Education is a right, like the right to have proper food or a roof over your head. Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to education”. Education is not only a right but a passport to human development. It opens doors and expands opportunities and freedoms. It contributes to fostering peace, democracy and economic growth as well as improving health and reducing poverty. The ultimate aim of Education for All (EFA) is sustainable development.In the year 2000, the world’s governments adopted the six EFA goals and the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the two most important frameworks in the field of education. The education priorities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are shaped by these objectives.The two sets of goals are an ambitious roadmap for the global community to follow. They offer a long-term vision of reduced poverty and hunger, better health and education, sustainable lifestyles, strong partnerships and shared commitments.The EFA goals and MDGs are complementary: as Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General, says: “When you fund education, you are securing progress towards all the Millennium Development Goals”.Education for All Goals

Goal 1: Expand early childhood care and education Goal 2: Provide free and compulsory primary education for all Goal 3: Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults Goal 4: Increase adult literacy Goal 5: Achieve gender parity Goal 6: Improve the quality of education

Millennium Development Goals Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Why is education important?

Pupils attend a class in an all girls' school as part of a World Food Programme (WFP) food-for-education scheme, encouraging student enrollment.

Education beats poverty: one extra year of schooling increases a person’s earnings by up to 10%. 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty if all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills.

Education promotes gender equality by helping women control how many children they have. In Mali, women with secondary education or higher have an average of three children, while those with no education have an average of seven children.

Education reduces child mortality: a child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past age five. In Indonesia, child vaccination rates are 19% when mothers have no education and 68% when mothers have at least secondary school education.

Education contributes to improved maternal health:women with higher levels of education are most likely to delay and space out pregnancies, and to seek health care and support.

Education helps combat HIV, malaria and other preventable diseases. In addition, it facilitates access to treatment and fights against stigma and discrimination.

Education encourages environmental sustainability. It allows people make decisions that meet the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), launched in 2005, urges countries to rethink education, curricula and teaching practice in ways that complement the drive to achieve EFA.

Education helps global development. An estimated $16 billion in aid is needed annually to reach the EFA goals in poor countries. However, in 2008 poor countries received only $2 billion in aid for basic education. The worldwide military expenditure for 2009 was $1.5 trillion.

Six Goals of Education Equity

Public schools can do what they choose to educate their students within certain limits and parameters, but they are accountable for educating all learners to high academic standards and outcomes regardless of differing characteristics of those learners. Bradley Scott, Ph.D., (director of the equity assistance center at IDRA) has proposed six goals of education equity. The IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity, has embraced the goals of educational equity. The nine other equity assistance centers have embraced the goals as well.While the goals are still a work in progress, the SCCE has been using them as a framework for providing technical assistance to and becoming engaged with the school districts with which it works in federal Region VI.Goal 1: Comparably high academic achievement and other student outcomesAs data on academic achievement and other student outcomes are disaggregated and analyzed, one sees high comparable performance for all identifiable groups of learners, and achievement

and performance gaps are virtually non-existent.Goal 2: Equitable access and inclusionThe unobstructed entrance into, involvement of and full participation of learners in schools, programs and activities within those schools.Goal 3: Equitable treatmentPatterns of interaction between individuals and within an environment characterized by acceptance, valuing, respect, support, safety and security such that students feel challenged to become invested in the pursuits of learning and excellence without fear of threat, humiliation, danger or disregard.Goal 4: Equitable opportunity to learnAt minimum, the creation of learning opportunities so that every child, regardless of characteristics and identified needs, is presented with the challenge to reach high standards and are given the requisite pedagogical, social, emotional and psychological supports to achieve the high standards of excellence that are established.Goal 5: Equitable resourcesFunding, staffing and other resources for equity-based excellence that are manifested in the existence of equitably assigned qualified staff, appropriate facilities, other environmental learning spaces, instructional hardware and software, instructional materials and equipment, and all other instructional supports, are distributed in an equitable and fair manner such that the notion that all diverse learners must achieve high academic standards and other school outcomes become possible.Goal 6: AccountabilityThe assurance that all education stakeholders accept responsibility and hold themselves and each other responsible for every learner having full access to quality education, qualified teachers, challenging curriculum, full opportunity to learn, and appropriate, sufficient support for learning so they can achieve at excellent levels in academic and other student outcomes.

