HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EDUCATION FOR ALL MID-DECADE ASSESSMENT SOUTH ASIA REPORT

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EDUCATION FOR ALL MID-DECADE
ASSESSMENTSOUTH ASIA REPORT

• South Asia EFA Mid-Term
• Policy Review Conference
• Kathmandu, Nepal
• 16 June 2008

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SOUTH ASIA EFA MDA REPORT

• Covering 7 countries of South Asia
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka

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INFORMATION SOURCES

• Part I Background and Thematic Issues
• Thematic reports and studies by EFA partners,
  development agencies and members of the Thematic
  Working Group on EFA and the 7 country reports.
• Part II South Asia Progress and Challenges
• Internationally standardised data verified by
  the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS)
  supplemented with information from the 7 country
  reports.
• Part III Progress in Achieving the EFA Goals in
  the Countries of South Asia
• National EFA MDA reports submitted by the
  Ministries of Education of the respective
  Governments.

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EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION (ECCE)

• Goal One Expanding and improving comprehensive
  early childhood care and education, especially
  for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children

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Policies and Strategies

• Recognised as cross-sectoral and referred to in
  policies of ministries and departments of
  education, health and womens and childrens
  affairs
• In India ECCE recognised as a constitutional
  provision but not as a legal right of every child
• In Sri Lanka ECE is part of the General Education
  Reforms of 1997
• ECCE policies and strategic frameworks cover a
  range of services
• Ministries and departments of education focus on
  pre-primary education
• Recognition of services provided by the private
  sector and NGOs with services being extended
  through public and private initiatives

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Variations and Disparities

• Much higher coverage for those who can afford to
  pay for services
• Services more widely available in urban areas
  (except urban slums)
• Regional differences reported in some countries
• Insufficient data on coverage of various
  sub-groups but generally the poor and most
  vulnerable are outside the services except where
  specific initiatives have been set up for them

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Challenges and Prospects

• Lack of political will to universalise ECCE
• Poorly resourced
• Gaps in services
• Lack of reliable data
• Lack of coordination between sectors and types of
  providers
• Need for appropriate training for care-givers,
  facilitators and pre-school teachers
• Unlikely that ECCE will be comprehensively
  implemented across South Asia in the foreseeable
  future

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UNIVERSAL PRIMARY/BASIC EDUCATION

• Goal Two Ensuring that by 2015 all children,
  particularly girls, children in difficult
  circumstances and those belonging to ethnic
  minorities, have access to a complete free and
  compulsory education of good quality

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Policies and Strategies

• All signatories of CRC and obligated to provide
  free education for every child
• All NPAs include targets to achieve universal
  primary education
• Free and compulsory education extending past the
  primary years in Sri Lanka (ages 5-14) and India
  (ages 6-14) and free education in Bhutan (11
  years of school counting pre-primary) and the
  Maldives (10 years of schooling)
• Compulsory and free primary education in
  Bangladesh (ages 6-10)
• In Nepal provision of free primary and basic
  education being implemented through a phased
  approach
• In Pakistan compulsory primary education enacted
  in some provinces and areas but enforcement still
  pending
• Goal for which the greatest commitment has been
  demonstrated

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Variations and Disparities

• Significant differences between geographical
  areas, e.g. up to 40 difference in highest and
  lowest NERs within a country
• Generally urban rates are higher and gender
  disparity less in urban areas
• Where reported, rates in urban slums even lower
  than in rural areas
• Limited available information suggests wide
  disparities among sub-groups based on ethnicity,
  language, socio-economic status and other factors
• Children facing multiple disadvantage are ones
  least likely to enrol and complete primary
  education
• Participation of children with disabilities very
  low or not noted

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Challenges and Prospects

• Tremendous progress made but more concerted
  efforts will be required to reach the goal
• Efforts must be intensified to identify and reach
  the unreached and underserved both through
  special initiatives (as an interim measure) and
  through making mainstream education more
  accessible, equitable and inclusive
• Poor quality and inefficiency of systems
  preventing fulfilment of EFA and MDA goals even
  in some countries with high enrolments
• Gender parity achieved by only 3 countries and
  for gender equality more systematic and far
  reaching reforms will be required
• Most children in South Asia are missing out on
  secondary education

