| |
| The
Dakar Framework for Action |
| |
Education
For All:
Meeting Our Collective Commitments |
| |
Text
adopted by
the World Education Forum
Dakar, Senegal, 26-28 April 2000 |
| |
|
1. Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000,
we, the participants in the World Education Forum, commit
ourselves to the achievement of education for all (EFA)
goals and targets for every citizen and for every society.
|
| |
|
2. The Dakar Framework is a collective commitment
to action. Governments have an obligation to ensure that
EFA goals and targets are reached and sustained. This
is a responsibility that will be met most effectively
through broad-based partnerships within countries, supported
by cooperation with regional and international agencies
and institutions. |
| |
|
3. We re-affirm the vision of the World Declaration
on Education for All (Jomtien 1990), supported by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, that all children, young people
and adults have the human right to benefit from an education
that will meet their basic learning needs in the best
and fullest sense of the term, an education that includes
learning to know, to do, to live together and to be. It
is an education geared to tapping each individual's talents
and potential, and developing learners' personalities,
so that they can improve their lives and transform their
societies. |
| |
|
4. We welcome the commitments made by the international
community to basic education throughout the 1990s, notably
at the World Summit for Children (1990), the Conference
on Environment and Development (1992), the World Conference
on Human Rights (1993), the World Conference on Special
Needs Education: Access and Quality (1994), the International
Conference on Population and Development (1994), the World
Summit for Social Development (1995), the Fourth World
Conference on Women (1995), the Mid-Term Meeting of the
International Consultative Forum on Education for All
(1996), the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education
(1997), and the International Conference on Child Labour
(1997). The challenge now is to deliver on these commitments. |
| |
|
5. The EFA 2000 Assessment demonstrates that there
has been significant progress in many countries. But it
is unacceptable in the year 2000 that more than 113 million
children have no access to primary education, 880 million
adults are illiterate, gender discrimination continues
to permeate education systems, and the quality of learning
and the acquisition of human values and skills fall far
short of the aspirations and needs of individuals and
societies. Youth and adults are denied access to the skills
and knowledge necessary for gainful employment and full
participation in their societies. Without accelerated
progress towards education for all, national and internationally
agreed targets for poverty reduction will be missed, and
inequalities between countries and within societies will
widen. |
| |
|
6. Education is a fundamental human right. It is the key
to sustainable development and peace and stability within
and among countries, and thus an indispensable means for
effective participation in the societies and economies
of the twenty-first century, which are affected by rapid
globalization. Achieving EFA goals should be postponed
no longer. The basic learning needs of all can and must
be met as a matter of urgency. |
| |
|
7. We hereby collectively commit ourselves to the
attainment of the following goals: |
| |
 (i)
expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood
care and education, especially for the most vulnerable
and disadvantaged children;
(ii) ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly
girls, children in difficult circumstances and those
belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and
complete free and compulsory primary education of
good quality;
(iii)
ensuring that the learning needs of all young people
and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate
learning and life skills programmes;
(iv) achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels
of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and
equitable access to basic and continuing education
for all adults;
(v)
eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in
education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls'
full and equal access to and achievement in basic
education of good quality;
(vi)
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.
|
| |
|
8. To achieve these goals, we the governments, organizations,
agencies, groups and associations represented at the World
Education Forum pledge ourselves to: |
| |
(i)
mobilize strong national and international political
commitment for education for all, develop national
action plans and enhance significantly investment
in basic education;
(ii)
promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well-integrated
sector framework clearly linked to poverty elimination
and development strategies;
(iii)
ensure the engagement and participation of civil society
in the formulation, implementation and monitoring
of strategies for educational development;
(iv)
develop responsive, participatory and accountable
systems of educational governance and management;
(v)
meet the needs of education systems affected by conflict,
national calamities and instability and conduct educational
programmes in ways that promote mutual understanding,
peace and tolerance, and help to prevent violence
and conflict;
(vi)
implement integrated strategies for gender equality
in education which recognize the need for changes
in attitudes, values and practices;
(vii)
implement as a matter of urgency education programmes
and actions to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic;
(viii)
create safe, healthy, inclusive and equitably resourced
educational environments conducive to excellence in
learning with clearly defined levels of achievement
for all;
(ix)
enhance the status, morale and professionalism of
teachers;
(x)
harness new information and communication technologies
to help achieve EFA goals;
(xi)
systematically monitor progress towards EFA goals
and strategies at the national, regional and international
levels; and
(xii)
build on existing mechanisms to accelerate progress
towards education for all.
|
| |
|
9. Drawing on the evidence accumulated during the
national and regional EFA assessments, and building on
existing national sector strategies, all States will be
requested to develop or strengthen existing national plans
of action by 2002 at the latest. These plans should be
integrated into a wider poverty reduction and development
framework, and should be developed through more transparent
and democratic processes, involving stakeholders, especially
peoples' representatives, community leaders, parents,
learners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil
society. The plans will address problems associated with
the chronic under-financing of basic education by establishing
budget priorities that reflect a commitment to achieving
EFA goals and targets at the earliest possible date, and
no later than 2015. They will also set out clear strategies
for overcoming the special problems facing those currently
excluded from educational opportunities, with a clear
commitment to girls' education and gender equity. The
plans will give substance and form to the goals and strategies
set out in this Framework, and to the commitments made
during a succession of international conferences in the
1990s. Regional activities to support national strategies
will be based on strengthened regional and subregional
organizations, networks and initiatives. |
| |
|
10. Political will and stronger national leadership
are needed for the effective and successful implementation
of national plans in each of the countries concerned.
