Ruby Hazel D Carilla
Educ 256
Dakar Framework of Action: Education for All
1. Dakar Framework for Action
The World Education Forum (26-28 April 2000, Dakar) adopted the Dakar Framework for
Action, Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments. In doing so, its participants
reaffirmed the vision of the World Declaration on Education for All adopted ten years earlier
(Jomtien, Thailand, 1990). The Dakar Framework for Action is based on the most extensive
evaluation of education ever undertaken, the Education for All (EFA) 2000 Assessment. Called
for by the World Conference of Education for All, the Assessment produced a detailed analysis of
the state of basic education around the world. It is a collective commitment to action wherein
governments have an obligation to ensure that Education for All (EFA) goals and targets are
reached and sustained.
It is re-affirmation of the vision set out in the World Declaration on Education for All in
Jomtien a decade ago. It expresses the international community’s collective commitment to pursue
a broad-based strategy for ensuring that the basic learning needs of every child, youth and adult
are met within a generation and sustained thereafter.
The Dakar Framework for Action states that the ‘heart of EFA lies at country level’. It also
affirms that ‘no countries seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their
achievement of this goal by a lack of resources’. To complement the efforts of national
governments, UNESCO, as the lead agency in education, will co-ordinate and mobilize all partners
at national, regional and international levels: multilateral and bilateral funding agencies, non-
governmental organizations and the private sector as well as broad-based civil society
organizations.
Dakar S. “The Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting our collective
commitments (2000)
2. Education For All (EFA) movement
The Education For All movement led by UNESCO (United Nation Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization) is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all the
children, youth and adults. The EFA was adopted by The Dakar Framework in April 2000 at the
World Education Forum in Senegal, Africa, with the goal in mind that all children would receive
primary education by 2015. It is a global movement to equal access of quality education that all
children, young people and adults have the human right to benefit from an education that will meet
their basic learning needs in the best and fullest sense of the term, an education that includes
learning to know, to do, to live together and to be. It is an education geared to tapping everyone’s
talents and potential, and developing learners’ personalities, so that they can improve their lives
and transform their societies. It is the key to sustainable development and peace and stability within
and among countries, and thus an indispensable means for effective participation in the societies
and economies of the twenty-first century, which are affected by rapid globalization.
Dakar S. “The Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting our collective
commitments (2000)
3. Six (6) commitment in the World Economic Forum in 2000
a. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education,
especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children
All young children must be nurtured in safe and caring environments that allow them to
become healthy, alert and secure and be able to learn. The past decade has provided more evidence
that good quality early childhood care and education, both in families and in more structured
programmes, have a positive impact on the survival, growth, development and learning potential
of children. Such programmes should be comprehensive, focusing on all of the child’s needs and
encompassing health, nutrition and hygiene as well as cognitive and psycho-social development.
They should be provided in the child’s mother tongue and help to identify and enrich the care and
education of children with special needs. Partnerships between governments, NGOs, communities
and families can help ensure the provision of good care and education for children, especially for
those most disadvantaged, through activities centred on the child, focused on the family, based
within the community and supported by national, multi-sectoral policies and adequate resources.
The increasing gross enrolment rate in early childhood education programs by both public
and private schools in recent years can be attributed to the implementation of the Early Childhood
Care and Development Act or Republic Act No. 8980. Signed on December 5, 2000, the law is
considered a landmark in the country’s education history as it provides the national policy that
institutionalizes an integrated and comprehensive system of early childhood care and development.
It also serves as the blueprint for the country’s entire program for children 0 to 6 years old. The
policy takes on a holistic approach to bring about optimum development of children through
convergence of health, nutrition, psychosocial stimulation and early education programs and
services aimed at giving children good health and nutrition, appropriate early education, love and
protection from harm at home, center and in the school. The law also mandates the establishment
of coordinating mechanisms at the national and local levels to ensure sustained multi-sectoral
collaboration. This is a significant shift from the earlier piecemeal or fragmented delivery of ECCD
services.
