Education for All: Are the Doors of Learning Opened for All in the Provision of Quality Education in South Africa?

Abstract

The quest to achieve Education for All (EFA) is fundamentally about assuring that children, youth and adults gain the knowledge and skills they need to better their lives and to play a role in building more peaceful and equitable societies. It is therefore imperative to focus on quality in order to achieve EFA. As many societies strive to universalise basic education, they face the momentous challenge of providing conditions where genuine learning can take place for each and every learner. The six goals adopted at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, implicitly or explicitly integrate a quality dimension. Goal 6, in particular, commits countries, with the support of their EFA partners, to improve all aspects of the quality of education. The benefits of early childhood, literacy and life-skills programmes largely depend on the quality of their contents and of their teachers. The conceptual paper aims at analysing whether South Africa will meet the goals of Education for All in 2015 which are part of Millennium Development Goals (MGD).The question to be asked is: “Is South Africa going to meet goals of Education for All in the provision of quality education?”

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p1285