A/RES/S-27/2 39. As agreed at the World Education Forum in Dakar,10 which reconfirmed the mandated role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in coordinating “Education For All” partners and maintaining their collective momentum within the process of securing basic education, we will accord high priority to ensuring by 2015 that all children have access to and complete primary education that is free, compulsory and of good quality. We will also aim at the progressive provision of secondary education. As a step towards these goals, we resolve to achieve the following targets: (a) Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, for girls and boys, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children; (b) Reduce the number of primary school-age children who are out of school by 50 per cent and increase net primary school enrolment or participation in alternative, good quality primary education programmes to at least 90 per cent by 2010; (c) Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005; and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality; (d) Improve all aspects of the quality of education so that children and young people achieve recognized and measurable learning outcomes, especially in numeracy, literacy and essential life skills; (e) Ensure that the learning needs of all young people are met through access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes; (f) Achieve a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women. 40. To achieve these goals and targets, we will implement the following strategies and actions: 1. Develop and implement special strategies to ensure that schooling is readily accessible to all children and adolescents, and that basic education is affordable for all families. 2. Promote innovative programmes that encourage schools and communities to search more actively for children who have dropped out or are excluded from school and from learning, especially girls and working children, children with special needs and children with disabilities, and help them to enrol in and attend schools, and successfully complete their education, involving Governments as well as families, communities and non-governmental organizations as partners in the educational process. Special measures should be put in place to prevent and reduce dropout due to, inter alia, entry into employment. 3. Bridge the divide between formal and non-formal education, taking into account the need to ensure good quality in terms of educational services, including the competence of providers, and acknowledging that non-formal education and alternative approaches provide beneficial experiences. In addition, develop complementarity between the two delivery systems. _______________ 10 See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000). 12