ABSTRACT
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948, stated that primary schooling should be free and compulsory in all nations. More than fifty years later, the world still has far to go in order to achieve this goal. The Millennium Development Goals’ reaffirmation of the aim of achieving schooling for all by 2015, and of gender equality in schooling by 2005, again risks failure, particularly in the poorest regions of the world. The challenge is greatest in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where scarcely half the eligible children attended primary school at the turn of the century. This chapter examines some of the main causes of this disappointing progress, and indicates the main policy changes needed if the development goals for education are to be met.
