The World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, held ten years after the meeting in Jomtien, re-affirmed a broad and comprehensive view of basic education and its critical role in empowering people and transforming societies. The Forum’s core messages are: universal access to learning; focus on equity; emphasis on learning outcomes; broadening the means and the scope of basic education; enhancing the environment for learning; and strengthening partnerships. It also provided an opportunity to assess achievements and failures and lessons learnt from the past decade. Six goals, drawn from the outcomes of the regional EFA conferences and the international development targets, constitute the Framework for Action and were designed to enable all individuals to realise their right to learn and to fulfil their responsibility to contribute to the development of their society. The two highlighted goals are directly related to primary education.
- Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
- Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education.
- Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.
- Achieving 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
- Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
- Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognised and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
Global Monitoring Report, 2005: The Quality ImperativeMore
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Global Monitoring Report. All countries have pledged to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. According to the new edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report, 54 countries are at risk of not achieving this goal on present trends. >> More info >> Visit the website
