In a World Education Forum held in Senegal in 2000, the international community reaffirmed its commitment to primary education for all by the year 2015, including the elimination of gender disparity. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) there are 42 million children out-of-school and the primary school age population is projected to rise by 37 per cent by 2015. In this context, can these targets be achieved?
This UK Department for International Development (DFID) paper outlines the difficulties and challenges that developing countries face to achieve universal primary education (UPE) targets, while suggesting strategies and priorities for governments and the international community. All regions are covered, from sub-Saharan Africa to south-west Asia and Latin America.
There are three main indicators for UPE: Enrolment rates, completion rates and literacy rates for the 15-24 year olds, and two main indicators for gender equality: The ratio of boys to girls in primary and secondary education, and the ratio of literate females to males for 15-24 year olds. According to DFID, all nations can achieve UPE and gender equality if they give it priority and international funding agencies deliver on their commitment to meeting the targets.
Education boosts human potential through improvements in health, life skills and opportunities. Investment in girls’ education is a particularly important determinant of development.
- The connection between education and health, sustainable livelihoods, gender, security and democracy is widely recognised by development agencies.
- Gender equality requires a fundamental change in governments and societies to ensure all policies, strategies and institutional practices provide equal opportunities for boys and girls.
- Wider inclusion requires approaches that show flexibility and variety in design, to cater for the diverse circumstances in which children live.
- Countries with the worst education indicators are those where most poor children have no primary education. Households with limited education are more likely to be poor, while poor children are more likely to drop out of school.
- The impact of HIV/AIDS is a serious threat to sustainable progress in education and the achievement of UPE targets. Awareness and prevention of the disease will need to form an integral part of education policies.
- Dropout rates are highest where education quality is poor. Quality considerations should include teacher training, textbooks, curriculum and school infrastructure.
Achieving UPE will require governments to place basic education at the heart of their development policies. The main policy pointers for the international community are:
- Involving the private sector, non- governmental organisations and religious institutions not just as capacity-gap fillers but also as partners in achieving the targets.
- Encouraging a greater contribution and co-ordination of donor community programmes.
- Creating strong, well-targeted country programmes with priority to Sub- Saharan Africa and South Asia.
- Adopting a flexible policy framework and producing clear codes of conduct for governments and funding agencies.
- Supporting capacity-building for systematic monitoring of accurate and timely quality assessment data.
