In the Government's White Paper 'Eliminating World Poverty: a Challenge for the 21st Century' (1997) we set out the complete agenda for Britain's work in development; we committed ourselves to internationally agreed goals - including halving the numbers living in poverty and achieving universal primary education.
We put people at the heart of all our work, in human rights, health, economic well-being, sustaining the environment - and in education. As we wrote in the White Paper "What we want for our own children, we want for all children".
This means that we want opportunities for all to learn, free from harassment, hunger or concerns about ill-health. Education must be valuable, both to the individual and to the economic development of the country. Girls as well as boys must attend school and gain the benefits of education. Adults also need the opportunity to benefit from literacy and gain access to skills training. Education systems should be effective and equitable and provide opportunities for all, especially the poorest.
Education is a complex web of competing priorities and needs: quality against cost; universal primary education against the skills needs at higher levels.
Helping our partner countries to build and sustain education systems which give priority to primary education for all, but also develop effective higher education institutions, promote literacy and lifelong learning, and capture the benefits of education for development - this is our objective.
In 'Learning Opportunities for All' we set out the policy framework for DFIDs work in education; the principles we aim to follow, the challenges we face, and the ways in which we intend to work in order to achieve our collective, global goals and objectives.
Secretary of State for International Development
