Is EDUCATION FOR ALL
on track at its halfway mark?

Part of worldwide efforts to provide basic education to people at every stage of life, the report each year assesses the status of countries on achieving the goals set by Education for All by 2015 (see box).

``Every year, [the report] looks at each of the six goals to see where the world stands,'' says Sheldon Shaeffer, director of Unesco Bangkok. ``But it also chooses every year a specific theme.'' This year, for example, the theme is Early Childhood Care and Education (Goal 1). ``Next year the programme will be at the mid-way mark and it will look back again to overall trends, goal by goal, to see where the world stands,'' Shaeffer adds.

Early childhood care and education

The 2007 EFA report highlights the importance of early childhood care and education (ECCE) as the foundation for increasing achievement and participation in primary and secondary schools. According to the report, the number of children enrolled in pre-primary education worldwide has tripled in the past three decades, from 44 million in the mid-1970s to about 124 million by 2004.

Since 1999, the gross enrolment ratio of pre-primary enrolment has been particularly pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a 43.5 percent rise, the Caribbean, and South and West Asia. With a relatively higher enrolment rate of 88 percent in 1999, Thailand's figure climbed two percent to a 90 percent gross enrolment rate in 2004.

Most regions are also moving towards gender parity in pre-primary education, with the overall gross enrolment ratio of 97 girls to 100 boys. Regions with high disparities, particularly in the Arab States, have made considerable progress with the gender parity index of 0.87 in 2004, compared to 0.76 in 1999. Thailand also fares relatively well in this area, with 98 girls to every 100 boys enrolled in pre-primary education.

Access to pre-primary education, however, remains largely limited by the children's household income and the location of their families. Attendance, states the report, is much higher among children from relatively wealthy families and from those located in an urban environment. ``Early childhood participation improves later education,'' Shaeffer says.

``It increases access to primary school, especially for girls, increases retention in primary school, reduces the drop-out rate, lowers repetition, improves language development, and finally, leads to higher achievement,'' he adds.

Overall EFA progress

In terms of broader EFA goals, 47 out of 125 countries have achieved the most common and measurable EFA targets, which include universal primary education, gender parity, quality of education, and adult literacy. A proxy indicator, or a simple average of the four indicators, that varies between 0 and 1, represents each of the four goals. In the 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report, data are based on the indexes that were computed for 125 countries in 2004.

``There are still many countries that remain far from goals, especially those that are in conflict, but [the report] also reveals the progress of many countries that started quite far away from the goals,'' Shaeffer says.

In Southeast and East Asia, two countries that remain relatively far from EFA goals are Cambodia and Lao PDR, with an index of less than 0.80. Indonesia, Macao, Malaysia, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Myanmar, with indices of between 0.80 and 0.94, have moved relatively closer towards the goals. With an index higher than 0.95, South Korea and China have performed the best in this region.

Worldwide, the primary net enrolment ratio has increased from 83 percent in 1999 to 86 percent in 2004, meaning that countries have made steady progress toward universal access to primary education (Goal 2). While enrolments have been increasing in other regions, however, the net enrolment ratios in primary education in East Asia dropped by 2 percent from 1999 to 94 percent in 2004. The figures for Malaysia and Vietnam also dropped from 98 to 93 percent and from 96 to 93 percent, respectively.

In terms of gender parity (Goal 5), there are 94 girls in primary school for every 100 boys globally. With 99 girls for every 100 boys, the average in East Asia is higher than the global average. Thailand has a ratio of 95:100; Vietnam has a ratio of 93:100, Cambodia has a ratio of 92:100, and Lao PDR has a ratio of 88:100. Myanmar has more girls than boys in schools, with 102 girls for every 100 boys.

In terms of the quality of education (Goal 6), the report finds Cambodia and the Lao PDR to be in a more worrisome state, with less than three percent of its gross national product (GNP) going into education. Thailand spends 4.3 percent of its GNP on education in 2004, which is still below the 6 percent recommended by Unesco.

On a more positive note, the pupil-to-teacher ratio in primary education has declined in East Asia from an average of 31 students per teacher in 1999 to 23 students per teacher in 2004. Some countries in the region, however, still have more than 40 students per teacher. Out of the four relatively quantifiable goals, adult literacy (Goal 4) remains an elusive target. About 781 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, still lack minimal literacy skills, according to the report. The majority live in South and West Asia, with a literacy rate of 59 percent for persons over 15 years old and Sub-Saharan Africa, with 61 percent.

Moving towards 2015

In a way, the 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report is a wake-up call for countries to try and improve many aspects of education. Despite Thailand's significant progress, the United Nations resident coordinator for Thailand, Joana Merlin-Scholtes, notes that it still has yet to address the details.

``To reach the goal of EFA, Thailand has to improve access to good quality education for all, including children and persons with disabilities; those who are extremely poor or who lack a birth certificate from a legal state; those who do not speak the language of instruction of the schools they attend; and those left out of the educational loop,'' she says.

In terms of policy development, Shaeffer says, top-level political endorsement, above and beyond ministries of education, is highly important. Countries need a national policy with multiple actors who coordinate among themselves the efforts to integrate the policy into the national development plans and poverty reduction strategy papers.

``The private sector plays a very prominent role,'' Shaeffer says, referring to the provisions to improve early childhood care and education. ``Governments very often cannot do it on their own. Governments very often don't want to do it on their own because they are putting their funds in other levels of education,'' he adds.

Ministry of Education's Permanent Secretary Charuayporn Torranin

Most important of all, these national policy development plans cannot exclude explicit provisions for children from a disadvantaged background or those that live in vulnerable, difficult conditions. In order to meet the EFA goals by 2015, more needs to be done in the areas of increasing public spending and targeting funds to include children living in remote areas or in impoverished families.

``A strict allocation [of funds] per pupil nationwide is probably not the way to go. As a baseline, yes, then there also should be subsidies, extra fees to remote areas, rural schools, and incentives for teachers to go to rural schools,'' Shaeffer says.

The 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report was released on November 28, at the launch of the Unesco global report on education. The event was presided over by Thai Ministry of Education's Permanent Secretary Charuayporn Torranin. High level Thai Ministry of Education officials and national representatives from Myanmar, Viet Nam, Lao the PDR, and Cambodia as well as representatives from the UN, NGOs, and development agencies also attended the event.

For more information on the EFA Global Monitoring Report, visit www.efareport.unesco.org