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Revisiting the MDG’s: Exploring a Multidimensional Framework for Human
Development
course of the development project due to their access
overstretch. A better appreciation of the space of
personal circumstances would not only have given the
goal sufficient manoeuvrability to adjust to divergent
demands, but would also have enabled it to determine
its outreach in accordance with the needs and access of
the people. This also explains its inability to convert the
tremendous promise of the goal of eradication of
extreme poverty into concomitant progress in other
related goals.
The goal of universal primary education addresses a
broader canvass in targeting the completion of a
primary course by children (boys and girls alike)
everywhere. Such a breadth of vision is commendable
but only if it is accompanied by sufficient dexterity to
accommodate the divergent educational needs, priorities
and preferences of all the communities and cultures. To
measure progress towards the above target, the goal
rely on the indicators of net ratio in primary education
which addresses the space of personal circumstances,
and the proportion of pupils completing primary
education and literacy rates which cater to the
requirements of a conversion factor. This is also
appreciable because it takes into account the
constraints of the space of personal circumstances so
implausibly neglected by the first goal. What it
disregards is the correspondence of resources with the
exigencies of the personal circumstances and
conversion factors. This asymmetry results from a lack
of realization that people’s educational needs and
priorities evince greater diversity than their nutritional
requirements. Crucial differentials like family, religion,
ethnic and caste oriented educational preferences
sensitize people’s educational priorities and require a
high degree of proportionality between the various
spaces to preserve operational precision. These factors
within the space of personal circumstances load
people’s preferences with certain qualifications and
when resources do not correspond to these
qualifications, alienations and estrangements become
inevitable.
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