The Education for All (EFA) movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults, which was launched at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990 by UNESCO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Bank, the participants in the conference endorsed an 'expanded vision of learning' and pledged to universalize primary education and massively reduce illiteracy by the end of the decade.  It was soon realised that many countries were far from having reached this goal so the international community met again and affirmed their commitment to achieving Education for All by the year 2015. As listed below they identified six key education goals which aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.

 

Alongside this the EFA goals also contributed to the global pursuit of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, also followed by the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.  As stated before the MDGs are eight international development goals, of these there are two Millennium Development Goals that relate specifically to education but it must also be noted that none of the eight MDGs can be achieved without sustained investment in education, as education gives the skills and knowledge to improve health, livelihoods and promote sound environmental practices.  All of the 189 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organisations are committed to help achieve these goals by the year 2015.

 

Below you will find a list of the Education for all goals and the Millennium development goals.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
 

2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
 

3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.
 

4. 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.
 

5. 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.
 

6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day.

• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

 

2. Achieve universal primary education

• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

 

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

 

4. Reduce child mortality

• Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five.

 

5. Improve maternal health

• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.

 

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.

• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

 

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources.

• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.

 

8. Develop a global partnership for development

• Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally.

• Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.

• Address the special needs of landlocked and Small Island developing States.

• Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.

• In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.

• In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.

• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies—especially information and communications technologies.