Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

REACHING THE MARGINALIZEDIntroductionThe core message of this chapter is thatovercoming marginalization must be at the heartof the Education for All agenda. Education shouldbe a driver of equal opportunity and social mobility,not a transmission mechanism for social injustice.The familiar routine of governments endorsingequal opportunity principles, reaffirming humanrights commitments and signing up forinternational summit communiqués on educationis not enough. Overcoming marginalizationrequires practical policies that address thestructures of inequality perpetuatingmarginalization – and it requires political leadersto recognize that marginalization matters.This chapter has four main messages:Governments across the world aresystematically violating the spirit and the letteron United Nations conventions obliging them towork towards equal opportunities for education.The failure of many governments to act decisivelyin tackling marginalization in education callsinto question their commitment to the humanright to education – and it is holding backprogress towards the Education for All goals.The scale of the marginalization crisis ineducation is not widely recognized, partlybecause the marginalized themselves lackan effective voice.Disaggregated data can play an importantrole in identifying social groups and regionscharacterized by concentrated marginalization.All too often education policies are developedon the basis of inadequate information aboutwho is being left behind. Data have a vital roleto play in providing an evidence base fordeveloping targeted interventions and widerpolicies. This chapter sets out a new statisticaltool – the Deprivation and Marginalization inEducation (DME) data set – that looks beyondnational averages to provide insight intopatterns of marginalization.Mutually reinforcing layers of disadvantagecreate extreme and persistent deprivationthat restrict opportunity. Poverty and genderinequalities powerfully magnify disadvantageslinked to ethnicity, language, living in ruralareas and disability, closing doors to educationalopportunities for millions of children. Moreover,stigmatization and social discrimination arepotent drivers of marginalization in education.Good policies backed by a commitment to equitycan make a difference. Education systems canplay a central role in overcoming marginalizationby giving disadvantaged children access to agood-quality learning environment, includingproperly financed schools, motivated andwell-trained teachers, and instruction in anappropriate language. But strategies in educationhave to be backed by wider interventions,including investment in social protection,legal provisions to counteract discriminationand wider empowerment measures. Thechallenge is to ensure that education policiesand broader anti-marginalization policiesoperate within a coherent framework.The chapter is divided into three parts. Part 1provides a snapshot of the scale of extreme andpersistent deprivation in education. Drawing onthe DME data set, it measures marginalization bylooking at numbers of years spent in school. Part 1also explores problems in education quality ascaptured in measures of learning achievement.Part 2 looks at the social and economic processesbehind the data. It explores some key forces behindmarginalization, including poverty, gender, ethnicityand location. Part 3 provides an overview of policiesand approaches that can break down the structuresthat perpetuate marginalization in educationand beyond. While each country is different andthere are no ready-made ‘anti-marginalization’blueprints, there are models for good practice.These models can help inform policy choicesfor governments seeking to act on the obligationto ensure that all of their citizens enjoy a rightto education.Overcomingmarginalizationmust be atthe heart ofthe Educationfor All agenda137