But while we have made progress, we are far from reaching the goal of universal education.
It therefore makes feasible the notion of universal education, with the potential of some remarkable consequence.
For decades we have assumed the inevitability of the forward march of education, the inexorable year-on-year, continent-by-continent progress towards universal education.
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Over the past eight years, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance has promised universal education and 100 days of employment each year for rural workers.
Her Highness noted that "universal education is the key to international understanding", and "this endeavour will do much to develop the appreciation of other cultures and nations".
The announced withholding of U.S. dues owed for 2011 will immediately affect our ability to deliver programmes in critical areas: achieving universal education, supporting new democracies and fighting extremism.
That world began when Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press in 1455, and gave birth along the way to the Reformation, the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Method, and finally the Industrial Revolution not to mention the modern era of newspapers, universal education and, yes, mass literacy.
Significantly, the State increased funding for education and promulgated the universal basic education law which guarantees every child the right to free and compulsory education for nine years.
According to the report, governments should consider shifting more resources to lower levels of education if they are still far from the goal of universal primary education.
The education minister, Kapil Sibal, has promised an array of improvements, including universal primary education, partly provided for through private schooling.
The quality of education is still poor, and the government is far off its target of providing universal primary education by 2015.
Different regions set different priorities: Eastern and southern Africa countries choose to focus on early childhood care and education, and central and west African countries focus on improving the unfinished business of Universal Primary Education.
The prize winner for Universal Primary Education applications was I-Learn by Swaroop John (Switzerland).
In 1997, for example, the government introduced Universal Primary Education (UPE) which provides free primary education.
It also plans to organize workshops and launch a comprehensive campaign to promote universal primary education.
These include cutting poverty in half, reducing child mortality by two-thirds and ensuring universal primary education.
An estimated 1.7 million more teacher positions are required to reach the goals of Universal Primary Education by 2015.
In 2007, the government introduced Universal Secondary Education (USE) which seeks to make secondary education accessible to all children.
There should be a sense of urgency in achieving the universal primary education target set by Unesco, he added.
By standards of most countries, the United States can be said to have reached the goal of universal basic education.
Despite significant progress towards universal primary education and gender parity, the overall quality of education and learning outcomes are weak.
Significant inequalities based on gender, ethnicity, income, language or disabilities are still a major barrier to achieving universal primary education.
Dr Matsuura has advanced a wide range of programmes including universal basic education, freshwater management and the preservation of living arts and culture.
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Another 1.9 million teachers will be needed by 2015 to achieve universal primary education, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
Almost every country has endorsed these goals, which range from cutting child deaths by two-thirds to halving poverty malnutrition and achieving universal primary education.
One third of Commonwealth countries have yet to achieve universal primary education and gender parity, and 27 million Commonwealth children do not currently receive schooling.
There is a serious breakdown occurring between the wishful mandate of universal higher education and the preparedness of the population being told to pursue it.
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While making sure every child can go to school is an imperative in itself, achieving universal primary education would also bring about far-reaching development benefits.
An estimated 18 million new primary teachers will be needed in the next seven years to achieve universal primary education by the target date of 2015.
In spite of this, there have been successes, particularly those with quantitative targets such as universal primary education (MDG 2) and access to safe drinking water (MDG 7).
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