•   Primary-school enrolments are up sharply in both sub-Saharan Africa and South and   West Asia, with nearly 20 million new students in each region.
  
•   Globally, 47 countries have achieved UPE (out of 163 with data available).
  
•   Projections show that 20 additional countries (out of 90 with the relevant data) are on   track to achieve UPE by 2015; 44 countries are making good progress but are unlikely
    to achieve the goal by 2015.
  
•   Girls' primary enrolments have also risen rapidly, especially in some of the lowest-income   countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and South and West Asia.
  
•   Gender and educational quality measures are increasingly visible in national education
    plans.
  
•   Public spending on education has increased as a share of national income in about 70
    countries (out of 110 with data).
  
•   Aid for basic education more than doubled between 1999 and 2003 and, following the
    G8 summit, could rise to US$3.3 billion per year by 2010.
  
•   The Fast Track Initiative has emerged as a key coordinating mechanism for aid
     agencies.
  

•   About 100 million children are still not enrolled in primary school,55%of them girls.
  
•   23 countries are at risk of not achieving UPE by 2015, as their net enrolment ratios are
    declining.
  
•    Primary-school fees, a major barrier to access, are still collected in 89 countries [out of
    103 surveyed].
  
•   High fertility rates, HIV/AIDS and armed conflict continue to exert pressure on
    education systems in the regions with the greatest EFA challenges.
  

•   86 countries are at risk of not achieving gender parity even by 2015.
  
•   76 out of 180 countries have not reached gender parity at primary level, and the
    disparities are nearly always at the expense of girls.
  
•   115 countries (out of 172 with data) still have disparities at secondary level, with boys   being under-represented in nearly half, in marked contrast to the primary level.
  

•   Enrolments in early childhood care and education programmes have remained static.
  
•   Fewer than two-thirds of primary-school pupils reach the last grade in 41 countries (out
    of 133 with data).
  
•   In many countries, primary teacher numbers would have to increase by 20% a year to
    reduce pupil/teacher ratios to 40:1 and to achieve UPE by 2015.
  
•   Many primary-school teachers lack adequate qualifications.

•  771 million people aged 15 and above live without basic literacy skills.
  
•   Governments and aid agencies give insufficient priority and finance to youth and adult   literacy programmes.

•    A right still denied to nearly a fifth of the world's adult population.
  
•    Essential to achieving each of the EFA goals.
  
•   A societal and an individual phenomenon, with attention needed to both dimensions.
  
•   Crucial for economic, social and political participation and development, especially in
    today's knowledge societies.
  
•   Key to enhancing human capabilities, with wide-ranging benefits including critical
    thinking, improved health and family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention,
    children's education, poverty reduction and active citizenship.

•   In absolute numbers, those without literacy skills are mainly in sub-Saharan Africa,
    South and West Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific. Prospects for meeting the 2015
    goal hinge largely on progress in the 12 countries where 75% of those without
    literacy skills live.
  
•   In relative terms, the regions with the lowest literacy rates are sub-Saharan Africa,
    South and West Asia, and the Arab States, all with literacy rates around only
    60%, despite increases of more than 10 percentage points since 1990.
  
•   Illiteracy is associated to a significant extent with extreme poverty.
  
•   Women are less literate than men: worldwide, only 88 adult women are considered
    literate for every 100 adult men, with much lower numbers in low-income countries such
    as Bangladesh (62 per 100 men) and Pakistan (57 per 100 men).
  
•   132 of the 771 million people without literacy skills are aged 15 to 24, despite an
    increase in this group's literacy rate to 85%, from 75% in 1970.
  
•   Direct testing of literacy suggests that the global challenge is much greater than
    the conventional numbers, based on indirect assessments, would indicate, and
    that it affects both developed and developing countries.

• Political leaders at the highest level commit themselves to action.
  
• Countries adopt explicit literacy policies to:

•   Active government responsibility for adult literacy policy and financing as part of   education sector planning.
  
•   Clear frameworks to coordinate public, private and civil society provision of literacy
    programmes.
  
•   Increased budgetary and aid allocations. Literacy programmes receive a mere 1% of
    the education budget in many countries. An additional US$2.5 billion a year to 2015
    will likely be needed to make significant progress towards the Dakar literacy goal.
  
•   Basing programmes on an understanding of learners' demands, especially their
    language preferences and their motivations for attending class, in consultation with
    local communities. 
  
•   Curricula that build on these demands, with clearly stated learning objectives and the
    provision of adequate learning materials.
  
•   Adequate pay, professional status and training opportunities for literacy educators.
  
•   Appropriate language policies, as most countries facing stark literacy challenges
    are linguistically diverse. The use of mother tongues is pedagogically sound but
    must offer a smooth transition to learning opportunities in regional and
    official languages.

•   Language policies.
•   Book publishing policies.
•   Media policies.
•   Access to information.
•   Policies to get books and reading materials into schools and homes.

Acquiring, improving and using literacy skills happens at all levels of education, and in multiple formal and non-formal contexts. Achieving each of the EFA goals depends strongly on policies that foster literate societies and set high standards for literacy, the foundation for further
learning.