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

10OVERVIEW20Education for All Global Monitoring ReportThe Education for All financing gapAchieving the Education for All goals in low-incomecountries will require a major increase in financing.These countries themselves can do a great deal tomobilize more resources for education. But in theabsence of a step increase in aid, efforts to accelerateprogress in basic education will be held back by a largefinancing gap.This Report provides a detailed assessment of the costsassociated with achieving some of the core Educationfor All goals. Covering forty-six low-income countries,the assessment includes estimates for improvedcoverage in early childhood programmes, universalprimary education and adult literacy. Unlike previousglobal costing exercises, it includes a provision forreaching the most marginalized. That provision isimportant because it costs more to extend opportunitiesto children disadvantaged by poverty, gender, ethnicity,language and remoteness. Among the central findingsand recommendations of the Report:Low-income developing countries could makeavailable an additional US$7 billion a year – or 0.7%of GDP – by raising more domestic resources andmaking national budgeting more equitable.Even with an increased domestic resource mobilizationeffort, there will be a global Education for All financinggap of around US$16 billion annually –1.5% of theGDP – for the forty-six low-income countries covered.Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for around two-thirdsof the global financing gap, or US$11 billion.Current aid to basic education for the forty-sixcountries – around US$2.7 billion – falls short ofwhat is required to close the gap. Even if donors acton their commitments to increase aid, the financinggap will remain significant at around US$11 billion.An emergency pledging conference should beconvened in 2010 to mobilize the additional financingrequired to fulfil the commitment made at Dakar.© Chretien Eric/Gamma/Eyedea PresseChapter 3Marginalization in educationGovernments across the world constantly reaffirm theircommitment to equal opportunity in education. Underinternational human rights conventions they are obligatedto act on that commitment. Yet most governments aresystematically failing to address extreme and persistenteducation disadvantages that leave large sections ofsociety marginalized. These disadvantages are rooted indeeply ingrained social, economic and political processes,and unequal power relationships – and they are sustainedby political indifference.Marginalization in education matters at many levels.Having the opportunity for a meaningful education isa basic human right. It is also a condition for advancingsocial justice. People who are left behind in educationface the prospect of diminished life chances in manyother areas, including employment, health andparticipation in the political processes that affect theirlives. Moreover, restricted opportunity in education isone of the most powerful mechanisms for transmittingpoverty across generations.Extreme deprivation in education is a particularly strikingcase of what the economist and philosopher Amartya Senhas described as ‘remediable injustices’. The Reportlooks at the scale of the injustice, examines its underlyingcauses and identifies policy remedies. The key messageto emerge is that failure to place inclusive educationat the centre of the Education for All agenda is holdingback progress towards the goals adopted at Dakar.Governments have to do far more to extend opportunitiesto hard-to-reach groups such as ethnic minorities, poorhouseholds in slums and remote rural areas, thoseaffected by armed conflict and children with disabilities.Measuring marginalization:a new data toolMeasuring marginalization in education is inherentlydifficult. There are no established cross-countrybenchmarks comparable to those used in assessingextreme income poverty. National data are oftennot detailed enough to enable marginalized groupsto be identified. An underlying problem is that manygovernments attach little weight to improving dataavailability relating to some of the most disadvantagedsections of society – child labourers, people living ininformal settlements and individuals with disabilities –and to remote regions. This year’s Report includesa new tool, the Deprivation and Marginalization inEducation (DME) data set, which provides a window8