However, political will must be underpinned by resources.
The international community acknowledges that many countries
currently lack the resources to achieve education for
all within an acceptable time-frame. New financial resources,
preferably in the form of grants and concessional assistance,
must therefore be mobilized by bilateral and multilateral
funding agencies, including the World Bank and regional
development banks, and the private sector. We affirm that
no countries seriously committed to education for all
will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by
a lack of resources. |
| |
|
11. The international community will deliver on this collective
commitment by launching with immediate effect a global
initiative aimed at developing the strategies and mobilizing
the resources needed to provide effective support to national
efforts. Options to be considered under this initiative
will include: |
| |
(i)
increasing external finance for education, in particular
basic education;
(ii)
ensuring greater predictability in the flow of external
assistance;
(iii)
facilitating more effective donor coordination;
(iv) strengthening sector-wide approaches;
(v) providing earlier, more extensive and broader
debt relief and/or debt cancellation for poverty reduction,
with a strong commitment to basic education; and
(vi) undertaking more effective and regular monitoring
of progress towards EFA goals and targets, including
periodic assessments.
|
|
|
12. There is already evidence from many countries of what
can be achieved through strong national strategies supported
by effective development cooperation. Progress under these
strategies could - and must - be accelerated through increased
international support. At the same time, countries with
less developed strategies - including countries in transition,
countries affected by conflict, and post-crisis countries
- must be given the support they need to achieve more
rapid progress towards education for all. |
| |
|
13. We will strengthen accountable international
and regional mechanisms to give clear expression to these
commitments and to ensure that the Dakar Framework for
Action is on the agenda of every international and regional
organization, every national legislature and every local
decision-making forum. |
| |
|
14. The EFA 2000 Assessment highlights that the
challenge of education for all is greatest in sub-Saharan
Africa, in South Asia, and in the least developed countries.
Accordingly, while no country in need should be denied
international assistance, priority should be given to
these regions and countries. Countries in conflict or
undergoing reconstruction should also be given special
attention in building up their education systems to meet
the needs of all learners. |
| |
|
15. Implementation of the preceding goals and strategies
will require national, regional and international mechanisms
to be galvanized immediately. To be most effective these
mechanisms will be participatory and, wherever possible,
build on what already exists. They will include representatives
of all stakeholders and partners and they will operate
in transparent and accountable ways. They will respond
comprehensively to the word and spirit of the Jomtien
Declaration and this Dakar Framework for Action. The functions
of these mechanisms will include, to varying degrees,
advocacy, resource mobilization, monitoring, and EFA knowledge
generation and sharing. |
| |
|
16.
The heart of EFA activity lies at the country level. National
EFA Forums will be strengthened or established to support
the achievement of EFA. All relevant ministries and national
civil society organizations will be systematically represented
in these Forums. They should be transparent and democratic
and should constitute a framework for implementation at
subnational levels. Countries will prepare comprehensive
National EFA Plans by 2002 at the latest. For those countries
with significant challenges, such as complex crises or
natural disasters, special technical support will be provided
by the international community. Each National EFA Plan
will: |
| |
(i)
be developed by government leadership in direct and
systematic consultation with national civil society;
(ii)
attract co-ordinated support of all development partners;
(iii)
specify reforms addressing the six EFA goals;
(iv)
establish a sustainable financial framework;
(v)
be time-bound and action-oriented;
(vi)
include mid-term performance indicators; and
(vii)
achieve a synergy of all human development efforts,
through its inclusion within the national development
planning framework and process.
|
| |
| 17.
Where these processes and a credible plan are in place,
partner members of the international community undertake
to work in a consistent, co-ordinated and coherent manner.
Each partner will contribute according to its comparative
advantage in support of the National EFA Plans to ensure
that resource gaps are filled. |
| |
|
18. Regional activities to support national efforts will
be based on existing regional and subregional organizations,
networks and initiatives, augmented where necessary. Regions
and subregions will decide on a lead EFA network that
will become the Regional or Subregional Forum with an
explicit EFA mandate. Systematic involvement of, and co-ordination
with, all relevant civil society and other regional and
subregional organizations are essential. These Regional
and Subregional EFA Forums will be linked organically
with, and be accountable to, National EFA Forums. Their
functions will be: co-ordination with all relevant networks;
setting and monitoring regional/subregional targets; advocacy;
policy dialogue; the promotion of partnerships and technical
cooperation; the sharing of best practices and lessons
learned; monitoring and reporting for accountability;
and promoting resource mobilization. Regional and international
support will be available to strengthen Regional and Subregional
Forums and relevant EFA capacities, especially within
Africa and South Asia. |
| |
|
19. UNESCO will continue its mandated role in co-ordinating
EFA partners and maintaining their collaborative momentum.
