These were some of the words that
participants used to sum up our discussion when I had the pleasure last week of
moderating a working group on reaching the Education
for All (EFA) goals by 2015.
The working group was part of a larger
meeting of UNESCO’s Collective
Consultation with NGOs on Education for All (CCNGO/EFA), which brought
together over 150 representatives of national, regional and global NGOs and
civil society networks from around the world. We came together to take stock of
our achievements in education, discuss solutions to the challenges that remain,
and begin to articulate a vision for education post-2015.
But before I jump into where we are going, let’s
talk about where we’ve been.
Education
for All
In short, a set of global goals was
established in the World
Declaration on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. A decade on, the goals were reaffirmed by the
international community through the Dakar Framework
for Action (2000), and two of those goals were picked up by the Millennium
Development Goals (universal primary education and gender parity).
Since that time we have seen increased
national spending on education, the abolition of school fees and rights-based
frameworks translated into national legislation in many countries. This has spurred
unprecedented enrollment in primary school and a narrowing gender gap.
Comprehensive education plans are being drafted to fit within national
development strategies, and civil society participation in the governance of
education (and not just low-cost service provision) has sky-rocketed.
Education has often been highlighted as the
success story of the MDGs and, indeed, there is much for which we should be
proud. But the most consistent message coming out of participants at the CCNGO
is that the road ahead is still long and that we must remain vigilant.
As for many sectors, the next two years
represent our “moment of truth,” so to speak, as we make a push to achieve the MDG
and EFA goals by 2015. The newest data released by the Education for All (EFA) Global
Monitoring Report earlier this month shows us that progress in education has
been uneven across the goals, and is stagnating.
Against this backdrop, civil society
gathered at the CCNGO identified a number of common challenges that will
require targeted action if we are to achieve the EFA goals.
So what next?
Underlying
Currents
There were two underlying currents that
were pervasive throughout CCNGO. First, EFA is unfinished business – these are
goals that must be attained rather than scrapped for an entirely new agenda.
The most neglected goals, those pertaining to early childhood education, youth
skills and adult literacy, need immediate redress.
Secondly – and this may surprise some
readers - the EFA agenda was actually negatively impacted by the Millennium
Development Goals. Certainly the MDGs were a useful mobilizing tool and did
much to shed light on education issues; it recognized them as central to the long-term
sustainability of development. But by extracting two goals from a set of holistic,
mutually-reinforcing education goals, both the MDGs and EFA goals were set to
fail.
Those are strong words, so let’s break it
down.
Although universal primary education (UPE)
and gender parity are important goals, they will never be achieved without
attention to the full education agenda. We know that children in low-income
countries who are malnourished and underdeveloped, who have never benefited
from comprehensive and holistic early childhood education programs, and whose
parents are illiterate, have significantly decreased chances of staying in
school and succeeding. We know that no country has ever achieved universal
primary education without a certain percentage of secondary school spots as
incentive to move forward. I could go on, but I think the point is clear that
focusing on UPE is not a sufficient way forward.
On the MDG side, those of us in the
education community can point to mounting evidence that education is an
underlying factor in the level of achievement - or lack thereof - in all of
these worthy 8 goals. And so, if we cannot achieve the MDGs without addressing
education, and we cannot achieve MDG 2 (UPE) and MDG 3 (gender parity) without
addressing all of the EFA goals, then we seem to be at an impasse.
(The second part of this blog will be published on Monday, November 5, 2012)
Natalie
Poulson is the National Coordinator for the Canadian Global
Campaign for Education. The views expressed are her own, and do not necessarily represent the views of CCIC or its members.
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