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Education for All: Facing the challenge

Toronto, April 26, 2005

Éducation pour tous : Relever le défi

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• Chart progress towards the six Dakar goals adopted in 2000

• Hold the global community to account for its commitments

• Highlight effective policies and strategies

• Monitor international aid flows

• Draw attention to emerging challenges

• An international project funded by five bilateral donors

An independent annual report, an advocacy and reference tool to:

Introducing the report

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• The world is not on track to achieve the six EFA goals and the two Millennium Development Goals on education

• Investing in education is a key to poverty reduction

• More children are going to school than ever before but many drop out before grade 5 or graduate without mastering basic cognitive skills

• National policy change supported by more resources from the international community are required to reach the goals

• 2005 is a year of “make or break” opportunities (G-8 Summit on Africa, UN Millennium Summit)

Education for AllTHE QUALITY IMPERATIVE

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Education for AllDakar goals and Millennium Development

GoalsEFA Goals MDGs

1.Expanding early childhood care and education2. Universal primary education by 20153. Equitable access to learning and life skills programmes for young people and adults4. 50% improvement in adult literacy rates by 20155. Gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 20156. Improving quality of education

Goal 2: Achieve Universal primary education(Target 3: Completion of full primary schooling by all children by 2015)

Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women(Target 4: eliminate gender disparity preferably by 2005 and no later than 2015)

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Progress towards universal primary education

NET ENROLMENT RATIOS IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

81.7% in 1990, 84% in 2001

Pace of change too slow to reach UPE by 2015

Net enrolment ratio:

85% in 2005, 87% in 2015

103.5 million out-of-school

children in 2001

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Central Asia N. AmericaW. Europe

LatinAmerica

Caribbean

Centr./ East.Europe

Arab States East AsiaPacif ic

South/ WestAsia

Sub-SaharanAfrica

Out-of-school children by region (in millions), 2001

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Girls’ enrolment lags behind boys’ in 40% of

countries at primary level

Disparities more extreme at secondary

and tertiary levels

57% of out of school children are girls, 60% countries not on track to meet

2005 gender parity target

Gender Parity Index (F/M), 2001

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

South/WestAsia

Sub-SaharanAfrica

Arab States Centr/ East.Europe

LatinAmerica/Caribbean

Central Asia East Asia/Pacif ic

N. America/West. Europe

GP

I

primary secondary

Gender parity

Gender parity in 2005?

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• Stark regional inequalities: a child in Africa spends five to six fewer years in school than one in Western Europe

• Drop-out: in 30 out of 91 countries with data, less than 75% of children reach grade 5

• International assessments (SACMEQ, PASEC) point to weak performance in reading and mathematics, PISA points to poor literacy skills in middle and low-income OECD countries

• Large classrooms: pupil-teacher ratios on the rise in countries where education has expanded rapidly.

• Lack of teacher training and poor conditions of service hinder learning in many low-income countries.

In many low-income countries more than one third of children have limited reading skills even after

four to six years in school

Quality deficits

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• Slow global progress: in the majority of countries, GER in pre-primary education is still below 50%

• Children from disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to be excluded

• Attendance rates considerably higher for urban children than those living in rural areas

A strong influence on futureschool performance, a positive impact on girls’ enrolment in primary

Progress towards ECCE

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64% of adult illiterates are women

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2

World

South/West Asia

Arab States

Sub-Saharan Africa

East Asia/Pacif ic

Centr/East. Europe

Latin America/ Caribbean

N. America/West. Europe

Central Asia

Gender parity

GPI (F/M) in adult literacy, 2000-2004

800 million adults without literacy, 70% live in nine countries

Literacy and adult learning

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Overall progress

Countries far from meeting the goals, including 22 in sub-Saharan Africa, plus population giants – Bangladesh, India and Pakistan

The EFA Development Index covers 127 countries and incorporates the four most “quantifiable”

EFA goals

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51

41

EDI

0.95-1.00

0.80-0.94

less than 0.80

Countries have achieved the goals or are close to doing so

Countries in intermediate position. In about half, quality of education lags behind other goals

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• Reaching all learners: poverty, conflict, HIV/AIDS and disabilities keep millions of children away from school

• Strategies to close the gender gap in education

• Recognize links between access and quality and impact of literacy and early childhood care on schooling

• Improve quality: investing in teachers, training, classrooms, learning materials and school management

• Increased aid to basic education and better harmonization of external assistance

