 |
|
World Education Forum >
Press Kit > |
| |
|
|
The Road to Dakar: Ten Years of
Education for All |
| |
|
|
|
| ( -pdf
) |
|
| The
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. |
|
| 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. |
|
| Drafted
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. |
|
| The
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. |
|
| The
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. |
|
|
The Importance of Education
Education
is the single most important means to fight
poverty; no country has ever succeeded in
overcoming poverty without education.
Education
for women and girls is a crucial factor in
everything from raising literacy and living standards
to lowering population and mortality rates.
The
concept of learning throughout life has
replaced the traditional distinction between the
school years and what comes after.
Learning is
the key to sustainable
development.
Education should reach the
unreached.
Enhancing learning improves the
quality of life.
Access to
education along with its quality are the
etermining factors in its
success.
Adaptability and flexibility
are the new survival skills, essential to meet the
challenges of a rapidly changing
world.
Education leads to a heightened
environmental awareness, a greater knowledge of basic
rights and duties, and a greater participation in
civic
life. | |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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.” |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
| 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. |
|
|
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.
| |
|
|
