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Fast Track Initiative: Building a Global Compact for Education
(September, 2005) |
 Around
the world, there are still over 100 million children out of school,
including 58 million girls. Despite overwhelming evidence that education
can halt the spread of AIDS, increase economic growth and break the
cycle of poverty, donor support for education has only increased
modestly since 2000, when world leaders unanimously endorsed Universal
Primary Education (UPE) by 2015.
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Education for All: The Cost of Accessibility (August,
2005) |
 The
goal of Education for All (EFA) is to provide universal access to
primary education throughout the world. To accomplish this goal, as many
as 10 million classrooms will be built in developing countries by 2015.
A key objective of the program is to ensure that no child is denied
access to education because of disability.
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- 154KB ]
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EFA and Beyond: Service Provision and Quality Assurance in
China (July, 2005) |
 China
is not often thought of in the EFA context but its education sector over
the past 20 years provides many lessons for countries that are
approaching Universal Primary Education (UPE). The most important lesson
may be that the need for educational reform does not diminish as
countries approach UPE. The first challenge is to expand education
opportunities. As coverage expands, however, new challenges inevitably
emerge that require constant attention and frequent updates to education
policy and financing mechanisms.[ Download: PDF
- 206KB ]
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| In
Their Own Language…Education for All (June, 2005) |
 Fifty
percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where
the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home. This
underscores the biggest challenge to achieving Education for All (EFA):
a legacy of non-productive practices that lead to low levels of learning
and high levels of dropout and repetition. In these circumstances, an
increase in resources, although necessary, would not be sufficient to
produce universal completion of a good-quality primary school program.
[ Download: PDF
- 219KB ]
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Decentralizing Education in Guatemala: School Management by Local
Communities (February, 2005) |
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Guatemala set out in 1992 to increase access to
education in remote areas. Its National Community-managed Program for
Educational Development (PRONADE) has evolved from a small, innovative
pilot program in 19 rural communities, to a nationwide program reaching
over 4,100 communities and 445,000 children. PRONADE is one of the most
proactive managerial, administrative, and financial decentralization
measures taken in Latin America. Isolated rural communities have been
truly empowered to administer and manage the schools. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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 School
Fees: A Roadblock to Education For All (August, 2004) |
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| There is increasing momentum on the road to Education for All
(EFA), but school fees are still a roadblock for too many children. Several African countries have recently abolished school fees outright. The dramatic surge in enrollments that followed is strong evidence that the payment of fees can be a major obstacle to enrollment. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| When Governments Get Creative: Adult Literacy in Senegal
(July, 2004) |
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| The Education for All
(EFA) goal of increasing adult literacy by 50 percent reflects two simple facts: first, primary school attendance has positive effects, including better family health and increased productivity; and second, when parents learn to read, more children go to school. So why haven’t more countries and donors supported adult literacy programs as a routine part of their EFA planning? One reason is that government programs tend to be too expensive, with weak content and high drop-out rates. Despite these constraints, Senegal appears to have found a way to implement a successful adult literacy program. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Getting an Early Start on Early Child Development
(June, 2004) |
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| The children born this
year - 2004 - will be eleven years old in 2015 - the age of primary school completion in most countries. This is the MDG*
generation - for whom the international community has pledged that by 2015, all children will be able to complete primary schooling. Ensuring good early child development is the first essential step toward achieving these goals. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Education for All: Compensating for Disadvantage in Mexico
(May, 2004) |
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| Education for all means learning for all. It means closing the “advantage”
gap - making sure that the children of the poor and disadvantaged achieve the same levels of learning
as all other children. This is one of the great challenges any country can face. It is a
particular challenge in a diverse country such as Mexico, where many children do not
speak Spanish, live in villages inaccessible by roads and cannot afford such basic
expenditures as school uniforms. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Bringing
the School to the Children: Shortening the Path to EFA (August,
2003) |
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| Recent
education planning initiatives in West and Central Africa show that
the path to EFA may be shortened considerably by reconsidering the way
basic education is delivered in isolated rural communities. Since
independence, education systems have been expanding rapidly and are
now serving most of the easy-to-reach population. For progress to
continue, the focus must be shifted toward the sparsely populated
areas, which means adjusting the type of schools used, and building
them close to where children live. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Education
for All: Building the Schools (August,
2003) |
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| Putting all children worldwide in school by 2015 will
constitute, collectively, the biggest building project the world has
ever seen. Some 10 million new classrooms will be spread over 100
countries. At current costs of about $7000 per classroom in Africa,
$8000 per classroom in Latin America, and $4000 per classroom in Asia,
the total price tag for construction will come to about $72 billion
dollars through 2015, or about $6 billion annually. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Education
for All: Including Children with Disabilities (August,
2003) |
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| An
estimated 40 million of the 115 million children out of school have
disabilities. The vast majority of these children have moderate
impairments that are often not visible or easily diagnosed. Disabled
children include those with learning difficulties, speech
difficulties, physical, cognitive, sensory and emotional difficulties.
