Cheaper by the Dozen(s)? Quality vs. Quantity in achieving Universal Primary Education By Emily Bishop and David Emery

115 Million Children Worldwide, Nearly 1 in 2 Children in West and Central Africa, Out of School. UNICEF/UNESCO, Children Out of School, 2006

Achieve Universal Primary Education: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. Second United Nations Millennium Development Goal

47 Countries will not attain the goal of universal school enrollment before almost the middle of the next century. V. Muñoz Villalobos Special Rapporteur to ECOSOC on the Right to Education, 2006

In Kenya in 2003, the new government announced on a Friday that as of the following Monday, schools would be free. In Nairobi this led to an average pupil-teacher ratio of Policy Workshop Report, Free to Learn: A Rights Based Approach to Universal Primary Education in Kenya Princeton University, 2006

Putting more kids into an impoverished empty environment does not advance education. In that instance, increasing quality and holding access constant is the only reasonable alternative. Dr Steve Heyneman, Vanderbilt University and the World Bank

Access has priority. Always. Dr Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Teachers College, Columbia University Its better to have children in school than out of school, even if you cant guarantee high quality education right away. Patrick Fine Academy for Educational Development

The elimination of school fees has raised expectations as parents demand more and better opportunities for their children. Kathleen Kennedy Manzo Education Week, 2006