EFA by 2015 (2008)

This report looks at the use of the term ‘basic education’ for defining or referring to educational programmes that have been traditionally categorized as ‘primary/elementary’ and ‘lower secondary’ education. Taking into account that “the twin notions of ‘elementary and fundamental education’ have been overtaken by the notion of ‘basic education’ [...]” (UNESCO, World Education Report. The right to education: towards education for all throughout life . Paris, UNESCO, 2000, p. 26), we tried to capture the quantitative dimension of this shift, or in other words, to determine how many national education authorities worldwide are currently referring to K-12 (kindergarten to grade 12) educational programmes as ‘basic education’.