All countries have pledged to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. This was decided at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, a year when a significant majority of the 104 million children in primary school were not girls and almost two-thirds of the 860 million non-literate people were women.

Ensuring the right to learn is not just a question of numbers. It is part of a much broader agenda to achieve gender equality so that girls and boys, women and men, enjoy the same learning opportunities and outcomes, personally, professionally and politically. The 2015 goal to achieve full gender equality, including the rights within and through education, clearly reflects this ambitious agenda. The 2003/4 edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report examines where countries stand in their efforts to achieve these goals, highlights best practice, suggests priorities for national strategies and considers how the international community is meeting its commitments towards achieving true ‘education for all’.