| Resumen: |
Education has long been viewed as wielding powerful transformative
powers. Governments often regard education as a path to nationhood
and citizenship building. Economists view education as an engine for
increasing and equalizing income. Sociologists such as Paulo Freire see
education as an engine for social transformation and for consciousnessraising
among the “oppressed” classes. The United Nations and human
rights activists consider education a basic human right that allows people
to take part in society and enjoy full, meaningful lives. In sum, education
is seen as a p olitical, economic, and social necessity and obligation.
Achieving universal primary education has been on the global agenda since
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed children’s right to free
and compulsory education in 1948. Over the past 20 years, it has developed
into an international priority. In 2000 the United Nations adopted the Millennium
Declaration and laid out a road map for achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), a series of development targets for countries around
the world. These goals include achieving “universal primary education” to
“ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling”—a
target that is often measured through primary-school enrollment, primaryschool
completion, and the literacy rate among 15- to 24-year-olds.
In 2000 the Dakar Framework for Action renewed the pledge to Education
for All first set out in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand. Jomtien’s commitment
to meet students’ “basic learning needs” affirmed the right to education and
recognized the inherent differences among learners. The Dakar Framework
echoed this commitment to quality as well as coverage and included goals
such as “ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in
difficult circumstances and those belonging to certain ethnic groups, have
access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good
quality” (UNESCO 1999). |
