Education for all: E-9 countries urged to raise education spending to six per cent of GDP

Ministerial review moot says sustainable development not possible without prioritising education

ISLAMABAD: An E-9 ministerial review has urged the respective governments to raise education spending to between four and six per cent of gross domestic product or 20 per cent of total public expenditure to achieve the Education for All (EFA) goal.

A joint statement was issued after the 10th E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting in Islamabad on Saturday.



The E-9 is a forum of nine countries, formed in 1993 to achieve the goals of UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) initiative. The “E” stands for education and the “9” represents Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and China.

The rationale behind including these countries in the initiative was that they represent over half of the world population and more than 70 per cent of the world’s illiterate adults.

“We recognise that the EFA agenda remains unfinished in each of the countries in terms of fulfilling the equal right to relevant and quality education for all. At the same time, multifaceted social and economic transformation and the changing landscape of international cooperation have given rise to new challenges for educational development,” the joint statement said.

The meeting has also committed to enhancing the collaboration among the E-9 countries to implement and monitor the framework for action of the post 2015 education agenda, which will be adopted at World Education Forum in Incheon, South Korea in May 2015.

They also reaffirmed that education was a fundamental human right of all people and an essential condition for inclusive and sustainable human and social development.

They stressed on efforts to ensure that all children, youths and adults have equal access to quality learning opportunities from early childhood care and education to tertiary and higher education in both formal and informal settings.

They also vowed to address marginalisation and inequalities in access to learning opportunities.

“We acknowledge that the priority action for the E-9 countries should focus on the improvement of the professional capability and performance of teachers and education personnel, in particular school principals, and the policies that enable them to deliver effective and quality learning,” the statement read.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2014.