In line with this, UNESCO's Director-General will convene
annually a high-level, small and flexible group. It will
serve as a lever for political commitment and technical
and financial resource mobilization. Informed by a monitoring
report from the UNESCO International Institute for Educational
Planning (IIEP), the UNESCO International Bureau of Education
(IBE), the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE) and, in
particular, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, and inputs
from Regional and Subregional EFA Forums, it will also
be an opportunity to hold the global community to account
for commitments made in Dakar. It will be composed of
highest-level leaders from governments and civil society
of developing and developed countries, and from development
agencies. |
| |
|
20. UNESCO will serve as the Secretariat. It will refocus
its education programme in order to place the outcomes
and priorities of Dakar at the heart of its work. This
will involve working groups on each of the six goals adopted
at Dakar. This Secretariat will work closely with other
organizations and may include staff seconded from them. |
| |
|
21. Achieving Education for All will require additional
financial support by countries and increased development
assistance and debt relief for education by bilateral
and multilateral donors, estimated to cost in the order
of $8 billion a year. It is therefore essential that new,
concrete financial commitments be made by national governments
and also by bilateral and multilateral donors including
the World Bank and the regional development banks, by
civil society and by foundations. |
| |
| 28
April 2000 Dakar, Senegal |
| --------------------------------------------- |
| |
|
Expanded
Commentary on the Dakar Framework for Action
|
| |
| This
commentary provides details on each goal and strategy
of the draft Framework for Action on the basis of the
many suggestions provided before and during the World
Education Forum, most notably from its twenty-four strategy
sessions |
| |
|
Prepared
by the World Education Forum Drafting Committee
Paris,
23 May 2000
|
| |
|
I
INTRODUCTION
|
| |
|
1. The Dakar Framework for Action is a re-affirmation
of the vision set out in the World Declaration on Education
for All in Jomtien a decade ago. It expresses the international
community's collective commitment to pursue a broad-based
strategy for ensuring that the basic learning needs of
every child, youth and adult are met within a generation
and sustained thereafter. |
| |
|
2. The World Education Forum in Dakar provided the opportunity
to assess the achievements, lessons and failures of the
past decade. The EFA 2000 Assessment represents an unparalleled
effort to take stock of the state of basic education in
the world. It includes national assessments of the progress
achieved since Jomtien in 183 countries, the problems
encountered and recommendations for future action. Synthesis
reports summary the main findings of these assessments
by region. In addition, fourteen special thematic studies
were undertaken, surveys were conducted on the quality
of learning achievement in over thirty countries, and
a comprehensive collection and synthesis of case-studies
on the involvement of NGOs in education was prepared. |
| |
|
3. The Assessment is a rich store of information and analysis.
Five regional EFA conferences (sub-Saharan Africa, Johannesburg;
Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok; Arab States and North Africa,
Cairo; the Americas and the Caribbean, Santo Domingo;
and Europe and North America, Warsaw) and a conference
of the nine high-population (E-9) countries (Recife),
discussed and translated the outcomes of the Assessment
into regional frameworks for action which are an integral
part of this document and underpin the Dakar Framework
for Action. |
| |
|
4. The vision of Jomtien remains pertinent and powerful.
It provides a broad and comprehensive view of education
and its critical role in empowering individuals and transforming
societies. Its key points and principles include universal
access to learning; a focus on equity; emphasis on learning
outcomes; broadening the means and the scope of basic
education; enhancing the environment for learning; and
strengthening partnerships. Tragically, reality has fallen
far short of this vision: millions of people are still
denied their right to education and the opportunities
it brings to live safer, healthier, more productive and
more fulfilling lives. Such a failure has multiple causes:
weak political will, insufficient financial resources
and the inefficient use of those available, the burden
of debt, inadequate attention to the learning needs of
the poor and the excluded, a lack of attention to the
quality of learning and an absence of commitment to overcoming
gender disparities. There can be no doubt that the barriers
to achieving Education for All are formidable. Yet they
can and must be overcome. |
| |
|
5. The Assessment shows that progress has been achieved,
proving that Education for All is a realistic and achievable
goal. But it needs to be frankly acknowledged that progress
has been uneven and far too slow. At the start of a new
millennium, the EFA 2000 Assessment shows the following: |
| |
(i)
Of the more than 800 million children under six
years of age, fewer than a third benefit from any
form of early childhood education.
(ii) Some 113 million children, 60 per cent of whom
are girls, have no access to primary schooling.
