World Education Forum

The goal of ‘education for all’ had been articulated by the community of nations at the World Conference on Education for all, in Jomtien in March 1990. The World Education Forum held in Dakar in April 2000 aimed to review the progress made since then, to affirm commitment to education for all, and to map out appropriate strategies and resources to reach this goal. More than 1100 participants from 164 countries ranging from teachers and researchers to government ministers and the heads of major international organisations assembled in Dakar were aware that the world had changed in ways that could not have been anticipated at Jomtien. The end of cold war, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the emergence of the Internet and other new information technologies, the proliferation of ethnic conflicts, and growing numbers of refugees and displaced persons had all greatly altered the context in which the struggle for education for all was being waged. On the closing day of the Forum, the participants formally adopted the Dakar Framework of Action committing themselves to achieving a set of educational goals by 2015 or earlier. This book on the World Education Forum is a report on the people, the ideas and the commitments that shaped the Forum and that reminded the community of nations at the dawn of the new millennium of the importance of achieving ‘education for all." The goal of ‘education for all’ had been articulated by the community of nations at the World Conference on Education for all, in Jomtien in March 1990. The World Education Forum held in Dakar in April 2000 aimed to review the progress made since then, to affirm commitment to education for all, and to map out appropriate strategies and resources to reach this goal. More than 1100 participants from 164 countries ranging from teachers and researchers to government ministers and the heads of major international organisations assembled in Dakar were aware that the world had changed in ways that could not have been anticipated at Jomtien. The end of cold war, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the emergence of the Internet and other new information technologies, the proliferation of ethnic conflicts, and growing numbers of refugees and displaced persons had all greatly altered the context in which the struggle for education for all was being waged. On the closing day of the Forum, the participants formally adopted the Dakar Framework of Action committing themselves to achieving a set of educational goals by 2015 or earlier. This book on the World Education Forum is a report on the people, the ideas and the commitments that shaped the Forum and that reminded the community of nations at the dawn of the new millennium of the importance of achieving ‘education for all.