Education for all: 'what are you doing to provide us with an education?'.

Following their endorsement of an ambitious set of development goals at the turn of the century, over 170 countries will face their first call to account in 2005: have we eliminated gender disparities in primary and secondary education? The 2005 milestone features in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as in the Education for All (EFA) goals, which were adopted in 2000 by 164 countries at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal.

Although progress varies greatly around the world, the trends are cause for concern and an impetus for bolder action. The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2003/4 (Gender and Education for All--The Leap to Equality) finds that almost 60 per cent of the 128 countries for which data are available are likely to miss reaching gender parity at primary and/or secondary levels by 2005. Although gender disparities in enrolments are overwhelmingly in favour of boys, in some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and the southern States in sub-Saharan Africa they favour girls.

Still, across sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, the Pacific and Arab States, girls continue to face sharp discrimination. With present trends, two of the world's most populated countries will not reach these goals: India (for both levels) and China (for secondary). Resources to reach universal primary education and eliminate gender disparities fall far short of needs. According to the EFA Monitoring Report, an annual independent publication commissioned by the United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organization, aid to basic education must more than quadruple to provide an additional $5.6 billion annually to achieve the two goals alone.

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The right to education is accepted internationally and enshrined in major conventions. The Conventions on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and on the Rights of the Child (1990) contain the most comprehensive set of legally enforceable commitments concerning the rights to education and to gender equality.

When countries comply with these rights, they are also acting in their own economic and social interests. Study after study has demonstrated the positive impact of girls' education on economic growth, health, fertility rates and farm productivity. It is the single most effective preventive weapon against HIV/AIDS. Achieving all the MDG goals--reducing poverty, improving health, sanitation and environmental management--depends to a large extent on gaining the skills to shape the future.

Ensuring that equal numbers of girls and boys--gender parity-are enrolled in schools is only one side of the story. Achieving equality raises more profound questions. Do girls and boys have equal opportunities to attend school in the first place? Do they benefit from fair treatment and positive self-images throughout school? Do they enjoy equal job opportunities and earnings? The EFA Report, drawing on a wide range of international research, explores these multiple dimensions of inequality--at home, in school and society--and identifies policies fit for all children.

The decision to send a child to school is taken in the home. Traditions, poverty and power-sharing in the family can seal a girl's fate. In societies where women are confined to the home and patrilineal principles of inheritance prevail, discrimination against daughters begins early in life. Early marriage, whether to ease a family's burden or secure a daughter's future, most often cuts schooling short. For many households, schooling may simply be too expensive, and when choices are to be made, girls tend to lose out if they have male siblings.

In spite of human rights instruments that commit States to provide free and compulsory education at the primary level, school fees continue to be levied in at least 101 countries around the world. Other costs, such as books, uniforms, transport and community contributions, add to these. Finally, many families require their children to work; they are their main employers. According to the most recent estimates, 18 per cent of children aged five to fourteen are economically active, totalling some 211 million, about half of whom are girls. This figure is conservative and does not include children engaged in domestic chores that do not lead to marketable output.

Policies and strategies exist to change these circumstances. They stretch beyond the education system itself.

Broad legislative change is essential for gender equality to take root; family law reform and equal opportunities legislation can lay the foundation for more equitable societies. Carefully targeted policies must be introduced to shift the balance of incentives so that parents can afford to send their children to school. In recent years, a number of African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Malawi, have introduced free primary education, resulting in a dramatic rise in enrolment. For example, in Nairobi, Kenya in early 2000, many schools experienced a doubling or more, putting huge pressure on the system in terms of classrooms, materials and teachers.

However, in contexts of extreme poverty, cutting fees is not enough. Scholarships, school-feeding programmes and cash transfers to families to cover the forgone wage of a working child have a documented impact on schooling. Brazil's national Bolsa Escola programme, for example, provides income subsidies to families with school-age children, on condition that each child attends school at least 90 per cent of the time; over 2 million children benefit from the scheme. A study from India reveals a 15-percent increase in girls' attendance when the local school provided a midday meal. In Bangladesh, girls benefit from the national Female Secondary School Stipend Programme, which ensures free tuition and financial assistance.

At the same time, the school--the heart of the system--must become a safe place for learning: close to home, with adequate sanitation facilities, gender-sensitive curricula and trained teachers. Everyday classroom practices reinforce gender differences, yet teacher training rarely focuses on gender awareness issues.

