Inter Press Service - November 13, 2002
Sanjay Suri

But 83 countries are on track to achieve Education For All (EFA) by the deadline of 2015 set at the World Education Forum in Dakar in Senegal two and a half years ago, says the report by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

The 'Education For All Global Monitoring Report: Is the World on Track?' shows that almost a third of the world's population lives in countries where achieving the EFA goals remains a dream, says Professor Christopher Colclough, an eminent British education and development expert who is also Director of the Report.

"The findings will be a challenge to the education policies of several countries," Prof Colclough told IPS. "A lot of additional resources needed can be found domestically. But there are countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa who will need international help if they are to get anywhere near those goals."

The present atmosphere where many of the richer countries are looking at the cost of war on Iraq could affect aid for education, he said. "If resources that are needed for development go to war, that will not help."

UNESCO will raise the need for greater international support for education at a meeting of government representatives and members of independent agencies in Nigeria next week, he said. Education aid will also be high on the agenda at a follow-up meeting in Brussels, he said.

The Dakar Forum agreed on six goals, which were considered to be essential, attainable and affordable, given strong international commitment and resolve.

Those goals are: to ensure, by 2015, that all children of primary school age would have more access to and complete free schooling of acceptable quality; that gender disparities in schooling would be eliminated; levels of adult illiteracy would be halved; early childhood care and education would be expanded; learning opportunities for youth and adults would be greatly increased; and all aspects of education quality would be improved.

According to the new 2002 Report, 28 countries, accounting for more than 26 per cent of the world's population may not achieve any of the three measurable Dakar goals: universal primary education (UPE), gender equality and the halving of illiteracy rates. Two-thirds of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, but they also include India and Pakistan.

Another 43 countries, covering 35.6 per cent of the world's population, risk falling short of at least one of these three goals.

At current rates of progress, the report says universal primary education is unlikely to be reached in 57 countries, and 41 of these countries, including some Central and East European nations have even been moving backwards.

The goal of gender parity was supposed to have been met by 2005. The report points out that girls' enrolment improved in all regions during the 1990s: 86 countries have already achieved gender parity and another 35 are close to doing so. However, the report lists 31 nations that remain at risk of not meeting this goal by 2015.

The report says that unless a much greater effort is made, a total of 79 countries will not be able to halve their rate of illiteracy by 2015. These include four of the most populous countries, Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan, which alone account for 61 percent of the world's illiterate adults.

The report also finds that the cost of providing Education for All has been underestimated, partly because the high cost of HIV/AIDS and conflict on education has not been taken into account. The report says HIV/AIDS alone will add 975 million dollars to the annual bill for achieving universal primary education.

Similarly, at least 73 countries are dealing with internal crises or are engaged in post-conflict reconstruction, greatly increasing the costs of achieving education for all. The report says that at least four or five countries are likely to face major complex humanitarian emergencies over the next decade.

Increased external aid will be needed to close the financing gap, the report says. An extra 5.6 billion dollars will be needed annually to achieve the universal primary education and gender goals alone.

The report shows at the same time a startling decline in the real values of both total and education aid between 1990 and 2001. Total bilateral aid to education which accounts for 70 per cent of all such financial support, fell by 16 per cent over the decade. This fall is partly explained by the inability of national institutions to absorb funds rapidly and the reluctance of some governments to reform education systems and policies, the report says.

The report says some special aid programmes reward those countries with a stable political culture and a developed policy tradition, and exclude other countries that are in most urgent need of support. "Instead of the countries with the weakest policy environments receiving least attention from the international community, they actually must receive most attention," the report says.

Another contributing factor to the difficulties of achieving the Dakar goals is the looming global teacher shortage. According to the report, an extra 15 to 35 million more teachers will be needed to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Three million extra teachers are needed for sub-Saharan Africa alone.

The report suggests a range of recommendations for strengthening education policy and planning. It also suggests the establishment of EFA task forces, in which policy makers and stakeholders along with all resident agencies supporting education would participate. These task forces would jointly prepare and agree on an EFA plan, help to implement it and monitor and evaluate its progress. Acceptance would be a condition for increased education aid.

The countries at risk of not achieving any of the three primary goals are: Djiobouti, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissou, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia. (END/IPS/WD/EU/ED/SS/SM/02)

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