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| World
Declaration on Education For All |
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| Meeting
Basic Learning Needs |
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| PREAMBLE |
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| 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". |
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". Despite notable efforts by countries around the
globe to ensure the right to education for all, the
following realities persist:
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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;
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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. |
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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 |
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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.
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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;
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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;
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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;
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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;
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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 Educatio for All: Meeting Basic
Learning Needs
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| EDUCATION
FOR ALL: THE PURPOSE |
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ARTICLE I - MEETING BASIC LEARNING NEEDS |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. : |
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| EDUCATION
FOR ALL: AN EXPANDED VISION AND A RENEWED COMMITMENT |
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| ARTICLE
II - SHAPING THE VISION |
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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: |
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Universalizing
access and promoting equity;
Focussing
on learning;
Broadening the means and scope of basic education;
Enhancing
the environment for learning;
Strengthening
partnerships.
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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. |
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| ARTICLE
III - UNIVERSALIZING ACCESS AND PROMOTING EQUITY |
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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. |
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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. |
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| 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.
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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. |
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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. |
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| ARTICLE
IV - FOCUSSING ON LEARNING |
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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. |
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| ARTICLE
V - BROADENING THE MEANS AND SCOPE OF BASIC EDUCATION |
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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: |
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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.
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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. |
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ARTICLE
VI - ENHANCING THE ENVIRONMENT FOR LEARNING
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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.
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| ARTICLE
VII - STRENGTHENING PARTNERSHIPS |
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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. |
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EDUCATION
FOR ALL: THE REQUIREMENTS
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| ARTICLE
VIII - DEVELOPING A SUPPORTIVE POLICY CONTEXT |
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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. |
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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. |
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| ARTICLE
IX - MOBILIZING RESOURCES |
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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. |
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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. |
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| ARTICLE
X - STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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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