Embargoed until 13:00 GMT, November 13, 2002
Press
Release No.2002-86
EDUCATION GOALS REMAIN ELUSIVE
IN MORE THAN 70 COUNTRIES
London, November 13 - Some 83 countries are on track to achieve Education
For All (EFA) by the deadline of 2015 set at the World Education Forum in Dakar
(Senegal) two and a half years ago. However, on present trends, more than 70
other countries will not make it, and some are even going backwards. This is
the conclusion of the 2002 Education For All Global Monitoring Report: Is the
World on Track? launched at a press conference organized by UNESCO in London
today.
"This report shows that while, in many countries, good progress towards
the goals set at the Dakar Forum is being made, in many others it is insufficient.
It reconfirms the Forum's diagnosis that almost one third of the world's
population live in countries where achieving the EFA goals remains a
dream," says Professor Christopher Colclough, an eminent British education
and development expert who is also Director of the Report.
The Dakar Forum agreed on six goals, which were considered to be essential,
attainable and affordable, given strong international commitment and resolve.
Those goals are: to ensure, by 2015, that all children of primary school age
would have more access to and complete free schooling of acceptable quality;
that gender disparities in schooling would be eliminated; levels of adult
illiteracy would be halved; early childhood care and education would be
expanded; learning opportunities for youth and adults would be greatly
increased; and all aspects of education quality would be improved.
According to the 2002 Report, 28 countries, accounting for over 26 percent
of the world's population, may not achieve any of the three measurable Dakar
goals: universal primary education (UPE), gender equality and the halving of
illiteracy rates. Two-thirds of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, but
they also include India and Pakistan. Another 43 countries, covering 35.6
percent of the world's population, risk falling short of at least one of these
three goals.
At current rates of progress, the Report states, UPE is unlikely to be
reached in 57 countries (see tables). Forty-one of these countries, including
some Central and East European nations, have even been moving backwards. The
goal of gender parity was supposed to have been met by 2005. The Report points
out that girls' enrolment improved in all regions during the 1990s: 86
countries have already achieved gender parity and another 35 are close to doing
so. However, 31 nations remain at risk of not meeting this goal even by 2015.
Finally, unless a much greater effort is made, a total of 78 countries will not
be able to halve their rate of illiteracy by 2015. These include four of the
world's most populous countries, Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan, which
alone account for 61 percent of the world's illiterate adults.
The Report also finds that the cost of providing Education for All has been
underestimated, partly because the high cost of HIV/AIDS and conflict on
education has not been taken into account. According to the report, HIV/AIDS
alone will add US$975 million to the annual bill for achieving UPE. Similarly,
at least 73 countries are dealing with internal crises or are engaged in post-conflict
reconstruction, greatly increasing the costs of achieving education for all,
and recent history, states the report, suggests that at least four or five
countries are likely to face major complex humanitarian emergencies over the
next decade.
To meet the expense, major education and economic reforms will be required
in many countries, along with a significant increase in budgetary resources
available for basic education. Nevertheless, increased external aid will also
be needed to close the financing gap. Previous estimates of the likely aid
requirements have fallen short by about 50 percent, and according to the
report, an extra $5.6 billion will be needed annually to achieve the UPE
and gender goals alone. However, the Report clearly shows a startling decline
in the real values of both total and education aid between 1990 and 2001 (see
tables). Total bilateral aid to education, for example, which accounts for 70
percent of all such financial support, fell by 16 percent over the decade. This
fall is partly explained, it says, by conflict, the inability of national
institutions to absorb funds rapidly and the reluctance of some governments to
reform education systems and policies.
The Report questions some aspects of aid programmes which provide budget
support to countries with well-designed poverty reduction strategies and
credible EFA plans. The problem with this approach, says the Report, is that it
tends to reward those countries with a stable political culture and a developed
policy tradition, and exclude other countries that are in most urgent need of
support. This situation, states the report, "needs to be reversed: instead
of the countries with the weakest policy environments receiving least attention
from the international community, they actually must receive most
attention."
Another contributing factor to the difficulties of achieving the Dakar goals
is the looming global teacher shortage. According to the report, an extra 15 to
35 million more teachers will be needed to achieve universal primary education
by 2015. Three million extra teachers are needed for sub-Saharan Africa
alone. Contrary to most other parts of the world, pupil teacher ratios have
been rising again in recent years to a regional average of 40 students per
teacher, compared to 25 per teacher in Latin America and the Caribbean, East
Asia and the Pacific, and the Arab States and North Africa.
The annual Education For All Global Monitoring Report is prepared by an
independent, international team based at UNESCO in Paris (France) as part of
the follow-up to the Dakar Forum. It is funded jointly by UNESCO and
multilateral and bilateral agencies, and benefits from the advice of an
international editorial board.
"The Global Monitoring Report is an indispensable tool for the entire EFA
movement," states Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. "The
careful and accurate monitoring of progress towards the achievement of the EFA
goals must be the foundation of not only improved understanding but also more
effective action. By providing reliable data, rigorous analysis and cogent
argumentation, the Report is a safeguard against complacency and a stimulus to
do better."
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COUNTRIES AT RISK OF NOT ACHIEVING
ONE OR MORE OF THE DAKAR GOALS
|
Countries at risk of not achieving universal primary education (UPE) by
2015 Total = 57 |
Bahrain,
Barbados, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African
Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Dem. Rep. of
the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia,
Georgia, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kiribati, Kuwait,
Kyrgyztan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Paraguay,
Saudi Arabia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Syrian
Arab Republic, The Former Yugoslav Rep. of Macedonia, Turkey, United Arab
Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yugoslavia,
Zambia |
|
Countries at risk of not achieving gender parity by 2015 Total = 31 |
Angola,
Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic,
Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Grenada, India, Iraq, Lao
P.D.R, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Senegal, Sudan,
Togo |
|
Countries at risk Total = 78 |
Algeria,
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic,
Chad, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Rep. of the Congo, Djibouti,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Gambia,
Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iraq,
Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Malta,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay,
Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka,
Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab
Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia |
BILATERAL AVERAGE ANNUAL OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE COMMITMENTS FOR
EDUCATION, 1990-2000 (CONSTANT 2000 $US MILLIONS)
As with total aid, the trend of bilateral aid flows to education has been
downwards - from around US$5 billion at the start of the decade to less than
US$4 billion by 2000. France, Japan, Germany, United States and United Kingdom
accounted for between 75 and 80 per cent of all bilateral aid commitments to
education between 1990 and 2000 (see below). With the exception of Japan, where
commitments remained relatively unchanged, real commitments to education for
the 'big five' countries declined dramatically between the early and the late
nineties. The United States, for example, cut its official development assistance
for education by 58 percent, the United Kingdom by 39 percent and France by 22
percent. Even smaller donors slashed their education aid. Switzerland reduced
its development assistance for education by 63 percent.
****
Contact
Sue Williams
Bureau of Public Information, Editorial Section
Tel: (+33) (0)1 45 68 17 06; Email:s.williams@unesco.org