Services and activities funded by the ECCD program include:
Service delivery
• Upgrading or expansion of day care centers and barangay health centers
• Provision of equipment, supplies and learning materials for the centers
• Immunization of pregnant mothers
• Micronutrient supplementation for mothers and children
• Provision of essential drugs and medicines
• Supplemental feeding which includes de-worming
• Nutrition education and parent education
• Growth monitoring and promotion
• Livelihood assistance for parents of children in day care and supplemental feeding
program
b. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult
circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free
and compulsory primary education of good quality.
All children must have the opportunity to fulfil their right to quality education in schools
or alternative programmes at whatever level of education is considered 'basic'. All states must fulfil
their obligation to offer free and compulsory primary education in accordance with the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international commitments. The
international agreement on the 2015 target date for achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE)
in all countries will require commitment and political will from all levels of government. For the
millions of children living in poverty, who suffer multiple disadvantages, there must be an
unequivocal commitment that education be free of tuition and other fees, and that everything
possible be done to reduce or eliminate costs such as those for learning materials, uniforms, school
meals and transport. Wider social policies, interventions and incentives should be used to mitigate
indirect opportunity costs of attending school. No one should be denied the opportunity to
complete a good quality primary education because it is unaffordable. Child labour must not stand
in the way of education. The inclusion of children with special needs, from disadvantaged ethnic
minorities and migrant populations, from remote and isolated communities and from urban slums,
and others excluded from education, must be an integral part of strategies to achieve UPE by 2015.
While commitment to attaining universal enrolment is essential, improving and sustaining
the quality of basic education is equally important in ensuring effective learning outcomes. In order
to attract and retain children from marginalized and excluded groups, education systems should
respond flexibly, providing relevant content in an accessible and appealing format. Education
systems must be inclusive, actively seeking out children who are not enrolled, and responding
flexibly to the circumstances and needs of all learners. The EFA 2000 Assessment suggests a wide
range of ways in which schools can respond to the needs of their pupils, including affirmative
action programmes for girls that seek to remove the obstacles to their enrolment, bilingual
education for the children of ethnic minorities, and a range of imaginative and diverse approaches
to address and actively engage children who are not enrolled in school.
Filipinos have deep regard to for education. Education occupies a central place in
Philippine political, economic social and cultural life. It has always been strongly viewed as a
pillar of national development and a primary avenue for social and economic mobility. A clear
evidence of the value placed on education is the proportion of the national government budget
going to the sector. The Department of Education (DepEd), the country’s biggest bureaucracy is
given the highest budget allocation among government agencies each year as required by the 1987
Philippine Constitution.
The 1987 Constitution likewise guarantees the right to education of every Filipino. It
provided that, “The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at
all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all.” The right of every
Filipino to quality basic education is further emphasized in Republic Act 9155 or the Governance
of Basic Education Act of 2001. Along with Republic Act 6655 or the Free Secondary Education
Act, these laws reaffirm the policy of the State to protect and promote the rights of all Filipinos by
providing children free and compulsory education in the elementary and high school level. This
pertains to six years of free tuition fees for children aged 6 to 11, and free four years of secondary
schooling for those aged 12 to 15.
c. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through
equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.
All young people and adults must be given the opportunity to gain the knowledge and
develop the values, attitudes and skills that will enable them to develop their capacities to work,
to participate fully in their society, to take control of their own lives and to continue learning. No
country can be expected to develop into a modern and open economy without a certain proportion
of its work force having completed secondary education. In most countries this requires an
expansion of the secondary system. Young people, especially adolescent girls, face risks and
threats that limit learning opportunities and challenge education systems. These include
exploitative labour, the lack of employment, conflict and violence, drug abuse, school-age
pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. Youth-friendly programmes must be made available to provide the
information, skills, counselling and services needed to protect them from these risks. All young
people should be given the opportunity for ongoing education. For those who drop out of school
or complete school without acquiring the literacy, numeracy and life skills they need, there must
be a range of options for continuing their learning. Such opportunities should be both meaningful
and relevant to their environment and needs, help them become active agents in shaping their
future and develop useful work-related skills.