(iii) At least 880 million adults are illiterate,
of whom the majority are women.
|
| |
|
6. These figures represent an affront to human dignity
and denial of the right to education. They stand as major
barriers to eliminating poverty and attaining sustainable
development, and are clearly unacceptable. |
| |
|
7. The Dakar Framework sets six major EFA goals and proposes
twelve major strategies. It puts forward twelve major
strategies informed by the experience of the past decade
and the changing global context. These include the international
development targets for education to which national governments
and the international community are already committed. |
| |
|
8. Starting from early childhood and extending throughout
life, the learners of the twenty-first century will require
access to high quality educational opportunities that
are responsive to their needs, equitable and gender-sensitive.
These opportunities must neither exclude nor discriminate.
Since the pace, style, language and circumstances of learning
will never be uniform for all, there should be room for
diverse formal or less formal approaches, as long as they
ensure sound learning and confer equivalent status. |
| |
|
9. The right to education imposes an obligation upon States
to ensure that all citizens have opportunities to meet
their basic learning needs. Primary education should be
free, compulsory and of good quality. The education systems
of tomorrow, however diversified they may be, will need
to be transparent and accountable in how they are governed,
managed and financed. The indispensable role of the State
in education must be supplemented and supported by bold
and comprehensive educational partnerships at all levels
of society. Education for All implies the involvement
and commitment of all to education. |
| |
|
II
ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES
|
| |
| Achievements
and lessons |
| |
|
10. The EFA 2000 Assessment conducted at national, regional,
and global levels show progress has been made over the
past decade towards the vision reflected in the Jomtien
Declaration. |
| |
|
11. Worldwide, primary school enrolments increased by
some 82 million pupils since 1990, with 44 million more
girls in school in 1998 than in 1990 - figures which more
than any other symbolize the serious efforts of many countries
to advance in the face of often severe economic constraints
and continued rapid population growth. At the end of the
1990s, developing countries as a whole had achieved net
enrolment rates in excess of 80 per cent. Repetition and
dropout rates had declined. There has been some improvement,
albeit limited, in gender equality in primary enrolment
in many regions, with the critical exception of sub-Saharan
Africa. Early childhood care and education have expanded
modestly, mainly in urban areas. Virtually all countries
in the world have ratified the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child and have thereby accepted an
obligation to ensure the right of every child to a basic
education. There has been a gradual growth in non-formal
education and skills training. While levels of illiteracy
remain unacceptably high, a measure of progress has been
achieved. The overall adult literacy rate has risen to
85 per cent for men and to 74 per cent for women. Increased
levels of education have enabled men and women to make
more informed choices about family size. This is having
an impact on demographic growth rates, a factor of great
importance for both education and development. |
| |
| 12.
These quantitative achievements tell nothing of the plight
of the millions who are still excluded from education
or of alienated youth and their painful struggle to find
a place and retain their values in changing societies.
Information is also sparse on the nature and quality of
teaching and learning and of educational outcomes at all
levels in education systems |
| |
|
13. There is a powerful correlation between low enrolment,
poor retention and unsatisfactory learning outcomes and
the incidence of poverty. Experience in the post-Jomtien
decade, however, has demonstrated that significant progress
can be made towards the goals of Education for All where
there is a strong political commitment, backed by new
partnerships with civil society and more strategic support
from funding agencies. It is also clear that ensuring
that girls and boys benefit equally from education requires
nothing less than the integration of gender equality concerns
into the design and implementation of sector policies
and strategies. The importance of gathering and carefully
analysing reliable gender-disaggregated data at national
and subnational levels is evident. |
| |
|
14. The many factors that impinge on the demand for education
are now better understood, as are the multiple causes
that exclude children, young people and adults from learning
opportunities. The range of actions required to increase
the participation and retention of girls in school has
received widespread attention. Knowledge about the effectiveness
of teachers and other educators, the central role of appropriate
learning materials, the need for a context-specific mix
of 'old' and 'new' technologies, the importance of local
languages for initial literacy and the major influence
of the community in the life of schools and other education
programmes has increased. The value of early childhood
care and education for later school success and the need
for strong linkages between the different subsectors of
education and among basic education, health, nutrition,
safe water and the natural environment have received greater
attention and are better understood. |
| |
| Challenges
and opportunities |
| |
|
15. The tangible but modest gains overall of the past
decade still call for caution. Many countries continue
to face the challenges of defining the meaning, purpose
and content of basic education in the context of a fast-moving
world and of assessing learning outcomes and achievement.
