Fifth Meeting of the High-Level Group

　　on Education for All

　　28－30 November 2005

　　Beijing, China

　　Draft Communiqué

　　1．We, Heads of State, ministers, heads and top officials of multilateral and bilateral agencies, and leaders of non-governmental organisations, met in Beijing from 28 to 30 November 2005, at the invitation of the Director-General of UNESCO, for the Fifth Meeting of the High Level Group on Education for All, whose central theme was literacy and education for rural people． We extend our heartfelt thanks to our Chinese hosts for their warm hospitality and excellent logistical support．

　　2．The meeting was enriched by the deliberations of the Technical Meeting of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, the Third Round Table on the Elimination of Child Labour, and the partners of the Fast Track Initiative． The Sino-African Education Ministers Forum stressed the importance of education within locally-driven development and as a means of respecting cultural diversity．

　　3．Our discussions have taken place at the end of a significant year for global development． At the United Nations World Summit in September 2005 and as called for in our 2004 Brasilia Communiqué, world leaders emphasised the critical role of education in the achievement of the MDGs, and reaffirmed support for the implementation of Education for All．

　　4．The 2006 EFA Global Monitoring Report makes clear that additional progress has been made towards the 2015 goals: about 70 countries have increased the share of national budgets devoted to education, twenty million more children are in school in the regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, South-South cooperation is flourishing, and aid to basic education more than doubled between 1999 and 2003．

　　5．Nevertheless, the 2005 gender parity goal has been missed． One hundred million children are still out of school and more than 771 million adults remain illiterate－the majority of whom are female, and they live in rural areas．  In addition, the increasing effects of natural disasters, civil unrest, social violence, HIV & AIDS and other pandemics and deepening poverty threaten the capacity of countries to achieve the EFA goals． Current rates of progress in enrolling more children in school still need to double in South Asia and quadruple in sub-Saharan Africa in order to reach the 2015 goal of providing all children with a complete education of good quality． Educating children, particularly girls, along with the education of their mothers, will substantially contribute to the fulfilment of the EFA goals．

　　6．As school enrolments expand worldwide, we must acknowledge and address the teacher shortage crises facing nations． It is projected that 60 million new teachers, in addition to filling the current shortage in existing ranks, must be recruited and trained if we are to successfully fulfil the EFA goals by 2015．

　　7．There is an enduring finance gap of at least $5 billion per annum, according to estimates of the EFA Global Monitoring Report． New pledges of significant increases in development assistance and debt relief must be translated into additional resources for education in general and EFA in particular, and used efficiently in accordance with the Monterrey Consensus and the Paris Declaration．

　　8．EFA will only be fully successful when currently marginalised children and adults complete school and workforce preparation programmes which they can use to improve their lives． This outcome－not just access, but also success in learning for all－is the finality which the following commitments are designed to achieve． In the spirit of a mutual compact among developing countries, donor agencies, multilateral agencies and civil society, we commit ourselves to promoting inclusion, equity and quality through actions in the following three areas－literacy, education for rural people, and gender parity and equality．