Draft program

Tuesday 16 December

Panel discussion at the Oslo City Hall

• The 2015 EFA targets for children, youth and adults are at increasing risk of being missed due to the failure of the international community to address global inequality and to the failure of governments to tackle inequality within their countries.
• Equity and quality must be at the core of all education policies. Governments should develop well-defined targets for reducing disparities based on wealth, location, ethnicity, gender and other indicators for disadvantage, and monitor progress towards achieving them.
• Decentralizing financial responsibility and management for education to local levels can exacerbate inequalities if central governments do not maintain a strong role.

• Qualified and motivated teachers are key to improving both access to learning and the quality of education.
• Teacher policies must address training, status and working conditions, and ensure adequate remuneration and professional development opportunities, with a special focus on attracting women to the profession in countries where discrimination against girls persists.
• Education for All will not be achieved without a massive effort to recruit and train teachers and to improve their status and recognition.
  

• National financing accounts for the bulk of education spending. Government spending on education is a measure of a country’s commitment to EFA. Low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia tend to invest the smallest shares of GNP in education.
• Donor commitments to basic education in low-income countries amounted to $3.8 billion in 2006, leaving an annual financing gap of close to $7 billion. Education for All will not be reached without bold increases in financial commitments and predictable aid flows to support developing country efforts.
• Better results: to make aid work better for education, donors must continue to improve coordination among themselves and to align their aid with national priorities.