Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children. Executive Summary

The numbers are out, the data have been analysed, and the conclusions are clear: despite substantial gains in school enrollment over the past 15 years, the world has missed the goal of universal primary education by 2015. The failure to deliver on what seemed to be such a realistic and achievable goal represents a broken promise to millions of children who continue to be denied their fundamental right to a primary education. This report presents the latest statistical evidence from administrative records and household surveys to better identify children who are out of school and the reasons for their exclusion from education. It aims to inform the policies needed to reach these children and finally deliver the promise of Education for All. Based on a series of national and regional studies and policy analysis by leading experts, the report explains why better data and cross-sector collaboration are fundamental to the design of effective interventions to overcome the barriers facing out-of-school children and adolescents. While highlighting the way forward for system-wide policies to improve educational quality and affordability, the report also presents the information needed for targeted approaches to address the compounding effects of disadvantage faced by children caught up in armed conflict, girls, working children, children with disabilities, or members of ethnic or linguistic minorities. This report presents a roadmap to improve the data, research and policies needed to catalyse action for out-of-school children as the world embarks on a new development agenda for education. [For the full report, "Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children," see ED560017.]