When a majority of the world's countries committed at the turn of the new century to achieve Education for All (EFA) by 2015, they did so with the confidence that the EFA goals would stand the test of time. They are making a difference. Remarkable gains have been registered in many of the world's poorest countries towards universal primary education and gender parity. But we still have a long way to go. Progress has been too slow and too uneven in many countries. There is now a clear and present danger that some key goals will not be achieved. Averting that danger is vital, not just because education is a basic human right, but also because it is crucial for improving child and maternal health, individual incomes, environmental sustainability and economic growth, and for driving progress towards all the Millennium Development Goals. This seventh edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report offers a warning to governments, donors and the international community. On current trends universal primary education will not be achieved by 2015.
Too many children are receiving an education of such poor quality that they leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills. Finally, deep and persistent disparities based on wealth, gender, location, ethnicity and other markers for disadvantage are acting as a major barrier to progress in education. If the world's governments are serious about Education for All, they must get more serious about tackling inequality.
This Report persuasively argues that equity must be at the centre of the EFA agenda, to offset rising inequalities. Financing and governance reforms have an important role to play. Developing countries are not spending enough on basic education and donors have not lived up to their commitments. Stagnating aid to education is a serious concern for educational prospects in a large number of low-income countries. This clearly has to change in order to achieve EFA. But increased financing without equity will not benefit the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. A pro-poor approach to education policy is imperative for the goals to have meaning for the world's out-of-school children and 776 million adult illiterates.
The Report presents some of the public policy and governance reforms that can break the cycle of disadvantage, improve access, raise quality, and enhance participation and accountability.