Many of the qualitative and informal aspects of education
have still not been clearly assessed. The huge diversity
of contexts makes performance and achievements difficult
to measure and compare. Moreover, growing educational
disparities within and between countries are a matter
for serious concern |
| |
|
16. Many governments and agencies have focused their efforts
on the easy to reach and they have neglected those excluded
from a basic education, whether for social, economic or
geographic reasons. What is clear is that quality must
not suffer as access expands and that improvements in
quality should not benefit the economically well-off at
the expense of the poor, as has happened, for example,
in the expansion of early childhood care and education. |
| |
|
17. The education of girls remains a major challenge:
despite the international attention that it has received,
60 per cent of all children without access to primary
education are girls. |
| |
|
18. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where progress
has been most difficult to achieve, clearly present a
much deeper challenge than world averages imply and will
require particular attention if the goals of Education
for All are to be reached in each and every country. In
the Americas and the Caribbean, deep differences between
regions and social groups based on income inequality continue
to hamper progress towards Education for All and must
receive due attention |
| |
|
19. A key challenge is to ensure that the broad vision
of Education for All as an inclusive concept is reflected
in national government and funding agency policies. Education
for All must encompass not only primary education, but
also early childhood education, literacy and life skills
programmes. Using both formal and non-formal approaches,
it must take account of the needs of the poor and the
most disadvantaged, including working children, remote
rural dwellers and nomads, and ethnic and linguistic minorities,
children, young people and adults affected by conflict,
HIV/AIDS, hunger and poor health; and those with special
learning needs. It is encouraging that many governments,
funding agencies and civil society organizations are increasingly
rallying to this more inclusive and comprehensive view
of education. |
| |
|
20. Ensuring that Education for All is provided with adequate,
equitable and sustainable resources is the foremost challenge.
Many governments do not give education sufficient priority
in their national budgets. Too many do not use resources
for education effectively and efficiently and often subsidize
better-off groups at the expense of the poor. At the same
time, stabilization programmes often fail to protect education
budgets. As a direct consequence, user charges continue
to be a major deterrent to poor children attending school
and to young people and adults in need of non-formal learning.
In some countries, passing the cost burden on to poor
parents has had a devastating impact on enrolment and
retention. Education must neither exclude nor discriminate.
Every government has the responsibility to provide free,
quality basic education, so that no child will be denied
access because of an inability to pay. |
| |
|
21. Governments need to explore more actively alternative
and innovative ways of increasing the resources available
to support Education for All and to develop clearly defined
strategies for achieving EFA goals, for which they take
real and sustained ownership. Debt relief to the poorest
countries remains inadequate, with too little being provided
to too few countries too late. Debt reduction programmes
should offer governments an opportunity to give priority
to education within overall poverty reduction frameworks.
|
| |
|
22. While the proportion of international assistance allocated
to basic education increased in the 1990s, there was an
overall decline in total development assistance. The first
trend should be supported and the second reversed. There
is considerable scope for the international community
to demonstrate, in a co-operative and accountable way,
that it can be effective in supporting well-defined national
sector strategies and in helping to release the significant
additional resources that many funding agencies are willing
to provide. |
| |
|
23. New ways of working that are emerging within the wider
development context also represent opportunities for achieving
EFA goals. Greater co-operation between national and international
agencies at the country level, through structures and
mechanisms such as Comprehensive Development Frameworks,
Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans and United Nations Development
Assistance Frameworks, offers the potential for resource-related
partnerships for basic education. |
| |
|
24. Genuinely participatory development is more likely
to occur where there is a stronger and more vocal recognition
of education as a fundamental human right and where representative
democracy has taken root. The growing importance of participatory
poverty assessments and household surveys also highlights
a positive trend in the development of education programmes
and systems that are genuinely responsive to well-defined
needs and priorities. |
| |
|
25. While inadequate institutional capacity and weak political
processes still prevent many governments from responding
to the priorities of their citizens, the spread of democratic
principles around the world, the growing contribution
of civil society to democratic processes, the fight against
corruption and the process of decentralization that is
ongoing in many countries all have the potential to contribute
greatly to building a solid foundation for the achievement
of effective, equitable and sustainable Education for
All. |
| |
|
26. Globalization is both an opportunity and a challenge.
It is a process which must be shaped and managed so as
to ensure equity and sustainability. Globalisation is
generating new wealth and resulting in the greater interconnectedness
and interdependence of economies and societies. Driven
by the revolution in information technologies and the
increased mobility of capital, it has the potential to
help reduce poverty and inequality throughout the world,
and to harness the new technologies for basic education.
Yet globalisation carries with it the danger of creating
a market place in knowledge that excludes the poor and
the disadvantaged. Countries and households denied access
to opportunities for basic education in an increasingly
knowledge-based global economy face the prospect of deepening
marginalization within an increasingly prosperous international
economy |
| |
|
27. The threat posed by HIV/AIDS to the achievement of
EFA goals and to development more broadly, especially
in sub-Saharan Africa, presents an enormous challenge.
