Ministers representing half of world’s population meet in Bali
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Ministers and educational experts from the world’s Nine High Population Countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Nigeria and - will meet in Bali, Indonesia from March 10-12 to discuss ways of accelerating progress towards the provision of Education For All (EFA).
More than half of the world’s population live in the Nine High Population Countries, where illiteracy, gender disparity and teacher training remain major concerns.
In 1993, and under the auspices of UNESCO, these countries launched the E-9 Initiative to address these challenges.
In keeping with the EFA goals set by over 160 countries at the World Education Conference (Dakar, 2000), they have pledged to universalize primary education and significantly reduce illiteracy in their respective countries by 2015.
While significant progress has been achieved, the 2008 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, published by UNESCO, warns that only two of the nine countries are likely to reach adult literacy goals by the target year of 2015, and only three are likely to achieve gender parity by that date.
Improving the number and quality of teachers is seen as a key to further progress and the subject is high on the agenda of this seventh meeting of the E-9 group.
In some E-9 countries only 50% of teachers have received primary education training. Recognising the critical role teachers play as catalysts for change, the meeting will thus concentrate on teacher education and training, highlighting individual country and regional experiences.
The use of information and communication technologies, as well as open and distance learning for teachers will also be discussed, along with global teaching trends and funding.