Achieving Gender Equality in Education: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

This issue on Gender and Education is timely. The 2015 deadline for meeting the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is fast approaching. The authors in this issue raise several issues that should form the basis of consideration post-2015 MDG targets. Since the 2000 Dakar Declaration, there has been a frantic attempt by several governments to ensure that MDGs 2 and 3 are met. MDG 2 which has as its goal that of achieving universal primary education by 2015 is principally concerned with parity. This has been interpreted to mean that the same proportion of girls and boys access and successfully complete basic schooling