What is Education For All (EFA)?
Education for All (EFA) is an international commitment first launched in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 to bring the benefits of education to “every citizen in every society.” Partners comprised a broad coalition of national governments, civil society groups, and development agencies such as UNESCO and the World Bank. In response to slow progress over the decade, the commitment was reaffirmed in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000 and then again in September 2000, when 189 countries and their partners adopted two of the EFA goals among the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). See the EFA Briefing from the 2006 Annual Meetings.
The six EFA goals are as follows:
- Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
- Ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, those in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
- Ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
- Achieve a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
- Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
- Improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
Although the MDGs refer only to issues of universal primary education (UPE) and gender parity, the World Bank recognizes that achievement of these goals will require support for the full EFA commitment.
Achieving the Education For All (EFA) goals is critical for attaining all the MDGs—in part through the direct impact of education on child and reproductive health and environmental sustainability and by creating a body of experience in multi-partner collaboration toward the 2015 targets. Conversely, achieving other MDGs, such as those dealing with improved health and access to clean drinking water, decreased poverty and environmental sustainability are critical to the achievement of the Education MDGs.
Although there has been steady progress towards achieving many of the EFA goals, challenges remain. Today, there are about 77 million children, including 44 million girls, still out of school due to financial, social or physical barriers and pressures from high fertility rates, HIV/AIDS and conflict.
Access to schooling has improved over the years but at current rates, many countries will not be able to reach the education MDG of Universal Primary Completion (UPE) by 2015. Country indicators show a continued upward trend in primary school enrolments, 47 out of 163 countries have achieved UPE, and an additional 20 countries are estimated to be “on track” to achieve the education MDG by 2015. Huge challenges remain with 44 countries, 23 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, not likely to achieve the goal of UPE by 2015 unless efforts are accelerated substantially.
The gender gap in education is narrowing but girls are still at a disadvantage when it comes to access and completion of schooling at both the primary and secondary levels. Improved access to education has helped increase girls’ enrollments at both the primary and secondary levels, particularly in low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. However, many countries are at risk of not achieving the education gender parity goal by 2015. According to the 2006 Global Monitoring Report 24 countries are not likely to achieve the gender parity, neither at the primary nor at the secondary level; 13 of these are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Poor learning outcomes and low quality of education remain an over-riding concern. In many developing countries, less than 60 percent of primary school pupils who enroll in first grade reach the last grade of schooling. Additionally, pupil/teacher ratios in many countries are in excess of 40:1 and many primary teachers lack adequate qualifications.
What is the World Bank doing to achieve EFA?
The most important drivers of EFA include
- Improved policy environment based on a thorough analysis of the education system
- Enhanced capacity of the Ministry of Education at all levels to implement policies and programs
- More timely reliable data to monitor and evaluate performance
- Increased resources to finance the activities of the program
This entails a compact of mutual accountability between developing countries and donors. On the one hand, developing countries develop sound education sector programs through broad based consultation; exercise leadership in developing and implementing the education program and coordinating donor support and demonstrate results on key performance indicators. On the other hand, the donors assist with mobilization of resources and making them more predictable; alignment with country development priorities; coordination of support around one education plan; and harmonization of procedures as much as possible. The World Bank, along with donor partners, is a member of the compact and supports the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) as a primary vehicle for accelerating progress on good quality, Universal Primary Education (UPE) and the achievement of EFA goals.
In addition to policy advice and harmonization, the World Bank supports EFA efforts through lending, analytic work , sharing of global knowledge and good practice, technical assistance and capacity building. World Bank lending has helped provide expanded schooling opportunities for children around the world with an increasing focus on the delivery of good learning experiences to all children. Also, the Bank’s analytic work has helped establish benchmarks for quality, efficiency and resource mobilization in the education sector. The World Bank works to support EFA efforts through specific operations in almost 90 countries worldwide. These efforts increasingly include support for a multi-sectoral approach with targeted interventions from outside the education sector such as in Health, Environment and other areas of development.
The World Bank supports EFA efforts primarily through the following multi-dimensional efforts:
- Increasing access and equity in primary schooling as well as better quality and learning outcomes
- Focusing on girls’ education to improve dropout and retention rates, as well as learning outcomes
- Promoting early childhood development
- Protecting EFA prospects in post-conflict countries
The Bank also recognizes the importance of literacy and adult Education and the need to strengthen the link between literacy and adult education with the other EFA goals. Consequently, the World Bank has established a Children and Youth unit to strengthen support for non-formal education efforts and to help young people develop the necessary skills that would improve their opportunities and transition to the labor market. test
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