The terrifying impact of HIV/AIDS on educational demand,
supply and quality requires explicit and immediate attention
in national policy-making and planning. Programmes to
control and reduce the spread of the virus must make maximum
use of education's potential to transmit messages on prevention
and to change attitudes and behaviours |
| |
|
28. The significant growth of tensions, conflict and war,
both within nations and between nations and peoples, is
a cause of great concern. Education has a key role to
play in preventing conflict in the future and building
lasting peace and stability. |
| |
|
III
GOALS
|
| |
| "Basic
learning needs…comprise both essential learning tools…and
the basic learning content 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." (World Declaration
on Education for All, Article 1, paragraph 1). |
| |
|
29. The goals and strategies set out below establish a
Framework for Action that is designed to enable all individuals
to realize their right to learn and to fulfil their responsibility
to contribute to the development of their society. They
are global in nature, drawn from the outcomes of the regional
EFA conferences and the international development targets
to which countries are already committed. Individual countries,
through a process of consultation among all stakeholders
in education and with the assistance of the wider international
community and EFA follow-up mechanisms, should set their
own goals, intermediate targets and timelines, within
existing or new national education plans. |
| |
| 1
Expanding
and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education,
especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children |
| |
|
30. All young children must be nurtured in safe and caring
environments that allow them to become healthy, alert,
and secure and be able to learn. The past decade has provided
more evidence that good quality early childhood care and
education, both in families and in more structured programmes,
have a positive impact on the survival, growth, development
and learning potential of children. Such programmes should
be comprehensive, focusing on all of the child's needs
and encompassing health, nutrition and hygiene as well
as cognitive and psycho-social development. They should
be provided in the child's mother tongue and help to identify
and enrich the care and education of children with special
needs. Partnerships between governments, NGOs, communities
and families can help ensure the provision of good care
and education for children, especially for those most
disadvantaged, through activities centred on the child,
focused on the family, based within the community and
supported by national, multi-sectoral policies and adequate
resources. |
| |
|
31. Governments, across relevant ministries, have the
primary responsibility of formulating early childhood
care and education policies within the context of national
EFA plans, mobilizing political and popular support, and
promoting flexible, adaptable programmes for young children
that are appropriate to their age and not mere downward
extensions of formal school systems. The education of
parents and other caregivers in better child care, building
on traditional practices, and the systematic use of early
childhood indicators are important elements in achieving
this goal. |
| |
| 2
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls,
children in difficult circumstances and those belonging
to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free
and compulsory primary education of good quality |
| |
|
32. All children must have the opportunity to fulfil their
right to quality education in schools or alternative programmes
at whatever level of education is considered 'basic'.
All states must fulfil their obligation to offer free
and compulsory primary education in accordance with the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and
other international commitments. The international agreement
on the 2015 target date for achieving Universal Primary
Education (UPE) in all countries will require commitment
and political will from all levels of government. For
the millions of children living in poverty, who suffer
multiple disadvantages, there must be an unequivocal commitment
that education be free of tuition and other fees, and
that everything possible be done to reduce or eliminate
costs such as those for learning materials, uniforms,
school meals and transport. Wider social policies, interventions
and incentives should be used to mitigate indirect opportunity
costs of attending school. No one should be denied the
opportunity to complete a good quality primary education
because it is unaffordable. Child labour must not stand
in the way of education. The inclusion of children with
special needs, from disadvantaged ethnic minorities and
migrant populations, from remote and isolated communities
and from urban slums, and others excluded from education,
must be an integral part of strategies to achieve UPE
by 2015. |
| |
|
33. While commitment to attaining universal enrolment
is essential, improving and sustaining the quality of
basic education is equally important in ensuring effective
learning outcomes. In order to attract and retain children
from marginalized and excluded groups, education systems
should respond flexibly - providing relevant content in
an accessible and appealing format. Education systems
must be inclusive, actively seeking out children who are
not enrolled, and responding flexibly to the circumstances
and needs of all learners. The EFA 2000 Assessment suggests
a wide range of ways in which schools can respond to the
needs of their pupils, including affirmative action programmes
for girls that seek to remove the obstacles to their enrolment,
bilingual education for the children of ethnic minorities,
and a range of imaginative and diverse approaches to address
and actively engage children who are not enrolled in school. |
| |
| 3
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and
adults are met through equitable access to appropriate
learning and life skills programmes |
| |
|
34. All young people and adults must be given the opportunity
to gain the knowledge and develop the values, attitudes
and skills which will enable them to develop their capacities
to work, to participate fully in their society, to take
control of their own lives, and to continue learning.
No country can be expected to develop into a modern and
open economy without having a certain proportion of its
work force completing secondary education. In most countries
this requires an expansion of the secondary system. |
| |
|
35. Young people, especially adolescent girls, face risks
and threats that limit learning opportunities and challenge
education systems. These include exploitative labour,
the lack of employment, conflict and violence, drug abuse,
school-age pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. Youth-friendly programmes
must be made available which provide the information,
skills, counselling and services needed to protect them
from these risks. |
| |
|
36. All young people should be given the opportunity for
ongoing education. For those who drop out of school or
complete school without acquiring the literacy, numeracy
and life skills they need, there must be a range of options
for continuing their learning. Such opportunities should
be both meaningful and relevant to their environment and
needs, help them become active agents in shaping their
future and develop useful work-related skills. |
| |
| 4
Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult
literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable
access to basic and continuing education for all adults |
| |
|
37. All adults have a right to basic education, beginning
with literacy, which allows them to engage actively in,
and to transform, the world in which they live. There
are still some 880 million people who cannot read or write
in the world; two-thirds are women. The fragile levels
of literacy acquired by many new literates compound the
problem. Yet the education of adults remains isolated,
often at the periphery of national education systems and
budgets. |
| |
|
38. Adult and continuing education must be greatly expanded
and diversified, and integrated into the mainstream of
national education and poverty reduction strategies. The
vital role literacy plays in lifelong learning, sustainable
livelihoods, good health, active citizenship and the improved
quality of life for individuals, communities and societies
must be more widely recognized. Literacy and continuing
education are essential for women's empowerment and gender
equality. Closer linkages among formal, non-formal and
informal approaches to learning must be fostered to respond
to the diverse needs and circumstances of adults. |
| |
|
39. Sufficient resources, well-targeted literacy programmes,
better trained teachers and the innovative use of technologies
are essential in promoting these activities. The scaling
up of practical, participatory learning methodologies
developed by non-government organizations, which link
literacy with empowerment and local development, is especially
important. The success of adult education efforts in the
next decade will be essentially demonstrated by substantial
reduction in disparities between male-female and urban-rural
literacy rates. |
| |
| 5
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education
by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal
access to and achievement in basic education of good quality |
| |
|
40. Gender-based discrimination remains one of the most
intractable constraints to realising the right to education.
