This major new book provides a hard-hitting analysis of the state of basic education provision across the world, more than fifty years after the Universal Declaration on Human Rights established education as a fundamental right. Today millions of children are denied the education they need to escape poverty. This book sets out the scale of the problem, identifies some of its underlying causes, and provides an agenda for reform, including the imaginative Global Action Plan for basic education.

"The Oxfam Education Report" develops a new analytical tool to evaluate education provision: the Education Performance Index (EPI). This ranks countries by their performance in three key areas: enrollment in school; completion of education; and gender equity, and demonstrates that low incomes need not be barriers towards universal primary education.

While using generally-available data from international organizations, "The Oxfam
Education Report" skillfully integrates the stories and experiences of individuals, of small communities, and of NGO groups to focus on the reality of education provision, and makes a unique contribution to the growing debate about achieving the target of universal primary education by 2015.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Basic education: a catalyst for human development; Chapter 2: The state of education: promises and progress; Chapter 3: Inequalities in education; Chapter 4: Barriers to basic education; Chapter 5: International obstacles to education for all; Chapter 6: Partnerships for change: states and NGOs in education reform; Chapter 7: The agenda for action; References;
Information resources; Index