Education For All - Global Monitoring Report 2003/4 - The Leap to Equality

All countries have agreed to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. In its opening chapter, this second edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report sets out the powerful human rights case for achieving parity and equality in education. Chapter 2 monitors progress towards the six EFA goals through a gender lens. The next two chapters look at why girls are still held back and highlight policies that can lift barriers and improve learning. Strategies to remove gender gaps in education are part of a much broader reform effort underway in many countries, as Chapter 5 shows. This agenda cannot be met without much bolder international commitments and better co-ordination, which is assessed in Chapter 6. It is in the interests of all states and peoples to remove the gender gap and it should be a top priority in all educational programmes, as the final chapter concludes.