Without overcoming this obstacle, Education for All cannot
be achieved. Girls are a majority among out-of-school
children and youth, although in an increasing number of
countries boys are at a disadvantage. Even though the
education of girls and women has a powerful trans-generational
effect and is a key determinant of social development
and women's empowerment, limited progress has been made
in increasing girls' participation in basic education. |
| |
|
41. International agreement has already been reached to
eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005. This requires that gender issues be
mainstreamed throughout the education system, supported
by adequate resources and strong political commitment.
Merely ensuring access to education for girls is not enough;
unsafe school environments and biases in teacher behaviour
and training, teaching and learning processes, and curricula
and textbooks often lead to lower completion and achievement
rates for girls. By creating safe and gender-sensitive
learning environments, it should be possible to remove
a major hurdle to girls' participation in education. Increasing
levels of women's literacy is another crucial factor in
promoting girl's education. Comprehensive efforts therefore
need to be made at all levels and in all areas to eliminate
gender discrimination and to promote mutual respect between
girls and boys, women and men. To make this possible,
changes in attitudes, values and behaviour are required. |
| |
| 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 |
| |
|
42. Quality is at the heart of education, and what takes
place in classrooms and other learning environments is
fundamentally important to the future well-being of children,
young people and adults. A quality education is one that
satisfies basic learning needs, and enriches the lives
of learners and their overall experience of living. |
| |
|
43. Evidence over the past decade has shown that efforts
to expand enrolment must be accompanied by attempts to
enhance educational quality if children are to be attracted
to school, stay there and achieve meaningful learning
outcomes. Scarce resources have frequently been used for
expanding systems with insufficient attention to quality
improvement in areas such as teacher training and materials
development. Recent assessments of learning achievement
in some countries have shown that a sizeable percentage
of children is acquiring only a fraction of the knowledge
and skills they are expected to master. What students
are meant to learn has often not been clearly defined,
well-taught or accurately assessed. |
| |
|
44. Governments and all other EFA partners must to work
together to ensure basic education of quality for all,
regardless of gender, wealth, location, language or
ethnic origin. Successful education programmes require:
(1)
healthy, well-nourished and motivated students;
(2) well-trained teachers and active learning techniques;
(3) adequate facilities and learning materials;
(4)
a relevant curriculum that can be taught and learned
in a local language and builds upon the knowledge
and experience of the teachers and learners;
(5) an environment that not only encourages learning
but is welcoming, gender-sensitive, healthy and safe;
(6)
a clear definition and accurate assessment of learning
outcomes, including knowledge, skills, attitudes and,
values;
(7) participatory governance and management; and
(8) respect for and engagement with local communities
and cultures.
|
| |
|
IV
STRATEGIES
|
| |
|
45. Education for All is a basic human right at the heart
of development. It must be a national and international
priority that requires a strong and sustained political
commitment, enhanced financial allocations and the participation
of all EFA partners in the processes of policy design,
strategic planning and the implementation of programmes.
Achieving the six goals outlined above necessitates a
broad-based approach which extends well beyond the confines
of formal education systems. Building on the lessons of
the last decade, the implementation of the following strategies
will be critical in achieving Education for All. |
| |
| 1
Mobilize strong national and international political commitment
for Education for All, develop national action plans and
enhance significantly investment in basic education |
| |
|
46. The Jomtien Framework for Action stated that progress
in meeting the basic learning needs of all will depend
ultimately on the actions taken within individual countries.
This means first that governments must make firm political
commitments and allocate sufficient resources to all components
of basic education - an absolutely essential step to meeting
the state's obligation to all of its citizens. In many
countries this will require increasing the share of national
income and budgets allocated to education and, within
that, to basic education, balanced by reduced allocations
to sectors of lower development priority. Resources have
to be used with much greater efficiency and integrity,
and governments should set goals for more equitable spending
across education sub-sectors. Corruption is a major drain
on the effective use of resources for education and should
be drastically curbed. Structures are needed to enable
civil society to be part of transparent and accountable
budgeting and financing systems. Achieving Education for
All will also require more creative and sustained mobilisation
of resources from other parts of society, including different
levels of government, the private sector and non-governmental
organizations. |
| |
|
47. Even with improved mobilisation and allocation of
domestic resources, and enhanced efficiency in their use,
meeting all the education goals will require additional
funding from international development agencies. Funding
agencies should allocate a larger share of their resources
to support primary and other forms of basic education.
