The
Road to Dakar:
Ten Years of Education for All |
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1990s -- the Education for All decade -- saw the decline of
Communism, a revolution in communications and information technologies,
galloping globalization, the collapse of financial markets,
the spread of HIV/AIDS and increased poverty and ethnic conflicts.
These developments had profound effects on education. |
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 Ten
years ago, representatives from 155 countries and 150 organizations
pledged to provide education for all by the year 2000 at the
World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand). With
the statement that “Every person – child, youth and adult –
shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed
to meet their basic learning needs”, the World Declaration on
Education For All defined a bold new direction in education. |
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by education ministers and national and international organizations,
the Declaration rang the death-knell for rigid, prescriptive
education systems and ushered in an era where flexible systems
could thrive. From now on, education would be tailor-made, adapted
to the needs, culture and circumstances of learners. |
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decision to review progress a decade later was taken in Jomtien.
Two important milestones intervened in 1996. The mid-decade
conference held in Amman, Jordan, noted considerable progress
but was hampered by weak reporting from participating countries
– underlining the need for an in-depth assessment. The report
to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the
Twenty-first Century promoted a holistic view of education consisting
of four “pillars”: learning to know, learning to do, learning
to be and learning to live together. The text was widely adopted. |
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World Education Forum (26-28 April 2000, Dakar, Senegal) is
unique because it has been preceded by the global EFA 2000 Assessment,
two years of “homework” which will provide a critical mass of
information to help ensure that educational programmes are rooted
in the real world. |
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This global exercise is the most comprehensive study ever
made of basic education. It was carried out by national teams
assisted by ten regional advisory groups, comprising UNDP, UNESCO,
UNFPA, UNICEF, the World Bank, bilateral donor agencies, development
banks and inter-governmental organizations. |
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From the United States to Fiji, from Chile to Mongolia,
countries have worked hard to produce and analyse top-quality
data covering the six targets agreed on at the 1990 World Conference
on Education for All. “It is a qualitative as well as a quantitative
assessment,” says Svein Osttveit, Executive Secretary of the
International Consultative Forum on Education for All, the body
set up in Jomtien to monitor and advise on progress and to keep
education for all on development agendas. Denise Lievesley,
Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, sees it as
“a vital benchmark to enable us to assess progress in the future
and to ensure that any targets we make are realistic and are
accompanied by appropriate resources.” |
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In the run-up to the World Education Forum, five regional
preparatory conference and a conference of the nine high-population
countries (E9) took place between December 1999 and February
2000 (in Johannesburg, South Africa; Bangkok, Thailand; Cairo,
Egypt; Recife, Brazil; Warsaw, Poland; and Santo Domingo, the
Dominican Republic). Delegates at these regional meetings were
able to carry out the fullest possible stocktaking of education
in each region by examining national EFA reports and mapping
educational policy and reforms in each country. The global synthesis
report, which will be presented at Dakar, will give the most
accurate picture to date of the state of basic education in
the world. |
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Basic education around the world is a picture characterized
by contrasts. The 1990s, some observers claim, have seen a crisis
in education with 113 million out-of-school children, widespread
discrimination against girls, nearly a billion illiterate adults
– mostly women – dilapidated schools, and a shortage of qualified
teachers and learning materials. Others point out that the number
of children in school has soared (from 599 million in 1990 to
681 millions in 1998) and that many countries are now approaching
full primary school enrolment for the first time. |
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While the donor community is criticized for dwindling
aid commitment, countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil and Egypt
are earmarking close to 6 per cent of their gross national product
(GNP) for education. For some African countries, education absorbs
up to a third of their national budgets, although several of
them spend as much on debt repayment as on health and basic
education combined. |
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Disparities in quality are also widespread. Over-conservative
education systems are out of touch with young people’s needs,
in sharp contrast to the plethora of initiatives that successfully
adapt learning to local needs or reach out to marginalized populations
with skills training and income-generating activities. New media
and virtual networks are also starting to shake the dust off
education systems. |
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There are daunting challenges ahead: how to reach out
with education to HIV/AIDS orphans in regions such as Africa
where the pandemic is wreaking havoc; how to offer education
to the ever-increasing number of refugees and displaced people;
how to help teachers acquire a new understanding of their role
and how to harness the new technologies to benefit the poor.
And probably the most daunting challenge of all – in a world
with 700 million people living in 42 highly indebted countries
– how to help education overcome poverty and give millions of
children a chance to realize their full potential. |
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The dawn of the new Education for All decade is an opportunity
to redefine education strategies to cope with the legacy of
the 1990s and to help learning keep up with the pace of change. |
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The road to Dakar has been a rich learning experience
for everyone involved in education. The learning society is
within reach and the World Education Forum will be an important
milestone towards its achievement. |
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Meeting
Basic Learning Needs:
An International Priority
The
World Conference on Education for All in 1990 helped
move education back to the centre of the international
development agenda. A series of global conferences
in the 1990s all reaffirmed international commitment
to the Education for All goals. Chief among them were
the World Summit for Children, 1990; the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, 1992; the
World Conference on Human Rights, 1993; the International
Conference on Population and Development, 1994; the
World Conference on Special Needs Education, 1994;
the World Summit for Social Development, 1995; the
Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995; the International
Conference on Adult Education, 1997 and the International
Conference on Child Labour, 1997.
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Education
is the single most important means to fight poverty;
no country has ever succeeded in overcoming poverty
without education.
