One of the biggest challenges of the new millennium is to provide access to basic education for the approximately 840 million adults in the world who cannot read or write and to ensure that all the world's children get some form of primary education. It is increasingly accepted that non-formal education has an important role to play in achieving this. At a Symposium held in Burkina Faso in 2003, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa's Working Group on Non-Formal Education took the argument one step further. It showed how, because of its diversity and flexibility, NFE can make a special contribution to the quality of provision, by making education not only available, but accessible, acceptable and adaptable. It also made a case for the complementarity of non-formal and formal provision and showed the need to mainstream NFE into the education system as a whole. This book reproduces the papers presented at the Symposium, with an overview summarising its discussions and findings. The first part looks at theoretical issues and presents the findings of research carried out in Burkina Faso about the indicators which can be used to measure the effectiveness of the right to education. It places the discussion in a historical context and looks at current policies on the roles of non-formal and formal education in realising the vision of the seminal 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All. The second part of the book contains case studies from seven African countries showing the diversity and potential of NFE initiatives.