World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal, 2000)

In 2000, ten years later, the international community met again at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, an event which drew 1100 participants. The forum took stock of the fact that many countries were far from having reached the goals established at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990. The participants agreed on the Dakar Framework for Action which re-affirmed their commitment to achieving Education for All by the year 2015, and identified six key measurable education goals which aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. In addition, the forum reaffirmed UNESCO’s role as the lead organization with the overall responsibility of coordinating other agencies and organizations in the attempts to achieve these goals. The six goals established in The Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments are:

Goal 1: Expand early childhood care and education[2]

Goal 2: Provide free and compulsory primary education for all[3]

Goal 3: Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults[4]

Goal 4: Increase adult literacy by 50 percent[5]

Goal 5: Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015[6]

Goal 6: Improve the quality of education[7]

In order to evaluate each country's progress with regards to the EFA's goals set in the Dakar Framework for Action, UNESCO has developed the Education for All Development Index (EDI). The EDI measures four of the six EFA goals, selected on the basis of data availability. Each of the four goals is evaluated using a specific indicator, and each of those components is then assigned an equal weight in the overall index.The EDI value for a given country is thus the arithmetic mean of the four indicators. Since they are all expressed as percentages, the EDI value can vary from 0 to 100% or, when expressed as a ratio, from 0 to 1. The higher the EDI value, the closer the country is to achieving Education For All as a whole.

The four goals measured in the EDI and their corresponding indicators are: Goal 1: Expand early childhood care and education - The indicator selected to measure progress towards this

goal is the total primary net enrolment ratio (NER), which measures the percentage of primary-school-age children who are enrolled in either primary or secondary school. Its value varies from 0 to 100%. Therefore, a NER of 100% means that all eligible children are enrolled in school.

Goal 4: Increase adult literacy by 50 percent - Although existing data on literacy are not entirely satisfactory, the adult literacy rate for those aged 15 and above is used here as a proxy to measure progress.

Goal 5: Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015: The indicator selected to measure progress towards this goal is the gender-specific EFA index, the GEI, which is itself a simple average of the three gender parity indexes (GPI) for primary education, secondary education and adult literacy, with each being weighted equally. Therefore it encompasses the two sub-goals of the original EFA goal: gender parity (achieving equal

participation of girls and boys in primary and secondary education) and gender equality (ensuring that educational equality exists between boys and girls) proxied by the GPI for adult literacy

Goal 6: Improve the quality of education - The survival rate to Grade 5 was selected for as being the best available proxy for assessing the quality component of EDI, as comparable data are available for a large number of countries.[8]

About Education for All

The Education for All movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and

adults. The movement was launched at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990 by UNESCO, UNDP, UNFPA,

UNICEF and the World Bank. Participants endorsed an 'expanded vision of learning' and pledged to universalize primary

education and massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade.

Ten years later, with many countries far from having reached this goal, the international community met again in Dakar,

Senegal, and affirmed their commitment to achieving Education for All by the year 2015. They identified six key education

goals which aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

As the lead agency, UNESCO has been mandated to coordinate the international efforts to reach Education for All.

Governments, development agencies, civil society, non-government organizations and the media are but some of the

partners working toward reaching these goals.

The EFA goals also contribute to the global pursuit of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by 189

countries and world’s leading development institutions in 2000. Two MDGs relate specifically to education but none of the

eight MDGs can be achieved without sustained investment in education. Education gives the skills and knowledge to

improve health, livelihoods and promote sound environmental practices.

- Education For all Goals

Six internationally agreed education goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

Goal 1 Expand early children care and education

The goal calls for better and more possibilities to support young children, and their families and communities, in all the

areas where the child is growing – physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. It also lays special emphasis on

children who suffer disadvantage or who are particularly vulnerable, for example those living in poverty, AIDS orphans,

rural and minority children, and in some situations girls as a whole.

