Global ideals and local practicalities in education policies and planning in Lima, Peru

In the past decades two International Summits, namely the Education for All Conference in Jomtien, Thailand (1990) and the Framework for Action in Dakar, Senegal (2000), have assessed and summarised the status and goals of primary and secondary education and drawn comparisons on prospects and problems between developed and developing countries. The Framework for Action, as its title suggests, sought to put in place a framework for goal realisation in education planning and practice primarily, but not exclusively, in developing countries. This paper assesses the extent to which global goals and summaries of progress mask the difficulties faced in local education delivery, focusing on access to and use of spatial data in the education planning process. Attention is focused on the situation in Peru in general and in the District of Independencia in the Cono Norte of Lima in particular. The quality of spatial and other data resources and the technical difficulties in assembling these into a form that can support local decision making in education planning and governance suggests that there remain significant obstacles in achieving a quality education for all, especially in developing countries.