Article 3 of the ICESCR requires States to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of the right to education. In addition, goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals is to promote gender equality and empower women.275 This goal seeks to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and over all levels of education by 2015. Goal 5 of the Dakar Framework is framed in the same terms.276 States are therefore under an immediate and mandatory obligation277 to ensure gender parity and gender equality in the provision of education. Gender parity is a numerical concept: reaching gender parity implies that the same proportion of boys and girls – relative to their respective age groups – enter the education system and participate in the full primary and secondary cycles. Gender equality, on the other hand, implies that boys and girls are offered the same chances to go to school and that they enjoy teaching methods and curricula free of stereotypes and academic orientation unaffected by gender bias. It also implies equality of outcomes in terms of length of schooling, learning achievement and academic qualifications.278 Gender equality in education must be understood in light of the standard of equality for women under the CEDAW279 and other relevant instruments and activities of the CEDAW Committee.280 Link with guarantee of non-discrimination As already discussed, the ICESCR includes a guarantee of non-discrimination on the basis of sex among other grounds. This provision and the guarantee of equal enjoyment of rights by men and women in article 3 are integrally related and mutually reinforcing. Moreover, the the Special Rapporteur on the right to education Girls’ right to education E/CN.4/2006/45 8 February 2006. 275 See appendix 3 for more information. 276 However, the Special Rapporteur has reported that the goal of gender equality by 2005 was not met in 94 of the 149 countries for which information was available. Further, there are 86 countries unlikely to achieve gender parity even by the year 2015, while 76 countries have not even achieved gender parity in primary education. Girls continue to suffer from the disparities: see Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education Girls’ right to education E/CN.4/2006/45 8 February 2006 at paras 58 – 59. 277 CESCR General Comment No. 3: The nature of States parties’ obligations E/1991/23 14 December 1990 at para 5. 278 UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4 Gender and Education for All: The Leap to Equality (Summary Report) at 5. This report is available at http://www.unesco.org/education/ efa_report/ (last accessed 4 December 2006). 279 Article 10 of the CEDAW requires States to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education. 105