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LIFE SKILLS AND LIFELONG LEARNING

• Goal Three Ensuring that the learning needs of
  all young people and adults are met through
  equitable access to appropriate learning and life
  skills programmes

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Policies and Strategies

• Wide variety among countries of definitions and
  understanding of the goal
• Emphasis in most countries on adolescence and
  youth
• No clear overarching policy for this goal in any
  of the 7 countries
• No quantifiable targets
• Intention to introduce life skills into formal
  and other curricula in most countries
• Great variety of providers across departments and
  ministries but primarily outside the government
  systems

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Variations and Disparities

• Great variety of programmes and definitions make
  it difficult to analyse extent of variations in
  programmes and reach
• Particularly poor documentation in this area
  makes it difficult to analyse disparities
• Formal programmes tend not to reach the most
  disadvantaged while nonformal programmes often
  are not officially recognised

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Challenges and Prospects

• Life skills introduced in curricula in various
  ways but only rarely seen as part of mainstream
  education
• Some linking of life skills with issues of health
  and HIV/AIDS prevention
• Very low enrolment in formal TVET courses and
  generally low correlation of education with
  skills development for employment
• Both life skills and livelihood skills still
  appear to be on the fringe of educational
  provision in most countries and coverage
  represents a tiny proportion of the age cohort

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ADULT LITERACY AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

• Goal Four Achieving 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

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Policies and Strategies

• Widely varying definitions across and within
  countries
• Most statistics based on census which relies on
  self-reporting
• May be defined by specific or variety of
  languages
• Constitutional right in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
• Ambitious targets in most NPAs
• India only country with a comprehensive policy
  and approach, which it has had for 20 years
• Focus on adult literacy programmes for women and
  disadvantaged groups

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Variations and Disparities

• Gender disparities higher for adult literacy than
  for any other indicator
• Wide variations in literacy rates within
  countries with some geographical areas having
  rates much lower than national average
• Urban rates higher than rural rates
• Huge disparity between rates for urban males and
  rural females
• Extremely low rates noted for some social and
  cultural sub-groups
• Unacceptably high gap between advantaged and
  disadvantaged groups

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Challenges and Prospects

• Expanded and improved primary education systems
  are greatest contributor to increased literacy
  rates
• Cross-sectoral and non-governmental efforts
  making valuable but limited contribution
• Literacy programmes very poorly resourced
• Generally given very low priority
• Reliance on formal education systems alone will
  take several decades to produce a literate South
  Asia
• Two-pronged strategy needed to provide universal
  primary education and opportunities for adult
  literacy and continuing education
• Likelihood of achieving adult literacy goal very
  low unless commitment is renewed and adequate
  resources applied

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GENDER PARITY AND EQUALITY

• Goal Five Eliminating gender disparities in
  primary and secondary education by 2005, and
  achieving 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

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Policies and Strategies

• All countries have ratified the Convention on the
  Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
  against Women (CEDAW) and are duty bound to
  promote not only gender parity but also full
  equality
• Most of the countries have policies promoting
  gender equality in education
• Gender is a cross-cutting theme in most of the
  EFA MDA reports and in the NPAs
• Along with special initiatives for girls and
  women, mainstreaming gender issues has been
  adopted as the dominant approach in most countries

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Variations and Disparities

• Gender differences within countries as great as
  across countries of the region
• Generally urban areas have higher GPIs than rural
  areas
• Regional differences in GPIs
• Significant differences in GPIs of sub-groups of
  the population
• Gender is often a major contributing factor to
  other types of disadvantage

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Challenges and Prospects

• Main focus of data is on gender parity
• Significant progress has been made in gender
  parity but the 2005 EFA goal was only achieved by
  3 countries
• Gender parity is often confused with gender
  equality, which is much more difficult and
  complex to achieve
• Considering the patriarchal nature of most South
  Asian societies, notable progress has been made
  toward gender equality
• To achieve gender equality by 2015 policy makers
  and practitioners must work together to break
  down prejudices and to fight discrimination both
  within education and the greater society

