India is one of the world's largest democracies, covering an area of 3.2 million sq km and with a population of more than 1 billion. As the world's second most populous country, India is home to 16 per cent of its population. It is a federal country divided into 35 States and Union Territories. Both the states and the central government have concurrent powers on education. A major challenge in national planning is to reconcile the planning priorities of States with the national plan frame, and in this regard, the National Development Council (NDC), with representation of chief ministers of all States, is a statutory body that imparts a national character to the entire process of planning. During the post-Independence period, there has been considerable expansion in educational facilities and enrolment at the elementary stage, and as a consequence, the literacy rate has improved every decade. The latest Census indicates that the literacy rate has increased by about 13.17 percentage points in a period of ten years, from 52.21 in 1991 to 65.4 per cent in 2001.

But there’s a long way to go since we have not yet achieved the set target for Education for all. Even as UNESCO’s latest report pans India for lagging behind in the race for achieving education for all by 2015, experts gathered in the capital weigh up the nationally sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Exclusion and discrimination remain core challenges as millions of children remain outside its fold, is the verdict. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to education”. But the Question it will we be able to achieve the goal by 2015? Political independence, if not complemented by social and economical independence, remains hollow. B.R. Ambedkar, Indian scholar, political leader and architect of the Indian Constitution, prophesied in 1950 the India that would be six decades later. Taking facts into consideration and moving ahead with a new set for Advocacy Programme Open Forum Organized a “National Advocacy Conference on Education for All by 2015: Will we make it?” on Sunday, March 16, 2008 at Speaker Hall, Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. The panel of Speakers for this day long Advocacy Conference, sponsored by K4D, and The Oriental Insurance Company of India Limited, includes Mr. Mohd. Ali Ashraf Fatmi, Minister of State for School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India; Dr. (Mrs.) Shyama Chona, Padmashree Awardee and Principal, Delhi Public School; Dr. M.C. Pant, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling; Mr. Shiv Khera, International Educator and Founder, Country First; Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU; Shri. Shahid Siddiqui, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha & Chief Editor, Nai Dunia; Mr. Pradeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman, Sharda Group of Institutes; Ms. Anjali Makhija, Director; Capacity Building, Institute of Rural Research and Development; Mr. Abhay Anand IPS, ADGP, Govt. of Bihar & Founder, Ramanujam Society of Mathematics; Mr T K Mathew, Founder, Deepalaya; Dr. Aparna Basu, Patron, All India Women’s Conference; Dr. Anjlee Prakash, Chief Executive Officer, Learning Links Foundation; Dr. Parth J. Shah, President, Centre for Civil Society; Prof. R. Govinda, Professor & Head, School & Non-Formal Education, NUEPA; Ms. Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, Plan India; Mr. Thomas Chandy, Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children, Bal Raksha Bharat; Ms. Anjali Jaipuria, Vice Chairperson, Jaipuria Institute of Management Studies; and Ms. Amita Shaw, Director, National Bal Bhavan.

How well can Indian children read and write? It is well known that although raising literacy levels has been a goal endorsed by virtually every government, hundreds of millions of citizens remain outside the reach of this promise even today. It is also no secret that the quality of public education across the country is inadequate; enrolment in school alone is not enough to ensure that today's children too will not fall prey to the same forces that kept their parents illiterate. These generalities, however, are too sweeping, and do not provide meaningful indicators to the state of public education in India. An important first step to creating measurable change in the future, therefore, is to properly understand the current state. Research from the Open Forum, Research & Analysis Team highlighted some of the key findings:

•	Nearly 1.4 crore children are out of school; this situation is especially worse in Bihar, Rajashtan and Jharkand, where 10% or more of school-age children are not enrolled.
•	The gender gap in the percentage of children out of school, however, has dropped. In 2001, it was estimated that 2 out of 3 dropouts were girls, but this study finds that only a little more than half (52-55%) of the children out of school are girls.
•	In three out of four schools visited by volunteers collecting data, the teachers were present, as they are expected to be. In several states, all the teachers assigned to surveyed schools were present. Unexpectedly, however, teacher absenteeism was high in Kerala, where 3 out of 10 schools visited did not have any teacher present.