Education for All achievements clouded by failure to deliver on goals
The latest Global Monitoring Report shows that despite progress made to achieve Education for All, the goals are set to remain out of reach 15 years after they were launched.
The launch of this year’s Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) comes as the global community prepares to finalise development goals for the next 15 years. The results show that much work needs to happen before 2030.
Although Education International (EI) has welcomed the release of “ Education for All 2000-2015: achievements and challenges”, which assesses the extent to which the six EFA goals and the 12 strategies agreed to implement in Dakar, Senegal in 2000 have been achieved, in spited of its major shortcomings. Education International has warned for some time that the goals would not be realised.
At its release 23 April in the Netherlands, EI Coordinator Jefferson Pessi shared the organisations views on the report. Despite failing to achieve any of the goals, significant progress has been made.
- the number of children enrolled in pre-primary education increased by 2/3 since 1999
- the primary school net enrolment ratio increased from 88% in 1999 to 93% in 2015
- 69% of the countries are expected to reach gender parity by the end of the year
However, the failures have led many to re-evaluate the way forward as the UN sets to adapt new goals later this year.
- 68 million children of primary going age are still out of school
- Gender inequalities remain a serious concern
- Children in conflict or post-post conflict situations remain out of school
These results confirm the findings of EI’s own EFA assessment, which clearly shows that the goals will be missed. Education International is going to launch its extensive assessment report at the World Education Forum (WEF) in Incheon, South Korea, in May.
Education International says that the failure to achieve the goals has been compounded by the critical shortage of qualified teachers, with less than 75% of them trained to national standards. Also, governments’ failure to invest sufficient financial and other resources in education has hindered the achievement of these goals.
In advance of the WEF, EI is encouraging affiliates to use the GMR results to put pressure on their governments to deliver on its promises and to commit to supporting a robust education agenda after 2015 in the ongoing UN negotiations on future Sustainable Development Goals.
Learn more here about the UpForSchool petition campaign that is aiming to deliver millions of signatures to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