The regions and countries, where challenges are greatest,
which include much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,
least developed countries and countries emerging from
conflict, deserve particular attention. |
| |
|
48. No countries seriously committed to Education for
All will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal
by lack of resources. Funding agencies are willing to
allocate significant resources towards Education for All.
The key to releasing these resources is evidence of, or
potential for, sustained political commitment; effective
and transparent mechanisms for consultation with civil
society organizations in developing, implementing and
monitoring EFA plans; and a well-defined, consultative
processes for sector planning and management. |
| |
|
49. This commitment requires that funding agencies co-ordinate
their efforts to provide flexible development assistance
within the framework of sector-wide reforms and support
sector priorities within sound and coherent government-owned
poverty reduction programmes. High priority should be
given to providing earlier, deeper and broader debt relief
and/or debt cancellation for poverty reduction, with a
strong commitment to basic education. Debt relief should
not be a substitute for aid. |
| |
|
50. Funding agencies will need to make longer-term and
more predictable commitments, and to be more accountable
and transparent. They must provide timely and accurate
information on their disbursements, and ensure that there
is regular reporting at regional and international levels. |
| |
| 2
Promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well-integrated
sector framework clearly linked to poverty elimination
and development strategies |
| |
|
51. Education, starting with the care and education of
young children and continuing through lifelong learning,
is central to individual empowerment, the elimination
of poverty at household and community level, and broader
social and economic development. At the same time, the
reduction of poverty facilitates progress toward basic
education goals. There are evident synergies between strategies
for promoting education and those for reducing poverty
that must be exploited both in programme planning and
implementation. |
| |
|
52. A multi-sectoral approach to poverty elimination
requires that education strategies complement those
of the productive sectors as well as of health, population,
social welfare, labour, the environment and finance,
and be closely linked with civil society. Specific actions
in this regard include:
(1)
integrating basic education strategies into broader
national and international poverty alleviation measures
such as United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks
(UNDAFs), Comprehensive Development Frameworks and
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers; and
(2)
developing 'inclusive' education systems which explicitly
identify, target and respond flexibly to the needs
and circumstances of the poorest and the most marginalized.
|
| |
| 3
Ensure the engagement and participation of civil society
in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of strategies
for educational development |
| |
|
53. Learners, teachers, parents, communities, non-governmental
organizations and other bodies representing civil society
must be granted new and expanded political and social
scope, at all levels of society, in order to engage governments
in dialogue, decision-making and innovation around the
goals for basic education. Civil society has much experience
and a crucial role to play in identifying barriers to
EFA goals, and developing policies and strategies to remove
them. |
| |
|
54. Such participation, especially at the local level
through partnerships between schools and communities,
should not only be limited to endorsing decisions of,
or financing programmes designed by, the state. Rather,
at all levels of decision-making, governments must put
in place regular mechanisms for dialogue enabling citizens
and civil society organizations to contribute to the planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of basic education.
This is essential in order to foster the development of
accountable, comprehensive and flexible educational management
frameworks. In order to facilitate this process, capacity
will often have to be developed in the civil society organizations. |
| |
| 4
Develop responsive, participatory and accountable systems
of educational governance and management |
| |
|
55. The experience of the past decade has underscored
the need for better governance of education systems in
terms of efficiency, accountability, transparency and
flexibility so that they can respond more effectively
to the diverse and continuously changing needs of learners.
Reform of educational management is urgently needed -
to move from highly centralised, standardised and command-driven
forms of management to more decentralised and participatory
decision-making, implementation and monitoring at lower
levels of accountability. These processes must be buttressed
by a management information system that benefits from
both new technologies and community participation to produce
timely, relevant and accurate information. |
| |
|
56. Country EFA reports and regional action frameworks
stemming from the EFA 2000 Assessment recommend the
following:
(1)
establish better regulatory frameworks and administrative
mechanisms for managing not only formal and non-formal
primary education, but also early childhood, youth
and adult education programmes;
(2)
more sharply delineate responsibilities among different
levels of government;
(3) ensure that decentralisation does not lead to
inequitable distribution of resources;
(4) make more efficient use of existing human and
financial resources;
(5)
improve capacities for managing diversity, disparity
and change;
(6)
integrate programmes within education and strengthen
their convergence with those of other sectors, especially
health, labour and social welfare; and
(7) provide training for school leaders and other
education personnel.
|
| |
| 5
Meet the needs of education systems affected by conflict,
natural calamities and instability and conduct educational
programmes in ways that promote mutual understanding,
peace and tolerance, and that help to prevent violence
and conflict |
| |