Children with disabilities are likely to have never attended school. A
1991 report by the UN Rapporteur on Human Rights and Disabilities
found that at least one in ten persons in the majority of countries
has a physical, cognitive, or sensory (deaf/blind) impairment. Fewer
than 5 % are believed to reach the EFA goal of primary school
completion. This number may be growing due to global conditions of
increasing poverty, armed conflict, child labor practices, violence
and abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Because these children are part of a family
unit, it is estimated that at least 25% of the world population is
directly affected by the presence of disability. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Big
Steps in a Big Country: Brazil Makes Fast Progress Toward EFA (May,
2003) |
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| Brazil
is one of the few large countries in the world to make real progress
toward EFA over the course of the 1990s. Remarkably, it did this
during a period of low GDP growth, economic instability and tight
budgets. Brazil's success is thus an encouraging precedent for
countries facing similar constraints, and it underscores the message
that by focusing on policy reform, and making difficult choices
consistent with policy objectives, countries can achieve renewed
momentum towards EFA. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| EFA in
Indonesia: Hard Lessons About Quality (May, 2003) |
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| Indonesia
has seen vast improvements in access to education over the past thirty
years. It is a good example of a country that has followed a
disciplined linear approach to EFA: Indonesia focused first on primary
school access, next on lower secondary school access, and is only now
attempting to address key policy issues to improve learning outcomes.
However, many long-established precedents that have a negative impact
on quality are proving very hard to change. Indonesia's struggles to
improve quality demonstrate the importance of tackling such issues
from the very beginning, as initial efforts are put in place to expand
access. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Achieving
Education for All in Post-Conflict Cambodia (July, 2002) |
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| Cambodia has made good progress in rebuilding its education system
after three decades of conflict and isolation. Enrollments are
growing, administration is improving, and large numbers of schools
have been rehabilitated. A number of innovative and mutually
reinforcing programs have energized local administrators and resourced
schools, building on early efforts to rebuild capacity. These are,
however, not sufficient conditions for improving education outcomes,
and significant challenges remain in the financing and management of
education in order to realize Cambodia's goal of providing free,
universal access to basic education. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Guinea: A Steady Growth Path to Achieve Education for
All (April, 2002) |
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| Guinea is one of the few countries world-wide to have
sustained over an entire decade the primary school enrollment rate
increases necessary to achieve the key Dakar EFA goals without
degradation of quality. Gross Enrollment Rates increased almost 10%
annually from 1991- 2001, with girls' enrollment increasing at 12%
annually each year. Gross primary enrollments increased from 28% to
61% over this ten-year period, in spite of a weak macroeconomic
environment. The Guinea case, then, provides guidance on how
resource-poor countries can plan and follow a steady course toward Universal
Primary Education through policy change and hard work, even where
conditions, on the surface, are not particularly favorable. |
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[ Education Notes ]
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| Achieving Universal Primary Education in
Uganda: The 'Big Bang' Approach (April, 2002) |
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| Uganda's primary enrollment rates have risen remarkably since 1996,
when the Government eliminated fees in a bold attempt to achieve
universal primary education. But the massive expansion in numbers has
affected the quality of education; and it will be a major challenge to
cope with the rising demand for post-primary education.
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[ Education Notes ]
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