ABSTRACT
Education holds a prominent place in the architecture of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDG 2 focuses on achieving universal primary education in a formal setting, and MDG 3 includes a target on achieving gender parity in formal settings for primary secondary and tertiary education. Education, however, entails multiple modalities and broader processes than learning and teaching in formal settings. This paper aims to confront some of these in relation to the framing of education in the MDGs and critically examines the history of how the education targets and indicators were set for MDG 2, some consequences evident in the implementation of policies, and implications for the process of formulating education goals, targets, and indicators for a post-2015 agenda.
