32
COUNTRIES RISK FAILING EDUCATION PLEDGE
Paris,
October 26 (No.2001-116)
– Thirty-two countries are at grave risk of failing to enrol all children in
primary schools by 2015. In 15 of these countries, less than half of children
are attending school.
This warning is contained in a monitoring
report released today on Education For All (EFA), a global compact that commits
countries to achieve universal primary school enrolment, establish full gender
equality in primary and secondary enrolment, and cut adult illiteracy levels in
half, all by 2015. This report – prepared by UNESCO with inputs from partner
organizations – has been released to coincide with the first annual High-level
Meeting on Education for All (October 29-30) at UNESCO Headquarters, part of the
follow-up to the World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000.
One
out of every five school-age child in developing countries does not attend
school. In sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and the Arab States, nearly 100
million children, more than 60 percent of them girls, are not in school. All
told, the world will need to make room for an additional 156 million school-age
children by 2015 over the number enrolled in schools in 1997. Of that total,
more than half – 88 million children – will be from sub-Saharan Africa,
while South Asian and Arab States will need to find school places for 40 million
and 23 million more children, respectively.
A
massive effort is required in sub-Saharan Africa, which will have to increase
its 1990s pace of enrolment by between 2 and 3 times in order to achieve
universal primary education by 2015. Countries at grave risk like Angola,
the Central African Republic, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Liberia, Niger and Somalia
will need to accelerate ten-fold their 1990s pace of increased enrolment.
The
report finds that one in five adults world-wide – some 875 million in all –
are illiterate. Halving the adult illiteracy
rate between now and 2015 implies adding around 90 million newly literate adults
each year on average. East Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean
can meet this EFA target by maintaining almost the same pace as in the past
decade. But countries like Egypt and India
must increase by two-fold the number of new adult literates,
while Bangladesh and Pakistan will need to triple them.
With
regard to gender equality in education, the report finds a narrowing enrolment
gap over the past decade in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa. But it adds
that “while gender disparity is not a serious concern in most of the Latin
America/Caribbean and Eastern Asia/Pacific countries, it remains one in many
Arab States (and) sub-Saharan African and Southern Asian countries”. In
certain countries, like Lesotho and Namibia, the gender gap actually favours girls, “a phenomenon that
deserves just as much attention as discrimination against girls”, the report
notes.
African
countries like Malawi, Mauritania and Uganda
have doubled enrolment to reach nearly 100 percent gross primary enrolment
during this decade. Zambia has
reported a rise in its national literacy rate from 55 percent in 1990 to nearly
70 percent in 1996. The report warns, however, that many countries are
increasing enrolments at the expense of the quality of education.
Sustained
donor and national support for EFA over the coming decade is needed, with
estimates ranging from $8 to $15 billion additional funding per year over the
coming 15 years in order to achieve universal primary education alone. The
highest estimate ($15 billion) represents only 0.06 percent of the GNP of donor
countries, or 0.3 percent of the GNP of developing countries, the report points
out.
The
Monitoring Report will serve as a basis for discussions at the inaugural
High-level Group meeting, which will bring together 29 key decision makers
including sixteen Ministers of Education, UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy, Oxfam Director Barbara Stocking, and ministers of international
co-operation from Canada, Denmark, France
and the United Kingdom, and the
head of Japan’s international
co-operation agency. Debate will centre on sustaining political commitment,
mobilizing financial resource and forging partnerships with civil society
organizations.
The
32 countries at risk of failing to reach the EFA goals by 2015 unless “serious
action is taken” are Afghanistan, Angola, Bhutan,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon,
Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Guyana, Haiti, Lesotho,
Liberia, Mali, Mozambique,
Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan,
United Republic of Tanzania, Yemen.*
***
The
2001 Monitoring Report on Education for All (EFA) can be consulted online at:
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/monitoring/pdf/monitoring_report_en.pdf
UNESCO’s
EFA homepage
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/index.shtml
UNESCO’s
Institute for Statistics
http://unescostat.unesco.org/
*This classification
is mainly based on the trends in net enrolment ratio (NER) over the past decade.
A country is
considered as “at a risk” if:
- Its net enrolment
ratio (NER) for the latest year available (around 1997-99) is less or equal
to 60 percent;
- Its NER has decreased
significantly during the last decade;
- Its gross enrolment
ratio (of less than 100 percent) has decreased significantly during the last
decade.