Cross-posted from http://blog.wholechildeducation.org/2010/07/08/achieving-education-for-all/

In just a few days, the 2010 World Cup will have determined a new soccer champion among what were originally 32 national teams competing for the title. Aside from being my favorite sport to watch, soccer—or football in the rest of the world—is the most loved sport throughout the world and has even been credited with improving intergroup relations through its spirit of national and international unity. It wouldn’t be nicknamed "the beautiful game" otherwise.

Each World Cup, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) supports a social campaign around the event which usually garners worldwide attention and international support to some of the world's more pressing problems. In preparation for this World Cup games, FIFA helped launch the Global Campaign for Education's 1 Goal campaign asking soccer fans everywhere to advocate for successful achievement of one of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals: Education for All by 2015.

Back in 2000, 164 countries came together in Dakar, Senegal, to make a commitment to end illiteracy and expand educational access, opportunity, and quality for all children, youth, and adults in their respective nations by 2015. With approximately 72 million children across the world not enrolled in school, policymakers pledged that both policies and finances would be put in place to make education for all a high priority. To accomplish this, six educational goals were agreed upon:

•Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
•Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
•Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
•Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
•Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
•Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills.

The United States is among the minority percent of countries that have already seemingly met the four most quantifiable goals—universal primary education, adult literacy, gender parity, and quality of education. However, while our country has largely played the role of aid donor to developing countries that are trying to meet the 2015 deadline, there are still opportunities for improving equity and access outcomes for many children living in the U.S. who are often left out when prioritizing needs for educational planning.

To continue to really put our best effort into securing lifelong equal educational opportunities, we must continue to make sure that all children and youth are able to access a high quality free education by advocating for policies that consider

•Expanding early childhood education for our poorest and most disadvantaged children;
•Reaching out-of-school youth such as migrant children, students who suffer from extreme illness or disability, those entangled in the criminal justice system, children in disaster areas or emergency relief situations, as well as those residing in remote or rural areas;
•Providing mother tongue instruction for learners of English;
•Increasing coordinated school health programs which also attribute to higher school attendance, performance, and overall well-being;
•Focusing with strong intent on reducing the high school drop-out rate; and
•Directing adequate funding that goes to much needed learning resources such as improving dilapidated school buildings, procuring sufficient quantities of up-to-date textbooks in all classrooms, increasing instructional time and opportunities for professional development for in-service educators to teach challenging curricula to all kinds of learners.

Even though the United States is relatively ahead of the game in comparison to most other countries, we continue to wrestle with our own educational challenges state by state. Realistically, it may take more than the next five years to exceed these goals. On the other hand, like UNESCO's Education for All (EFA) format, if we continue to come together to assess and prioritize needs and get serious about setting goals then, with enough political will, bit by bit we can move toward greater inclusivity for enrollment and attendance, higher literacy and numeracy, improved quality, more resource and capacity development, and prioritized education funding.

Next week, when the World Cup comes to a close, at least until the next four years, people all over the world will still be talking about all the highlights of the more exciting matches where goals were struck in the 93rd minute or during a nail-biting penalty kick duel between two equally matched teams. Let's hope that by 2015, the world can also proudly talk about one of the most important goals of all—1 Goal: Education for All.

As a part of the global effort to increase access to and improve quality of education for all, where does your district, state, or country stand? Do you think that most countries will come close to reaching EFA goals by 2015?