Literacy rates are rising – but not fast enough

New data released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics show that literacy rates for adults and youth are continuing to rise. But 775 million adults still cannot read and write – and many countries are unlikely to meet the Education for All goal of halving adult illiteracy by 2015. The new data show that the [...]

Measuring and improving skills – the new ‘global currency’

The OECD Skills Strategy, launched this week at the OECD Forum, underlines the importance of our focus on the marginalized in the forthcoming 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, on youth, skills and work. While those who are in education or work gain skills throughout their lives, the OECD finds those who are neither [...]

Art contest winner announced

We are proud to announce that the winner of the 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report art contest is Khalid Mohamed Hammad Elkhateem, 23, from Sudan, whose entry “In the middle of nowhere” is shown here. We asked young people around the world to help us visualize the themes of our upcoming report on [...]

BRIEFLY: Measuring education quality in Africa

To improve the quality of education, first you have to be able to measure it, but education quality is notoriously difficult to define and measure, as was pointed out on this blog last week. The UNESCO Institute of Statistics has taken a step forward in developing a new regional data collection to monitor progress on [...]

BRIEFLY: 200 million children denied their right to early childhood care and education

To mark Education for All Global Action Week, the Global Campaign for Education is launching a report today that considers early childhood care and education – the focus of the week – from the point of view of human rights. The report, Rights from the start, argues that early childhood care and education is commonly [...]

Education as a way out of exploitation

A new video and an accompanying article released by UNICEF about education in northern Benin turn the spotlight on child labour, child trafficking and other factors that rob children of their right to education. As we will discuss in our forthcoming 2012 Education for All Global Monitoring Report on youth, skills and work, children who [...]

How education leads to better health

In 2008, 1.8 million children’s lives could have been saved if all mothers had secondary education, according to the 2011 Education for All Global Monitoring Report. That’s just one of the many health benefits of maternal education that we have underlined in EFA Global Monitoring Reports. To mark World Health Day, April 7, here are [...]

BRIEFLY: Attacks in Nigeria leave thousands without schools

One common impact of conflict on education – which we noted in the 2011 Education for all Global Monitoring Report – is the tendency for armed groups to attack schools. Since the beginning of this year, the Islamist group Boko Haram has burned down at least 12 schools in northern Nigeria, according to a recent [...]

Ensuring education for Syrian refugee children

The continuing conflict in Syria is taking a heavy toll on education, as thousands of Syrian families take their children out of school and flee across the border to seek refuge. Recognizing their needs, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners last week launched the Syria Regional Response Plan, one of whose aims is to [...]

Without skills, no lasting spring for Arab youth

Arab countries must provide the right skills for their large youth population if the Arab Spring is to have lasting effects, according to the 2010/2011 Arab Knowledge Report, a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, which was launched in Dubai last week. The crucial role of [...]