Last Updated: Monday, 27 July 2009
Summary
Eight years have passed since representatives
of more than 160 governments gathered at
the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal,
to adopt an ambitious Framework for Action
aimed at expanding learning opportunities
for children, youth and adults. At the heart of the
Framework is a pledge to achieve six Education for All
(EFA) goals. The Dakar promise extends from early
childhood care and education (ECCE) and universal
primary education (UPE) to gender equality, the spread
of adult literacy, the expansion of skills programmes
for youth and adults, and improvements in the quality
of education. Underpinning the Framework is a
commitment to inclusive and equitable education
provision and opportunity for all the world’s citizens.
This edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report comes
at a critical moment. With the 2015 deadline for some
key goals just over the horizon, there are worrying signs
of a large-scale shortfall. Remarkable gains have been
registered in many of the world’s poorest countries,1
but the distance remaining is great. Governments and
aid donors have to act with a renewed sense of urgency
and shared commitment to deliver on the pledges they
made in 2000. These promises cannot wait and time
is running out.
The Report, titled Overcoming Inequality: Why
Governance Matters, identifies deep and persistent
disparities based on income, gender, location, ethnicity
and other markers for disadvantage as a major barrier
to progress in education. Inequity in education is linked
to wider disparities in the distribution of power, wealth
and opportunity. And it is perpetuated by policies that
either tolerate or actively exacerbate an unfair
distribution of life chances – policies that fuel the
transmission of poverty across generations.
This report was produced by the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and released in 2008.
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