Chapter 2. Progress towards the EFA goals - Unesco

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALS
Universal primary education
Adding in countries that lack enrolment data for
both 1999 and 2007 would yield significantly more
than twenty-five lagging countries. For example,
for the Central African Republic and Pakistan,
which had net enrolment ratios below 70% in 2007
and no data for 1999, there is strong evidence that
progress has been limited. Other countries have
no data available on net enrolment for either 1999
or 2007, including Afghanistan, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Somalia
and the Sudan. Here, too, there is strong evidence
to suggest that progress towards universal net
enrolment, if any, has often been very slow, from a
low base. Côte d’Ivoire, with a gross enrolment ratio
of 72%, and the Sudan at 66% in 2007 are clearly
off track. 10 Although Afghanistan’s gross enrolment
ratio has increased significantly (from 28% in 1999
to 103% in 2007), in part due to the opening up
of opportunities for girls’ education, there is still
a long way to go before all children enter and
complete the cycle on time. 11
Many countries experiencing slow progress or
reversals are either in the midst of or recovering
from conflict. Developments in Liberia have been
particularly disconcerting. After a brutal civil war,
the country has now enjoyed several years of
peace and has an elected president, Ellen Sirleaf-
Johnson, with a strong commitment to education.
However, its net enrolment ratio slipped from 42%
in 1999 to 31% in 2008. The government plan for
education acknowledges that ‘realistically, Liberia
will likely need more years beyond 2015 to achieve
the UPE goals’ (Liberia Ministry of Education,
2007b). How many more years will depend partly
on national efforts and partly on the degree to
which aid donors find innovative ways of supporting
those efforts (Box 2.9; see also Chapter 4). The
large recorded decline in enrolment in the
Palestinian Autonomous Territories would also
appear to be linked to the combined effects of
civil conflict, military incursions, and restrictions
on the movement of goods and people.
Eritrea is a further cause for concern. After
significant progress increasing enrolment from
1999 to 2006, the country experienced a reversal
in 2007. 12 Military tensions appear to be a
contributory factor. Since the end of the 1990s,
spending on education has more than halved as
a share of GNP, from 5.3% in 1999 to 2.4% in 2006.
Meanwhile, military spending has been extremely
high, 13 crowding out urgently needed spending
on education infrastructure.
Box 2.9: Liberia — slipping back in a post-conflict country
Autocratic rule, coups and fourteen years of civil war took a devastating
toll on Liberia’s education system. Schools were destroyed, public services
collapsed, investment fell and parental fears over security led to children
being withdrawn from school. The election of President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson
in 2006 created renewed hope, but recovery is proving arduous.
Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries: three-quarters of the
population survives on less than US$1.25 a day. Education infrastructure is
dilapidated and there are chronic shortages of trained teachers and teaching
materials. As well as dealing with children who have enrolled since the end
of the conflict, the education system must cope with population growth
and the many displaced Liberian families returning from abroad.
Data limitations make it difficult to chart developments, but fragile gains in
enrolment at the end of the 1990s are thought to have been reversed during
a renewal of violence from 2001 to 2003, with enrolment dropping by about
half for girls and one-third for boys because of insecurity and poverty.
In 2007, the Ministry of Education set out a strategy for moving from
short-term emergency planning to long-term strategic planning. The
strategy envisages strengthening quality and equity, in part by providing
a regulatory umbrella that covers the diversity of education providers.
In 2008, some 30% of primary enrolment was in private and mission schools,
the rest in government and community-funded schools. The equity challenge
is particularly daunting, given the large inequalities based on wealth, region
and gender.
Liberia’s experience raises wider concerns about the failure of aid systems.
In countries recovering from conflict, the resources available to government
are limited, so aid has a vital role to play. Aid donors were slow to support
reconstruction in Liberia, despite the endorsement of the country’s economic
plan by the Fast Track Initiative. Chapter 4 explores the failure of current aid
systems to respond to the needs of countries such as Liberia.
Sources: Center for Global Development (2009); Liberia Ministry of Education (2007a);
USAID (2007).
Going the final mile — some countries
with high net enrolment face problems
Most of the countries facing difficulties in
achieving universal net enrolment by 2015 have
two characteristics in common. They started with
low initial enrolment ratios and they are very poor.
There are exceptions to the rule. While enrolment
ratios tend to rise with wealth, there are large
variations around the average – and some relatively
wealthy countries perform worse than might be
expected. Moreover, some countries are in grave
danger of failing to achieve universal net enrolment
by 2015 despite having started at very high levels
of school participation.
Figure 2.20 demonstrates that wealth matters
for education coverage. It charts the relationship
between average income and net enrolment ratios,
10. Because the gross
enrolment ratio measures
the enrolment of all children
irrespective of their age
relative to the primary school
age group, the net enrolment
ratio would be far lower.
11. In 2007, the net intake
rate into the primary system
in Afghanistan was just 55%.
12. The net enrolment ratio
rose from 33% in 1999 to
47% in 2006, but fell back
to 41% in 2007.
13. Military expenditure is
around one-quarter of GDP,
according to the 2007/2008
budget (UNDP, 2007).
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