Unesco lauds India's Education for All effort

India has made a striking progress towards reaching the education for all goals, reduced its out of school children by over 90 percent since 2000, and achieved universal primary education, a Unesco report said here on Thursday.

"Globally, 47 percent of countries achieved universal pre-primary enrolment and another eight percent were close, including India. 20 percent of countries were very far from the goal. Yet, in 2012, around the world nearly two-third more children gained access to pre-primary education than in 1999," the Education for All 2000-2015 report said.

Releasing the report, Human Development Minister Smriti Irani said that "the number of out-of-school children in the age-group from six to 13 years had declined from 13.45 million in 2005 to 6.06 million in 2014".

"The report, however, said that India lagged behind in adult illiteracy, with only 25 percent of the countries reaching the goal of achieving a 50 percent reduction in levels of adult illiteracy and 32 percent are very far from it, including India," she said.

Globally, the percentage of adults with minimal literacy skills fell from 18 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2015, but this is almost entirely attributed to more educated young people reaching adulthood. It added that women continued to make up almost two-thirds of the adult population denied the right to literacy. "In India the percentage is 68 percent," the report said.

The report said that globally, just one-third of countries have achieved all of the measurable Education for All (EFA) goals set in 2000.

"Only half of all countries have achieved the most prominent goal of universal primary education," it said.

Irani said that recognising the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of making education a pillar for the nation's character building, "a new paradigm of education that fosters knowledge with analytical skills, logical reasoning and the ability to imagine beyond the given...is being adopted".

"Achieving excellence by improving the quality and relevance of education and enabling all children and young people to achieve expected/specified learning outcomes remains a key goal," Irani added.

The report also said that "funding remains a major obstacle at all levels".

"The international community, in partnership with countries, must find the means to bridge the US $22 billion annual finance gap for quality pre-primary and basic education for all by 2030. Clear education finance targets must be established within the Sustainable Development Goals where none currently exist," the report said.

Global Monitoring Report (GMR) director Aaron Benavot said: "To achieve global change in promoting a more sustainable future, all governments, including India, must mobilize new resources for education. International partners must ensure that aid is distributed to those most in need."