Education

ADB Education Activities

Efforts to achieve Education for All (EFA) by 2015 require continuous support by governments and stakeholders to find ways to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

These efforts are made difficult to achieve because expanding schooling to reach over 66 million out-of-school children in Asia requires large sums to secure learning venues and quality teaching.

Additional costs for formal education are unsustainable in the short-run in many countries. Therefore, it cannot be expected that governments establish expensive formal education systems that are not financially sustainable by today's standards.

Innovative approaches are required to provide community-based approaches to secure efficient utilization of government subsidies. At the same time quality teaching, curriculum and materials development, and provision of facilities must be raised to acceptable levels so that children learn well enough to want to continue their studies through grade 9.

Quality education through grade 9 should be a right of all children to learn basic skills including reading, writing, computation, and problem solving to become productive citizens in a rapidly changing society.

• New Education Projects