Chapter 2. Progress towards the EFA goals - Unesco

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALS
Introduction
Introduction
The Dakar Framework for Action, adopted by
164 governments in 2000, is one of the most
comprehensive, wide-ranging and ambitious of
all commitments undertaken by the international
community. It pledges to expand learning
opportunities for every youth, adult and child –
and to achieve specific targets in key areas by 2015.
With just five years to go to the target date, this
chapter of the Report monitors progress towards
the Education for All goals set under the Dakar
Framework. Effective monitoring is vital to
achieving international development targets. Apart
from keeping the goals themselves in the spotlight,
it can highlight examples of success, provide early
warning of failure, inform policy and support
advocacy. At an international level, measuring
progress towards shared goals gives insight into
the strengths and weaknesses of national
strategies. It demonstrates what can be achieved
in practice and shows that all countries, whatever
their level of development, can make progress
under strong political leadership. Above all,
monitoring provides a tool to hold governments
accountable for the degree to which they act on
the commitments they undertake at international
summit meetings.
This chapter starts by highlighting the importance
of early childhood care and education in creating
the foundations for lifelong learning. It then
monitors progress towards universal primary
education, an area which raises serious concerns.
While the number of children not attending school
continues to fall, the most recent school enrolment
data suggest that the goal of universal primary
education by 2015 will be missed. Moreover,
household survey evidence suggests that more
children may be out of school than the official
data indicate. Progress in school participation
continues to outstrip progress in learning
achievement, pointing to a widening gap between
quantitative and qualitative indicators of progress.
The chapter further shows that advances in adult
literacy fall far short of the goals. Meanwhile,
technical and vocational education programmes
have – at best – a mixed record in responding
to the learning needs of youth and young adults.
Financing is critical to accelerating progress
towards the Education for All goals. Current global
estimates of the financing required to meet the
2015 targets are outdated and methodologically
flawed, primarily because they do not take into
account the cost of reaching disadvantaged groups.
This Report provides an updated analysis of the
financing needed to reach key targets, adjusted for
the incremental cost of extending opportunities to
disadvantaged groups. The analysis shows that
financing gaps have been underestimated and that
developing country governments and aid donors will
have to act with urgency to close these gaps.
Monitoring is about more than technical
measurement of progress. This chapter highlights
the strong connections between progress towards
specific goals and underlying problems of
inequality and social marginalization, which
Chapter 3 examines further. While national data
help illuminate broad trends, they can obscure
underlying disparities. Gender disparities are
narrowing in many areas, but young girls and
women continue to face disadvantages at several
levels, from early childhood, through primary and
secondary school, and into adulthood. Wider
inequalities linked to poverty, language, ethnicity,
region and other factors also restrict opportunity
on a global scale.
Global monitoring exercises inevitably reveal
complex and varied patterns. Two broad messages
emerge from the detail of national and regional
progress reports on the Education for All goals.
The first is good news: there is unequivocal
evidence that the world is moving in the right
direction, with many of the poorest countries
registering impressive advances on many fronts.
Their record demonstrates what is achievable
– and shows that many of the 2015 goals are still
within reach. The second message is cautionary,
with a ‘bad news’ element: on current trends,
progress towards the Dakar goals is far too slow
to meet the 2015 targets. An underlying problem
is the failure of many governments to put higher
priority on policies that extend opportunities
to the most marginalized sections of society.
Failure to change this picture will result in
the international community falling far short
of the promise made at Dakar in 2000.
Progress towards
the Dakar goals
is far too slow
to meet the 2015
targets
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