One decade of Education for All: the challenge ahead

Author(s)
Torres, Rosa Maria
Languages
English, Spanish
Series
Series of Publications, IIEP-Buenos Aires
Year
2000
Pages
95 p.

Online version

About the publication

Education for All (EFA), the global initiative launched in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990, served as a framework for the design and implementation of education policies around the world, particularly in the field of basic education, during the 1990s. This paper does not intend to evaluate the adherence to quantitative goals set within the scope of EFA; it approaches Education for All as a concept and a strategy rather than as a goal in itself. More specifically, it analyzes if, and to what extent, the renewed vision of education, education policy and international cooperation in education that was outlined in Jomtien, has been achieved. The author argues that the "expanded vision of basic education" espoused at Jomtien re central to the proposal and inseparable from attaining the goals set re did not translate into the design (and practice) of education policies and reforms implemented in the 1990s, and remains thus as a challenge beyond the year 2000.