In a World Context

Major global disparities in provision continue to divide the world's richest and poorest children. In 2006 pre-primary gross

enrolment ratios averaged 79 per cent in developed countries and 36 per cent in developing countries, falling as low as 14

per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Global disparities are mirrored in wide gaps within countries, especially between the

richest and poorest children.(EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009)

Goal 2 - Provide free and compulsory primary education for all

as boys - go to school and finish primary education. This should happen by 2015 at the latest. Primary schooling must be

entirely free of charge and be compulsory for every child. Some groups of children need special attention, for instance

those who belong to minority groups and those whose circumstances are particularly difficult.

In a World Context

The average net enrolment ratios for developing countries have continued to increase since Dakar. Sub-Saharan Africa

raised its average net enrolment ratio from 54 to 70 per cent between 1999 and 2006, for an annual increase six times

greater than during the decade before Dakar. The increase in South and West Asia was also impressive, rising from 75

per cent to 86 per cent. In 2006, some 75 million children, 55 per cent girls, were not in school, almost half in sub-Saharan

Africa. On current trends, millions of children will still be out of school in 2015 – the target date for universal primary

education. Projections for 134 countries accounting for some two-thirds of out-of-school children in 2006 suggest that

some 29 million children will be out of school in 2015 in these countries alone. (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009)

Goal 3 – Promote learning, skills for young people and adults

This goal places the emphasis on the learning needs of young people and adults in the context of lifelong learning. It calls

for equitable access to learning programmes that are appropriate, and mentions life skills particularly. We should note too

that EFA Goal 6 also refers to essential life skills as a desirable outcome of quality basic education.

In a World Context

Governments are not giving priority to youth and adult learning needs in their education policies. Meeting the lifelong

needs of youth and adults needs stronger political commitment and more public funding. It will also require more clearly

defined concepts and better data for effective monitoring. (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009)

Goal 4 – Increase adult literacy by 50 per cent

This goal calls for a certain level of improvement in adult literacy by 2015 – it says that it should be 50 per cent better than

it was in 2000. The needs of women should receive particular attention. In addition, all adults should have opportunities to

go on learning throughout their lives.

In a World Context

An estimated 776 million adults – or 16 per cent of the world’s adult population – lack basic literacy skills. About two-thirds

are women. Most countries have made little progress in recent years. If current trends continue, there will be over 700

million adults lacking literacy skills in 2015. Between 1985–1994 and 2000–2006, the global adult literacy rate increased

from 76 per cent to 84 per cent. However, forty-five countries have adult literacy rates below the developing country

average of 79 per cent, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and South and West Asia. Nearly all of them are off track to meet

the adult literacy target by 2015. Nineteen of these countries have literacy rates of less than 55 per cent. (EFA Global

Monitoring Report 2009)

Goal 5 – Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015

This goal calls for an equal number of girls and boys to be enrolled in primary and secondary school by 2005 – this is

what gender parity means (even though not all girls and boys may be enrolled at this stage). It further aims to achieve

gender equality in education by 2015. This is a more ambitious goal, meaning that all girls and boys have equal

opportunity to enjoy basic education of high quality, achieve at equal levels and enjoy equal benefits from education.

Where the World Stands

In 2006, of the 176 countries with data, 59 had achieved gender parity in both primary and secondary education – 20

countries more than in 1999. At the primary level, about two-thirds of countries had achieved parity. However, more than

half the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia and the Arab States had not reached the target. Only 37

per cent of countries worldwide had achieved gender parity at secondary level. (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009)

Goal 6: Improve the quality of education

This goal calls for improvement in the quality of education in all its aspects, aiming for a situation where people can

achieve excellence. Everyone should be able to achieve learning outcomes that are recognized and can be measured,

particularly with regard to literacy, numeracy and other skills essential for life.

In a World Context

International assessments highlight large achievement gaps between students in rich and poor countries. Within countries

too, inequality exists between regions, communities, schools and classrooms. These disparities have important

implications not just in education but for the wider distribution of opportunities in society. In developing countries there are

substantially higher proportions of low learning achievement. Many essential resources taken for granted in developed

countries remain scarce in developing countries – including basic infrastructure such as electricity, seats and textbooks.

There are large national and regional disparities in pupil/teacher ratios, with marked teacher shortages in South and West

Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. (EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009)