Inclusive Education.

The term 'inclusive education' became more commonly used some twenty years ago, although it had been used earlier, from the mid-seventies concerning special education. We didn't quite know at first if the noun should be 'inclusivity' or 'inclusiveness', but after a while settled for the latter. Then there were other related terms, indeed Education for All (EFA), as was a used UN term, and slogan, for reaching the ambitious goal of EFA worldwide by a certain year, I think it was first 2015, and now pushed to 2030, with many other UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with SDG4 for education. Alas, some countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, and some African countries, are not likely to reach the goals unless major policy and implementation changes are made, and allocations of funds are made.

The term universal primary education (UPE) is well-established and it should have a word in front of it, notably 'compulsory'. As we know, UPE will not be achieved unless education is made compulsory, and only then will the most underprivileged groups be included, thus making education 'all-inclusive'.

Most out-of-school children live in conflict and post-conflict countries and areas, such as Afghanistan, which is particularly badly affected, also because of political and cultural issues, including religion. Almost everywhere, more girls than boys are affected. Worldwide, UNESCO's Institute of Statistics estimated a few years ago that some 260 million school-age children and youth are out-of-school, about 60 million in primary school age, another 60 million in lower secondary age, and 140 million in upper-secondary age. As already mentioned, SDG4 says that universal enrolment should be achieved by 2030, and UN agencies advise member countries on how to reach the goals. But a goal only reaches as far as the politicians want in each country, and also as long as the countries' economies allow it. The donor countries assist but could do much more towards reaching UPE and other key goals, and the recipient countries could also do more if they wanted to reach the goals. It boils down not only to political will but also to implementation capacity.

When countries' politicians don't prioritise reaching UPE, it also has to do with how important it is seen by the country, both from a state (government) perspective and a private sector perspective. If the working sector has plenty of applicants for jobs and needs high numbers of unskilled workers...