ABSTRACT
At the Jomtien meeting, governments accepted a broad interpretation of basic education as covering ‘all the knowledge and skills which people need if they are to lead a decent life’. Whilst some aid donors define basic education narrowly in terms of formal education, most take a wider approach covering pre-school education, non-formal schooling, adult literacy and numeracy and basic vocational training. The DAC définirons includes three areas: primary education (all elementary instruction: provision of learning materials); non-formal education (literacy and numeracy training, education for basic life skills for both adults and children); pre-school education (early childhood development). 1
