Assuring quality education and learning: lessons from Education for All

This introduction highlights the main focus of this special issue, Assuring Quality Education and Learning: Lessons from Education for All. The 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR)—Education for All 2000–2015: Achievements and Challenges—underlines the fact that inadequate attention to education of good quality and a failure to reach the marginalized have contributed to a learning crisis that needs urgent attention. Based on selected background papers for the 2015 GMR, this special issue takes stock of the achievements and challenges of the past 15 years through nine comprehensive articles. A key message that emerged from the 2015 GMR is that major social and economic inequalities act as powerful obstacles to progress in education. Those left behind are the most marginalized and vulnerable. Moving forward, better opportunities for schooling must be available to all children and youth, regardless of family background, gender, or disability. As such, educational reform cannot rest on technical solutions alone. Strategies for learning are most effective when they develop strong links with existing community priorities.