WUNRN
EFA - EDUCATION FOR ALL - UNESCO
Direct Link to Report:
EFA Global
Monitoring Report 2009
Education for All - Global Monitoring Report
Overcoming inequality:
why governance matters
Despite much progress since 2000, millions of children, youth and adults
still lack access to good quality education and the benefits it brings. This
inequality of opportunity is undermining progress towards achieving Education
for All by 2015.
Who are these individuals and groups? What are the obstacles they face? How can governance policies help break the cycle of disadvantage and poverty? What policies work? Is education reform integrated into the bigger picture? Is the international community making good on its commitments?
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INVESTING IN EDUCATION OF GIRLS & WOMEN
18/03/2009
Although there is widespread agreement that investment in
women’s education has multiplier effects in the well-being of their families
and of societies at large, statistics show that women continue to be the ones
mostly excluded from basic levels of education.
The EFA (Education for All)
Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO in 2009 includes some of its main
highlights: "In 2006, some 75 million children, 55% girls, were not in
school, almost half in sub-Saharan Africa. On current trends, millions of
children will still be out of school in 2015 – the target date for universal
primary education. Projections for 134 countries accounting for some two-thirds
of out-of-school children in 2006 suggest that some 29 million children will be
out of school in 2015 in these countries alone".
This conclusion from this year
report confirms what last year report had already stated, that “The gender
parity goal has been missed: only about one-third of countries reported parity
in both primary and secondary education in 2005, with only three reaching it
since 1999 (though 17 achieved it in primary and 19 in secondary during the
period)” (from the 2008 report).
In relation to adults this year
report says that "An estimated 776 million adults – or 2016% of the
world’s adult population – lack basic literacy skills. About two-thirds are
women. Most countries have made little progress in recent years. If current
trends continue, there will be over 700 million adults lacking literacy skills
in 2015". The high percentage of women among the illiterate population has
remained almost unchanged since the early 1990s. A special section of the
report is dedicated to gender and the highlights show:
- In
2006, of the 176 countries with data, 59 had achieved gender parity in
primary and secondary education
- 20
countries more than in 1999. At the primary level, about two-thirds of
countries had achieved parity. However, more than half the countries in
sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia and the Arab States had not
reached the target. Only 37% of countries worldwide had achieved gender
parity at secondary level.
- Poverty
and other forms of social disadvantage magnify gender disparities. For
example, in Mali girls from poor households are four times less likely to
attend primary school than those from rich households, rising to eight
times at secondary level.
- Once
girls are in school, their progress is often hampered by teacher attitudes
and gender-biased textbooks that reinforce negative gender stereotypes.
These school-based factors interact with wider social and economic factors
that influence school performance along gender lines. In terms of funding,
the report refers mainly to funding basic education, without providing
numbers that are crucial to ensure that women receive education throughout
life. But looking just at basic education, the report confirms that
commitments are stagnating and they come from very few countries.
To access the complete report,
please go here
To read the summary report,
please go here
The International Council for
Adult Education has responded to this report and highlighted that the EFA
universal primary education goal could not be reached without meeting the basic
lifelong learning needs of youth and adults.
Changing these trends requires
investment in education at all levels, from early childhood education to youth
and adult education with a special emphasis on the education of women.
Education activists have been calling on governments for a long time to fulfil
the following benchmarks: 6% of national budgets to education, 6% of the
education budget to adult education, out of which 3% should go to literacy.
The meeting this past weekend of
the "G20 Ministers" found them divided between the need for more
investment and the need to concentrate exclusively on the reform of the
financial system. The demand on the side of civil society remains as it is
imperative that public funds for education should be increased and this, in
turn, requires the reform of the financial institutions. Call on your
governments to invest more on education throughout life, particularly to invest
more on women and girls.
For more information visit the
ICAE Gender and Education Office (GEO) website
Specific information on the
mobilisation of women for right to education can be found here
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