To access
d. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially
for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
All adults have a right to basic education, beginning with literacy, which allows them to
engage actively in, and to transform, the world in which they live. There are still some 880 million
people who cannot read or write in the world; two-thirds are women. The fragile levels of literacy
acquired by many new literates compound the problem. Yet the education of adults remains
isolated, often at the periphery of national education systems and budgets. Adult and continuing
education must be greatly expanded and diversified and integrated into the mainstream of national
education and poverty reduction strategies. The vital role literacy plays in lifelong learning,
sustainable livelihoods, good health, active citizenship and the improved quality of life for
individuals, communities and societies must be more widely recognized. Literacy and continuing
education are essential for women’s empowerment and gender equality. Closer linkages among
formal, non-formal and informal approaches to learning must be fostered to respond to the diverse
needs and circumstances of adults.
Sufficient resources, well-targeted literacy programmes, better trained teachers and the
innovative use of technologies are essential in promoting these activities. The scaling up of
practical, participatory learning methodologies developed by non-government organizations,
which link literacy with empowerment and local development, is especially important. The success
of adult education efforts in the next decade will be essentially demonstrated by substantial
reduction in disparities between male/female and urban/ rural literacy rates.
Along with “Education for All”, the Philippines is also committed to pursue eight
timebound and specific targets under the Millennium Declaration which it signed on September
2000. The Declaration, in general, aims to reduce poverty by half in 2015 (22.65 percent proportion
of the population below poverty incidence and 12.15 percent below subsistence incidence by
2015). With the adoption of the Declaration, the Philippines likewise affirmed its commitment to
the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) geared towards reducing poverty, hunger, diseases,
illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. These goals have been
mainstreamed in the country’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) 2004-2010
including policies and plans related to children, access to primary education and gender equality.
Specifically, Part IV of the MTPDP focused on “Education and Youth Opportunity.”
DepEd implemented two major non-formal education programs: (i) the Basic Literacy
Program which offers community-based learning for illiterate youth and adults to develop basic
literacy skills; and (ii) the Accreditation and Equivalency Program for literates who have not
completed 10 years of basic education. It is a certification of learning for out-of-school youth and
adults aged 15 years old and above who are unable to avail of formal schooling or who have
dropped out of formal elementary or secondary education. These programs are delivered through
the Literacy Service Contracting Scheme and Learning Support Delivery System, respectively,
which contract the services of partner agencies, e.g. local government, state colleges, church-based
organizations, peoples’ organization and NGOs.
e. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and
achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal
access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
Gender-based discrimination remains one of the most intractable constraints to realizing
the right to education. Without overcoming this obstacle, Education for All cannot be achieved.
Girls are a majority among out-of-school children and youth, although in an increasing number of
countries boys are at a disadvantage. Even though the edu5 4 3 16 Expanded Commentary The
Dakar Framework for Action cation of girls and women has a powerful trans-generational effect
and is a key determinant of social development and women’s empowerment, limited progress has
been made in increasing girls’ participation in basic education. cation of girls and women has a
powerful trans-generational effect and is a key determinant of social development and women’s
empowerment, limited progress has been made in increasing girls’ participation in basic education.
International agreement has already been reached to eliminate gender disparities in primary
and secondary education by 2005. This requires that gender issues be mainstreamed throughout
the education system, supported by adequate resources and strong political commitment. Merely
ensuring access to education for girls is not enough; unsafe school environments and biases in
teacher behaviour and training, teaching and learning processes, and curricula and textbooks often
lead to lower completion and achievement rates for girls. By creating safe and gender-sensitive
learning environments, it should be possible to remove a major hurdle to girls’ participation in
education. Increasing levels of women’s literacy is another crucial factor in promoting girls’
education. Comprehensive efforts therefore need to be made at all levels and in all areas to
eliminate gender discrimination and to promote mutual respect between girls and boys, women
and men. To make this possible, changes in attitudes, values and behaviour are required.
