Each One Counts. It confirms and extends the belief of many cultures that there is a social contract and moral commitment of the part of States to ensure the equity and well-being of all citizens. It reconfirms that this learning must be such that it contributes to children's physical, psychosocial, emotional and intellectual development. It should enhance their capacity to earn a living, participate in the decisions of their society and live in peace and dignity. Increases in the percentage of children reached are important, but are no longer sufficient.
All children have the right of access to effective opportunities for learning.
The exclusion of children constitutes a broadly-based and intricate web of human rights violations. The exclusion of children is in itself a broad-brush phenomenon. They are further encumbered with corollary burdens of disease and disability, sexual exploitation, indentured and injurious labour, or forced involvement in civil and military conflict. The exclusion of these children from education is simply one more manifestation of this web of rights violations. But it is a particularly tragic one.