Ei-iE

The Third World Congress of Education International, meeting in Jomtien, Thailand, from 25 to 29 July, 2001:

Notes that:

1. Over 115 million primary-school-age children do not attend school and large numbers of children drop out before they have reached grade 5;

2. Of the 882 million illiterates in the world, 63.7% are women;

3. More than two thirds of the governments in the world allocate less than the minimum of 6% of their Gross National Product (GNP) to education as recommended by the Delors Commission;

4. The majority of industrialised countries do not allocate 0.7 % of their GNP to development as recommended by the UN General Assembly, and only a small part of the funds provided for development is allocated to basic education;

5. The ambitions and objectives determined by world organizations and forums are constantly revised downwards, and they are not respected;

Believes that:

6. All governments have a responsibility to fulfil their human rights obligation to provide, free and compulsory basic education of good quality for all children, especially girls, youth, immigrants, indigenous students, children with special needs or in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, in accordance with the commitment made in the Dakar Framework for Action by 2015. In today's world, the mission of quality public schooling is not limited to the basic years of education, but includes secondary school and the acquisition of vocational qualifications;

7. It is not sufficient to improve enrolment figures without considering the quality of education;

8. Partnership is a key concept for the achievement of education for all. The objective of the different parties must be the common interest. Proposals and activities must be implemented respecting the responsibilities of the different partners, and financing must preserve the public character of education;

Recommends that:

9. Teacher trade unions approach ministries of education and form partnerships where possible, with the shared objective of achieving education for all;

10. The ministries put in place a mechanism for information, consultations and negotiations aimed at improving teachers' salaries and working conditions, the resources, learning materials and equipment in schools, teacher education and the training of educational personnel;

11. Teacher unions take initiatives which will support improvements in the quality of education;

12. Schools be based on democratic participation, and accountability to civil society, a partnership to elaborate new ways of co-operation between school and parents, a partnership between schools, and trade unions and different sectors of the community, and a shared commitment to combat child labour;

13. Without putting into question the priority role of public formal education, new forms of cooperation and broad national alliances be sought, particularly with NGOs, in order to develop complementary forms of education in the context of the objectives of education for all;

14. A universal commitment to education for all must include reforms of International Monetary Fund and World Bank structural adjustment policies; a programme for debt cancellation; increased allocations to free public education at all levels in the development co-operation budgets of the industrialised countries; and further examination of the possibilities for developing international agreements on investment, financial transactions and taxation that will prevent situations where countries are not able to levy or collect the taxes needed to improve education systems;

15. Teacher unions, other unions and trade union centres form alliances around shared objectives to achieve education for all;

EI should:

16. Prepare a detailed plan of action as part of the Global Campaign for Education in co-operation with other organisations, to pressure governments to meet their obligation to provide free public quality education for all.