Since the beginning of the nineties primary school enrolments in developing countries have increased significantly. Despite that, 113 million children, 65 million of them girls, still do not have access to education. It has not proved possible to improve the quality of education and children’s learning achievements have remained unsatisfactory. The low quality and efficiency of teaching is - especially in developing countries - one reason why so many children have to repeat courses or give up altogether. 

Low achievement, even among children who complete primary school, and high drop-out rates often have the effect of keeping illiteracy rates high among young people and denying them the important foundation they need to improve their individual situation and share actively in society’s development.

Making ‘Education for All’ a reality is way beyond the financial and manpower capabilities of developing countries. An inadequate network of primary schools, inappropriate curricula, poor working conditions for teaching staff and the lack of opportunities to catch up on missed basic education later in life are all typical features of the education systems in these countries.

This is all tied up with the fact that for far too long nothing was done to implement structural reform. The educational sector was bogged down in centralised, hierarchical structures, whilst the world around was undergoing radical change. The managerial and technical staff has not been trained to deal efficiently with the tasks on hand. There are no clear policy frameworks and no foundation for educational planning. Public dialogue on education is rare, and the potential that parents and the community have to offer for improving the educational situation remains largely untapped.

Primary education has become a major international development goal. The United Nations Millennium Declaration has adopted the target of ensuring that by 2015 all boys and girls can complete a full course of primary schooling. The Millennium Declaration also states that, to promote gender equality, gender disparity should be eliminated in primary and secondary education. The United Nations thereby reaffirms two international development goals that were formally adopted back in April 2000 at the World Education Forum (“Education for All”) in Dakar. The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in September 2002 reaffirmed the importance of the international development goals and placed special emphasis on the importance of education for sustainable development. With this, the United Nations reconfirmed the international development goals, which have been formulated in international forums since 2000, including at the G8 Summits in Italy (2001) and Canada (2002).