Ei-iE

With roughly 2.8 years to go, the deadline for the successful implementation of the Millennium Development Goals is fast approaching; that being said, 2015 is not the “red light” year. Ensuring access to and participation in education and training, as well as the opportunities to continue education beyond the primary level for every child, young person and adult is an important aspect of a sustainable, equitable, flourishing society. Assessments concerning the progress of the MDGs should be analyzed, and thus utilized in the development of the post-2015 agenda concerning how we, as global citizens, can continue to progress in improving the quality of and access to education.

A great deal of the education-focused MDG agenda was centered around “achieving quality education for all”, but one of the most important aspects of that goal has been overlooked in our haste to make education more widely attainable for students. Pauline Rose, the Director of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, suggests that we need to re-explore the word all; a universal education does not only imply education being distributed across the globe, it also implies a certain importance on the inclusion of every student regardless of age, race, gender, sex, special needs, socioeconomic status, or location. Rose suggests setting more reasonable, concise targets will greatly aid the post-2015 agenda; she also references the recent contributions for a 2030 framework, pointing out that they all share a great deal in common.

The concept of student learning as opposed to student schooling has also come under recent examination. It’s true that the implementation of the MDGs allowed for a large influx of students to enter schools around the world, and that this is most certainly progress for the future of educational growth; but the massive flux in student intake without commensurate investment in well qualified teachers and adequate learning environments sparked a deterioration of the condition of educational quality. Still today, many countries face serious shortages of both new and experienced teachers, and there have been decreases in teachers’ salaries and/or in the hiring of contract teachers on very low salaries, further deteriorating the conditions of classrooms and educational supplies. The hiring of contract teachers enables often under-qualified teachers taking the positions of qualified, more experienced teachers; contract teachers are not employed on a permanent basis, whereas permanent teachers would be—receiving benefits. If the quality and training of a particular teacher—contract teacher or permanent teacher—is low, then the quality of the education that their students will receive is insufficient. The practice of hiring contract teachers is a cheap means of supplying schools with teachers; and in many cases, the funding those schools receive for their educational supplies or infrastructure is also lacking. EI is also concerned with the development of narrow standards for the measurement of learning, and the difficulty of how to answer the question of measuring learning.

EI has engaged this dilemma, as well as others, in a number of ways: EI has developed a flexible framework for the question concerning the global development of education and the MDG agenda after the 2015 deadline; EI took active part in the consultations for the “World We Want” Initiative, and EI is attending the High Level Panel meetings in Dakar and Bali this month. Currently, EI is advocating for: a rights-based framework, especially the right to an education to be at the core of a credible development and education framework; an education wherein the impacts of inequalities will not undermine or inhibit the full access to this right; particular attention to be paid to equity, including gender parity, special needs and disability students, across all priorities within the global development framework; the level of quality of teachers as a key determiner for the level of quality of education; broader standards of evaluation in determining rates or levels of learning; the continued expansion of an equal access to quality education for all people, especially at the primary and secondary levels; sufficient, progressive public financing to ensure implementation and achievement of education for all people regardless of socio-economic status; and the utilization and influence of the past successes and failures of different education frameworks on the post-2015 framework.

The Global Campaign For Education insists that 2012 should cater to two urgent priorities: the first is that we must build and maintain pressure to achieve existing goals – a target that is close or achieved for some goals in some countries, and woefully off-track for others; and, secondly, we must plan and campaign to ensure that any future global frameworks and goals, whether for education or more broadly, emphasise and advance the universal right to education. Perhaps the most promising advantage to the current face of achieving the MDGs as well as the development of a post-2015 framework is UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon’s focus on improving global education with the launch of his Education First five-year initiative. The General Secretary’s plan aims to generate a renewed push to achieve the internationally-agreed upon education goals set for 2015 and it was put into motion on 26 September 2012. The three main concerns of the Education First initiative focus on ensuring that every child has the right to an education, improving the quality of learning in schools, and cultivating the connection of a global citizenship among people. The Secretary General has appointed the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a special agent in helping to both promote and thus accomplish the Education First goals. Mr. Brown will first toward his attention towards those schools that have lower enrolment rates and higher rates of insufficient funding for education—particularly in those countries that are currently engaged in conflict.

Click here to see the former Prime Ministers statement video for Education International