To address this commitment, the Department of Education strictly implemented the
observance of GAD centered school. It is significant that for the child to understand gender
equality and anti-discrimination, it must be introduced at schools. The Department of Education
(DepEd) issues the enclosed Gender-Responsive Basic Education Policy in line with its Gender
and Development (GAD) mandate as stipulated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Republic Act
(RA) No. 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women (MCW), RA 10533 or the Enhanced Basic
Education Act of 2013, and the Philippines’ International Human Rights Commitments to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
among others. Notably, the observance of this commitment in support to the advocacy of the
UNESCO for “Education for All” movement had opened the hearts and minds of the young minds
that they have the same rights and equal access to education. The GAD friendly school creates a
harmonious learning environment wherein everyone equal and free.
f. improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that
recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy,
numeracy and essential life skills.
Quality is at the heart of education, and what takes place in classrooms and other learning
environments is fundamentally important to the future well-being of children, young people and
adults. A quality education is one that satisfies basic learning needs and enriches the lives of
learners and their overall experience of living.
To provide quality education, it is a must that the learning environment is conducive to
learning. Appropriate learning materials and resources are significant in the teaching and learning
process. The Department of Education encourages administrators to be aware of these qualities.
Proper ventilated and well-lighted classrooms, quality textbooks, Information Communication
Technology and other school facilities are factors that greatly influence quality education.
One of the notable thrusts during the administration under President Benigno S. Aquino III
in order to is to improve the Philippine educational system by employing concrete strategies - “Ten
Ways to Fix Philippine Basic Education”
• 12-year basic education cycle: Expansion of basic education in the country from a short
10-year cycle to a globally comparable 12 years. • Preschool for all: Introduction to formal
schooling through a full year of preschool shall be offered to all public school children by all public
schools.
• Madaris education: Make the full basic EFA available to all Muslim Filipino children
anywhere in the country.
• Technical-Vocational Education (TVE): Reintroduction of TVE in public high schools
to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment.
• A reader by grade 1: Make each child able readers by end of grade 1.
• Science and Math proficiency: Rebuild the science and math infrastructure in schools
and universities to encourage more students to become scientists, engineers, technicians,
technologists, and teachers, making the country globally competitive in industry and
manufacturing.
• Private schools as partners: Expansion of the Government Assistance to Students and
Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) Program by targeting 1 million private high school
students every year through the Education Service Contracting (ESC) Scheme while scrapping the
inefficient Education Voucher System (EVS).
• Medium of Instruction (MOI): MOI should be larger than just the classroom. The
country should become trilingual — learn English well and connect with the world; learn Filipino
well and connect with our country; and retain your dialect and connect with your heritage.
• Quality textbooks: Poor textbook quality in schools should not be tolerated, hence
textbooks should be chosen based on three criteria— quality, better quality, and more quality.
• Build more schools with local government units (LGUs): Build more schools in areas
where there are no public or private schools through a covenant with LGUs in order to realize
genuine EFA. The Philippine EFA 2015 National Plan of Action production and enabling tasks
correspond with the BESRA and the current administration’s educational agenda, ensuring that
actions are being taken to fulfill the Philippine’s commitment to EFA.
References:
https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/sites/planipolis/files/ressources/philippines_efa_mda.pdf
Philippine Education for All: An Assessment of the Progress Made in Achieving EFA Goals
http://www.seameo-innotech.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/EFA%20V30.pdf
Dakar S. “The Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting our collective
commitments (2000)
Rodriguez C. Towards Achieving EFA to 2015: The Philippine Scenario
Philippine Education For All 2015: Implementation and Challenges
