention must be paid to what is known about better teaching and learning and of efficient system management. Such an effort will require not only significant additional resources, but also more effective utilization of these resources.

Primary school completion rates, not gross enrolment rates, should be the criterion for evaluating progress towards the goal of EFA. Literacy levels require their own appropriate indicators, and these are currently under development by UIS and UNESCO's literacy section, in partnership with civil society organizations.

The need for enhanced resources

Significant additional resources will be necessary to cover the extra direct costs of enrolling all children in school, improving education quality and reducing the direct costs of education, such as user fees. Raising overall literacy levels in line with the 2015 goal will also require greater resources, particularly to support context-sensitive programmes which provide high-quality and relevant learning opportunities for youth and adults.

For most countries, national resources would need to be complemented with substantial additional external financing. Higher levels of international support would, however, be premised on more effective utilization of resources, and would be additional to demonstrable increased national effort.

None of these goals can be achieved by a single stroke. Transforming resource inputs into learning outcomes requires not only a sufficient level of investment, but also effective delivery systems fuelled by the right mix of resources, from teachers to learning materials. This mix must be developed within an overall national context of sound economic and social policies embracing gender equity, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, rural infrastructure and economic opportunities. A major threat in this context is the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

New information technologies

Distance education could be used to expand teacher education using evidence-based advice for cost-effective practices. Information and communication technologies could also be to expand exponentially access to life-long learning.

Looking ahead

Over the last quarter-century the nations of the world have demonstrated a growing and increasingly sophisticated interest in pursuing the goal of Education for All. Participants in the Jomtien conference made 'EFA' part of the normal lexicon of developmental activities at the national, regional and global levels.

The 1990s brought increased recognition of the fact that promoting access in the absence of quality is a hollow victory. Recent years have thus produced groundbreaking work in the field of assessment and new insights into how to use scarce resources in the most effective manner. So, too, educational policy makers and other stakeholders have become increasingly conscious of the fact that Education for All means just that - education, and for all. Thus growing attention is now being paid to serving excluded populations, from handicapped persons to those displaced by military conflicts.

The challenge of attaining EFA by 2015 is daunting, but the goal is achievable. Momentum has been established, and the need now is to increase not only the pace of investment of financial and human resources devoted to basic education but the political will to make EFA a reality for every child, young person and adult in every nation. Thus will be laid the foundation for, in the words of the Dakar Framework, 'peace and stability within and among countries'.