In an interview with The Guardian, Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education Julia Gillard said that: "Fifteen years ago we promised the children of the world that they would get to go to primary school. We are still 58 million kids short of that promise and around 250 million are getting some education but not achieving the most basic literacy and numeracy."
Along access to school, quality of schooling must be a key focus for the sustainable development goals that will be adopted this year.
Aid to education has declined sharply in recent years, more so than any other development aid. The Global Partnership for Education urges donor countries to contribute, but also developing countries to spend 20% of their domestic budget for education.