Signed and Sealed, but Not Delivered: A Socio-Political View of the Promises and Trials of Universal Education

Abstract

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has prioritized the issue of equal access to education. That priority includes the empowerment of women through girls’ education and gender equality, education in emergencies and post-crisis education, early childhood development and school readiness, and enhancing quality in primary and secondary education. This paper addresses the enduring worldwide need for increased access to education and examines the proverbial barriers to education and the axiomatic policies and practices that contribute to such barriers. It includes a cursory review of how human capital, social capital, and cultural capital translate into intellectual capital. It focuses on current international and national trends and challenges for educating the world’s children and sets the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for education in the context of the global dialogue on economics and development, viewing these through a broad base of socio-political literature on educational access and learning outcome challenges.