Working Group on EFA: paving the way to 2015 | WPN World People News

It is also expected to identify key policies and strategies in the lead-up to the 2011 High Level Group (HLG) meeting on EFA (Jomtien, Thailand, 22 to 24 March).

The Eleventh meeting of the Working Group on EFA (Paris, 2-3 February) is the first of several opportunities in 2011 to accelerate the attainment of the six Education for All (EFA) goals. Composed of some 150 representatives of governments, organizations, civil society, the private sector, and research institutions, the Group will provide a platform to review progress made towards these goals over two decades.

Four years from the target date for achieving quality education for all by 2015, the international community is still falling short of the pledges made at the World Education Conference (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990) and the World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal, 2000). Despite strong advances in enrolments and gender parity in primary education, persistent challenges such as marginalization, illiteracy, the quality of learning outcomes and inadequate funding continue to undermine the progress made in the first half of the last decade.

As the lead agency of the Education for All (EFA) movement, UNESCO will seize every chance to make the year 2011 a major milestone on the road to 2015.

Building on the outcomes of the 2010 HLG in Addis Ababa (February 2010) and the MDG Summit in New York (September 2010), the Working Group will address five topics: (1) progress review since 1990, (2) the quality of education, (3) making the case for education, (4) violent conflict and education, and (5) financing in education. It will draw upon new statistics and key findings from the 2011 EFA Global Monitoring Report (to be launched on 1 March 2011) and a series of regional reports, as well as other relevant publications.

The role of the Working Group is to set the tone for the 2011 HLG meeting on EFA in order to gain political momentum and mobilize more international support for education. Twenty years after the historical World Education Conference in Jomtien, UNESCO will use the HLG to urge global leaders to deliver on their commitments and put education back at the centre of political agendas.

Source: UNESCO