Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015: A Chance for Every Child

One hundred and eighty-nine countries have committed themselves to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at eradicating extreme poverty and improving the welfare of their peoples by the year 2015. The second of the goals is: 'Achieve universal primary education,' with the specific target of ensuring that, by 2015, boys and girls everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. This book assesses whether the Millennium Goals can be met. Specifically it asks: • Where do we stand today in relation to the target of universal primary completion? • Is universal primary completion achievable by 2015? • If so, what would be required to achieve it, both in terms of education policy reform and incremental domestic and international financing? In a globally integrated and highly competitive world economy, no country can any longer consider primary schooling a terminal level of education for its labor force, but increasing the share of children who do complete primary school is the essential first step. In a borderless world, where the gulf between the educated, empowered rich and the stagnating and powerless poor increasingly poses threats to all, the achievement of universal primary completion is of global interest. Few global goals have been as consistently and deeply supported as the notion that every child in every country should have the chance to complete primary school. Perhaps it is time to make it a reality. The volume includes CD-ROM containing a 'hands-on' version of the simulation model developed by the authors and all of the background data used.