Quality education: One answer for many questions

Three years before the millennium, 140 million children are still not in school, despite government pledges to achieve universal access to basic education by the year 2000. Many of the youngsters who are in school find themselves squeezed onto crowded benches in dilapidated classrooms, lacking even a slate, while a teacher drills lessons by rote. Over the past 20 years, while countries rushed to increase the numbers of schools and teachers, quality and relevance of education often took a back seat. But quantity is not an acceptable trade-off for quality, and it is time to put more attention into what takes place in the classroom.