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QUALITY EDUCATION

• Goal Six Improving all aspects of the quality
  of education, and ensuring excellence of all so
  that recognised and measurable learning outcomes
  are achieved by all, especially in literacy,
  numeracy and essential life skills

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Policies and Strategies

• All countries identified quality as a high
  priority, cross-cutting issue
• Most countries have not defined quality
• Most indicators are proxy
• Emphasis of policies and strategies is on
  increased retention and learning achievement as
  signs of quality improvement
• Programme approaches with an emphasis on quality
  improvement are being implemented in 4 countries
• Teaching in mother tongue and multilingual issues
  are being considered and promoted in some cases
  but on a limited scale
• Rights-based inclusive education is being
  advocated although practise is not yet widespread

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Variations and Disparities

• Although not well documented, poor quality most
  adversely affects those already disadvantaged and
  marginalised
• Although primary education is meant to be free in
  most countries, hidden costs greatly disadvantage
  the children of the poor
• The opportunity to learn in ones mother tongue
  is a viable option for only a small minority of
  linguistic minority children and adults and the
  quality of provision varies greatly

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Challenges and Prospects

• Most children are the victims of inefficient and
  ineffective systems with excessive wastage, high
  repetition rates, low completion rates and poor
  achievement levels
• Recruitment, professional development and
  retention of a cadre of capable teachers remain a
  major challenge for most countries
• Major challenge is to develop and use qualitative
  indicators to monitor progress and to promote
  effective teaching and learning
• Without an improvement of quality, EFA and MDG
  quantitative targets will not be met

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RESOURCES

• Without the allocation of sufficient resources
  for enrolment, retention and effective teaching
  the goals cannot be met
• Governments must show their commitment to EFA by
  allocating increased financial resources
• Achieving EFA must be given the highest priority
  by governments or it will remain an elusive dream

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BARRIERS TO EDUCATION

• Economic
• Social
• Ethnic and linguistic
• Geographical
• Physical and mental
• Difficult circumstances
• Gender

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OVERALL PROGRESS IN SOUTH ASIA

• The coverage of ECCE has expanded but is still
  limited to less than half the age group in most
  countries
• Primary school enrolments have greatly increased
  and countries have made significant gains in this
  area, but less than half the age cohort is
  enrolled in secondary education in 5 of the 7
  countries
• Youth literacy rates have increased significantly
  but the majority of young people are involved in
  no educational activities
• In most countries there has been an increase in
  adult literacy mainly as a result of formal
  schooling for children but little is being done
  to address the needs of illiterate adults.

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OVERALL PROGRESS IN SOUTH ASIA

• GPIs have improved for all indicators, but the
  lack of equality is apparent by reduced numbers
  of girls in higher levels of education and the
  low GPIs for adult literacy
• There is a much greater emphasis on quality but
  this is yet to be translated into more effective
  and efficient systems
• The collection and analysis of data has greatly
  improved but there is still a lack of information
  on sub-groups of the population which are
  unreached or underserved

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MAJOR CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

• ECCE will remain outside the reach of most young
  children unless efforts are undertaken to provide
  adequate financial resources for all children to
  participate
• Universal primary education and universal
  completion will only be achieved in most
  countries if they can improve the efficiency, the
  quality and the inclusiveness of their systems
• Effective initiatives for adolescents and youth
  are needed to develop their life and livelihood
  skills in order to reach the majority of the age
  group currently not involved in education
• Adult literacy targets will not be met without
  much greater commitment and resource allocation
• The gains in gender parity must be built upon and
  deepened to challenge prejudices and
  discrimination in order to achieve gender
  equality
• Without further improvement in quality, the MDA
  of universal completion cannot be reached in most
  countries

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MAJOR CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

• Children, young people and adults outside the
  system must be identified and effectively
  involved
• The barriers inhibiting their full participation
  must be addressed
• Improvement of quality of education and the
  effective inclusion of all children in meaningful
  learning are the keys to reaching the EFA goals
• The countries of South Asia can meet the
  challenge and achieve EFA if there is a renewed
  commitment and the allocation of sufficient
  resources!