The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has renewed its call of “Education for All.” This news comes out of UNESCO’s High Level Group meeting on Education for All that recently concluded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the 25 February.
The most recent round of UNESCO meetings in Ethiopia are a follow-up to the 1990s Jomtein World Conference on Education for All and the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal.The report of the Addis Ababa meeting, entitled “EFA Global Monitoring Report: Reaching the Marginalized,” has been released.
The High-Level Group estimates that there are still 72 million children still out of school. 10 million of these children live in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous and rapidly-growing country. Not only does this mean that the number of school-aged children in the country is bound to increase in the coming decades, but it means that the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to achieve universal primary education is likely to remain unfulfilled barring increased investments in schools, teachers, infrastructure, and equipment.
At the Addis Ababa meeting, one particular topic of discussion was the unfavourable impact of the 2008 global economic crises on the provision of free primary education to every child, as enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Countries across the developing world are working with mighty efforts to try and actualize this human right, but the lack of public funds constrains the expansion of primary (elementary) school systems—let alone improving students’ access to secondary and university level schooling.
Yet, the lack of financial resources isn’t the only thing keeping children at home or at work instead of in the classroom. Gender discrimination can make some parents resistant to education their daughters—especially if there is already a son in the family and money is tight. Yemen’s efforts on educational reform have incorporated mechanisms to increase gender parity in schools. Some solutions include school feeding programs, reducing systemic gender discrimination, and expanding the opportunities for women in the labour market so that families can see the value in having an educated daughter—one who is just as capable as her brother.
The parting words of the report speak volumes about the diversity of experience but commonality of the problems children around the world must combat: “The daily experiences of slum dwellers in Kenya, ethnic minority children in Viet Nam and a Roma child in Hungary are very different. What they have in common are missed opportunities to develop their potential, realize their hopes and build a better future through education.”