A study from nine African countries showed that girls were more involved than boys in tasks such as cleaning floors and fetching water. The number of female teachers--crucial role models in countries where large gender gaps prevail--remains extremely low in many countries. In Africa, women hold only one third or less of teaching posts; in India, almost 90 per cent of single-teacher schools (accounting for at least 20 per cent of all schools) are staffed by men. Closing the gender gap also means confronting the reality of sexual violence and harassment in school. A report from South Africa found that the threat of violence at school is one of the most significant barriers to learning. Girls' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is only heightened: in southern Africa and the Caribbean, girls aged 15 to 19 are infected at rates four to seven times higher than boys. Girls are also the first ones to be withdrawn from school to look after older family members who fall ill. The EFA Report strongly advocates the urgency of making sexual and reproductive health information for adolescents a subject in its own right.

Many non-governmental organization-led experiences have opened trails and played a front-line role in reaching the disadvantaged, particularly girls. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's non-formal primary education programme is often quoted as a classic success story. It ensures that 70 per cent of students are girls from poor families. Classrooms are close to home, timetables are flexible and set with parents, teachers follow annual refresher courses and the curriculum emphasizes active learning methodologies. Recognizing that travel safety is an issue, the Shikshakarmi Project in India appoints a local woman to escort children to and from school, and provide child care during school hours.

In Africa, the Forum for African Women Educationalists has set up "centres of excellence" to sensitize teachers to gender issues, particularly in teaching of science, math and technology.

While these creative solutions are to be encouraged, the State plays a leading role in promoting equal education for all. A major effort is needed to support the poorest countries that stand farthest from the goals, and external aid is critical to the endeavour. Fees are still charged in 26 of the 35 countries that are unlikely to reach the gender parity goal for primary schooling in 2005. Removing them would probably be the single most effective means of raising primary enrolments and reducing gender disparities. Programmes of international cooperation would be ideal instruments to help bridge the resource gap. The aid picture, however, is grim. Both bilateral and multilateral aid to education decreased between 1998-1999 and 2000-2001, although there was a positive development for basic education. Much hope has been placed in the Fast-Track Initiative, the World Bank-led multilateral effort to achieve universal primary education by 2015. Two years after its launch, however, it has yet to receive substantial and concrete international support.

The equitable future of a large number of countries depends crucially upon meeting education for all.

This implies a special effort by countries and the international community to reach girls and women. Four years after the Millennium Assembly and the World Education Forum, much higher levels of well-targeted resources and strategies are required to secure this right. During a week of global action held in April 2004, over 700,000 children around the world lobbied their Governments to ask one question: "What are you doing to provide us with an education?" Their voices ring as a pressing injunction to Governments and the international community alike.

The full EFA Monitoring Report and summary are available at www.efareport.unesco.org.

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4

Stark inequalities

Girls: a majority of out-of-school children, particularly in South and
West Asia and the Arab States

Sub-Saharan Africa                53
South and West Asia               67
North America and Western Europe  44
Latin America and the Caribbean   56
East Asia and the Pacific         49
Central Asia                      48
Central and Eastern Europe        50
Arab States                       60
Countries in transition           43
Developed countries               43
Developing countries              57
World                             57

Percentage of girls among out-of-school children, by region (2000)

Note: Table made from bar graph.

RELATED ARTICLE

Bilateral and multilateral assistance to education in constant 2000 US$ billions

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4

Aid falls short of needs

Multilateral aid fell for both education and basic education. Total aid to basic education increased only marginally.

Annual aid to basic education needs to at least quadruple to reach around $7 billion per year.

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Education

            Bilateral  Multilateral  TOTAL

1998-1999    4.39        1.49         5.88
2002-2001    3.68        1.32         5.0

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Basic Education

           Bilateral  Multilateral  TOTAL

1998-1999
High        0.57        0.74         1.31
Low         0.57        0.57         1.15

2000-2001
High        0.87        0.67         1.55
Low         0.87        0.58         1.45

UN Chronicle charts based on EFA Global Monitoring Report data.

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Christopher Colclough is Director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. A long-time professor of economics at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, he served as an adviser on education policies to many Governments in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. He is the principal author of "Achieving Education for All in Africa: Costs, Commitment and Gender" (Ashgate, London 2003).

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