Setting priorities

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• Incentives to reduce child labour and encourage schooling: school meals, stipends to families, scholarships

• Gender sensitive teacher training, curriculum and teaching methods to overcome prejudice and stereotyping

• Making HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health education a priority in all school programmes

• Safe schools close to home, adequate sanitation facilities

• Legislative and policy reform to create enabling environment

Removing gender gaps in education should have first priority in all programmes of school expansion and

quality improvement

Gendered strategies for EFA

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Only one-third of students reach last grade of primary education where pupil/teacher ratios are high

Iraq

Mauritania

Cambodia

Bolivia

Colombia

Cuba

GuatemalaNicaragua

Bangladesh

India

Burkina Faso

Chad

Ethiopia

LesothoMadagascar

MalawiMozambique

Niger

Senegal

South Africa

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Survival to last grade (%)

PT

R

Primary education: pupil/teacher ratios and survival to the last grade, 2001

In the classroom: investing in teachers

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• Earnings: In Africa, teacher earnings were lower in real terms in 2000 than they were in 1970.

• Recruitment: more flexible pathways

• Training: priority to school-based models and ongoing professional support

• Pedagogical renewal: structured teaching is an option in low-income settings. Teacher presents material in small steps, checks student understanding and encourages interaction

Effective teachers

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• Curriculum: relevant, gender sensitive, balanced with carefully defined aims

• Instructional time: few countries reach recommended 850-1,000 hours/year

• Learning materials: strong impact on learning but small percentage of education spending goes to textbooks

• Language: Successful models start in mother tongue and make gradual transition to second or foreign language

• School environment: safety, health, sanitation for girls and boys, access for disabled

Other essentials that make the difference

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• 6% of GNP recommended on education spending not reached in majority of countries

• Education spending higher in rich countries (5.1% of GNP) than in systems where access and quality remain a top challenge (under 4% in Africa and East Asia/Pacific)

• Spending increases in East Asia and Pacific and Latin American and Caribbean in late 1990s, but -24% in Philippines; -8% in Indonesia

In low income countries, increasing spending has a positive impact on learners’ cognitive achievement

National resources: finance and quality

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Argentina

Brazil

Chile

Indonesia

Peru

AustraliaAustria

Belgium

Canada

Czech Rep.Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

JapanRep. of Korea

Mexico

Norway

PolandPortugal

Spain

SwedenUK

USA

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

0 10 000 20 000 30 000 40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 80 000 90 000

Cumulative education expenditure per pupil (PPP US$)

Av

era

ge

co

mb

ine

d li

tera

cy

sc

ore

Students in countries that invest more in education tend to have better literacy skills. In high-income

states, the impact of additional resources is less clear

National resources: finance and quality

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The Dakar Pledge: No country seriously committed to education will be thwarted by lack of resources

International commitments: the need for sustained investment

US$7 billion / year Required to reach UPE

US$1.5 billion / year Current aid to basic education

US$3.2 billion / year New pledges

US$5.5 billion / year Resource gap

Fast Track Initiative: In the first ten countries endorsed, a financing gap of US$200 million remains

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23.5% of total Canadian aid goes to education, a significant increase observed in past 5 years. DAC average: 10%.

Basic education accounts for 61% of total Canadian aid to education; up from 43% in 2002. DAC average: 29%

41.5% of Canadian education aid goes to Sub-Saharan Africa; 20.5% to South and West Asia

Fragmentation: donors disburse aid to an average 63 countries. Canada provides aid to an average 53 countries

Canada’s rising investment in education

Canada ranks 6th among the 21 DAC bilateral donors to education (2003 DAC figures)

Canada’s ratio of official development assistance to GNI is 0.24%, below the recommended 0.7%

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New resources mobilized to achieve the six EFA goals, especially for countries with national EFA plans? Are these resources consistent with the scale required?

A global store of knowledge about policies that strongly help to improve equitable access to an education of good quality?

International aid better harmonized, aligned and used effectively to support sound, nationally owned education-sector policies?

EFA fully integrated in wider international discourse and action in support of the MDGs and poverty reduction?

Assessing success

Imagine a retrospective evaluation on international coordination in 2015. Key judgements to be made:

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EFA Global Monitoring Report

c/o UNESCO

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75352 Paris 07 SP, France

EFA Global Monitoring Report

www.efareport.unesco.org

efareport@unesco.org

Launch of 2006 Report: 9 November 2005