Lebanon

Education for All

Ten years ago, governments all over the world made a number of commitments at Jomtien aimed at increasing the knowledge and skills of their populations. Amongst other things, they set the year 2000 as the time by which all their young citizens should be able to complete basic education.

After ten years, we are now looking back to assess what we have achieved, and looking forward to chart our path into the future to reach the goal of "Education for All."

Developing countries have experienced extraordinary progress in education and the social sectors generally in the past three decades - more so than in any prior period in human history. The greatest successes have been in access to schooling. Despite these achievements, major challenges remain: to increase access to education in some countries, to enhance equity, and to improve quality - due in part to the pressure of high population growth. Still, 125 million children aged between 6 and 11 have no access to education as we enter the new millennium. Many more attend school without completing the primary grades, and still others have an educational experience lacking in quality. This has hampered efforts to build up the capacity needed in communities to become informed and competitive, to close the digital divide that separates developing from developed countries, and thereby to reduce poverty.