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Africa: Primary Education Pays Off
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Sep 21, 2010 (100921)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"Simply getting all children into school has a direct positive
impact on economic growth. Then once children are in school,
ensuring that the education they receive is good quality multiplies
the impact ... A recently completed study from 50 countries
established that every extra year of schooling provided to the
whole population can increase average annual GDP growth by 0.37%.
Where the education is good quality, the improvement of cognitive
skills increases the impact to 1%." - Global Campaign for Education
Given the overwhelming evidence that education pays off, this new
report by six international non-governmental organizations tries to
balance reports of real success and dismay at the failure of both
rich and poor governments to make the necessary investments they
have committed to in principle. The facts are not surprising, but
nevertheless necessary to document, as one component of building
the political will that is also indispensable.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains brief excerpts from the report
"Back to School?," with detailed tables comparing the records of 60
poor countries and 22 "donor" countries. The excerpts include with
a section on "success stories," which begins as follows:
"Across sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade there has been a
major effort to increase enrolments, and overall net enrolment
rates have increased from 56% to 73% since 1999. Within this,
Tanzania has performed particularly well, with the number of out of
school children decreasing from 3.1 million to 0.1 million. There
has also been dramatic improvement in Kenya, where the number has
decreased from 1.9 million to 0.8 million."
For the full report and additional background information, visit
http://www.campaignforeducation.org
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on education issues, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/educexp.php
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See my Foreign Policy in Focus commentary on the Global Solidarity
Levy at http://tinyurl.com/238p4aa
For more background, see http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/ctl1009.php
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Back to School? The worst places in the world...
This Global Campaign for Education report is supported by
ActionAid, Education International, Oxfam, Plan International, Save
The Children and VSO.
[Excerpts only. For the full report and additional background information, visit
http://www.campaignforeducation.org ]
Success stories: the impact of investing in education
Despite the massive challenges facing education systems across the
developing world, the last decade has seen significant improvement
in certain countries. The top of our league table shows how
countries with relatively low GNP per capita can still be effective
in providing widespread access to good quality education - by
ensuring that they allocate sufficient funds for education and
prioritise teachers, textbooks and classrooms. ...
Across sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade there has been a
major effort to increase enrolments, and overall net enrolment
rates have increased from 56% to 73% since 1999. Within this,
Tanzania has performed particularly well, with the number of out of
school children decreasing from 3.1 million to 0.1 million. There
has also been dramatic improvement in Kenya, where the number has
decreased from 1.9 million to 0.8 million. Keeping children in
school once they have enrolled remains a major challenge. Again,
there are some significant success stories -In Kenya, Ghana,
Namibia and Tanzania, more than 80% of children that enrol in
school are now still enrolled in the final year of primary.
Another key challenge has been ensuring that teachers are
appropriately trained and can effectively engage their students in
the learning process. In several countries there have been
widespread teacher training initiatives bearing considerable fruit.
In Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Niger over 98% of primary school
teachers have now received the appropriate level of training. This
is a huge achievement and bodes well for witnessing a sustained
improvement in learning outcomes in these countries.
In most countries across the region boys still have a better chance
of going to school than girls. However, countries have worked hard
at reducing the gender gap. In Ethiopia, the gap between the number
of boys and girls in school has decreased from 13% to 6% since
1999. In Togo it has decreased from 19% to 10% in this period and
in Senegal gone down from 7% to 0%, indicating that gender parity
has been achieved. Increasing enrolments, training teachers and
ensuring gender parity: all of these issues are dependent upon
ensuring that there is sufficient domestic financing for education.
In the effort to provide good quality EFA it is vital that
countries allocate 6% of GNP to education. The countries that lead
the way in this regard are Lesotho and Botswana, spending 11% and
8.8% respectively. Burundi has made major progress since 1999,
increasing spending on education from 3.5% to 5.2% of GNP. In the
same period, Ethiopia has increased from 3.5% to 5.5% of GNP.
Ghana is our top performing country in sub-Saharan Africa. This is
due to a variety of factors, including the decision taken to
increase spending on education from 4.2% in 1999 to its current
level of 5.5%. This increase in resources has meant that Ghana has
been able to enrol an extra 1.3 million children into primary
school whilst keeping class sizes down to an average of 32 pupils.
...
Executive Summary
Education is the foundation of all development and a vital catalyst
for growth. The eight goals agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in
2000 reflected this, with two of them directly concerning an
education provision.
- Goal 2: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls
alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
- Goal 3: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no
later than 2015.
...
This report, backed by many of the world's leading anti-poverty
organisations, shines a spotlight on the worst places in the world
to be a school child. The findings paint a stark picture of the
lives of children from 60 of the poorest countries. It demonstrates
loud and clear that the efforts to provide universal access to
education are in crisis, and that the progress made in enrolling 40
million more children in school since 2000 is now under severe
threat. There are still 69 million children out of school today.
The UN report that if current trends continue, the slowdown in
progress in enrolments will mean that in 2015 there will be more
children out of school than there are today. In addition, too often
the quality of education on offer is very poor, leading to early
drop-out and illiteracy. Across the world there are 759 million
adults who cannot read or write. In sub-Saharan Africa, 48% of
children do not complete primary school and only one country in the
region sends more than half its children to secondary school.
Education is proven to be the key to ensuring sustained and
equitable economic growth, improved health and social development.
- Across the world, 171 million people could be lifted out of
poverty if all children left school with basic reading skills.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, providing every mother with secondary
education would save the lives of 1.8 million children every year.
Despite this potential for transformation, the education sector is
in crisis, with developing countries under pressure to squeeze
their budgets and aid budgets being cut. Indeed, recent
international summits have shown little if any appetite to address
the looming emergency.
It is clear that a dramatic upscaling of domestic and external aid
efforts is needed ... While the efforts of some have been
remarkable, too many poor country governments still do not take the
minimum actions required to open the school gates to all.
In addition, poor countries are on a worsening trajectory as severe
and deepening pressure from the economic downturn caused by the
crisis of the rich world's banking system bites on their budgets.
The global impact of the economic downturn is expected to be
devastating in the education sector, where it is estimated that
$4.6 billion per year will be lost to education budgets in
sub-Saharan Africa due to the combination of effects of the crisis.
It is vital that governments of rich and poor countries now live up
to the promises they have made. ...
Poor countries should:
- Be vocal and passionate advocates of investment in education on
the global stage.
- Put a minimum of 20% of their budgets into education, half for
primary schooling.
- End fees and charges that prevent families sending children to
school.
- Help girls and marginalized groups into school, with special
programmes such as school health and nutrition and stipends.
- Train and recruit all the teachers needed to achieve EFA, and
ensure quality teaching and learning that meets the diverse needs
of students, alongside appropriate assessment of learning outcomes.
- Be open to civil society participation and democratic control in
education governance and budgeting, to strengthen accountability
between citizens and the state.
Rich countries should:
- Immediately prepare a step-up plan for reaching their fair share
of the funding needed for EFA. Aid to basic education should double
from $4 billion to $8 billion per year immediately, and increase
incrementally to $16 billion per year by 2014.
- Make aid available for the core running costs of education -
teachers, books and schools - and end the practice of reporting
imputed student costs and aid to overseas territories into total
aid to education figures.
- Back global plans and initiatives to ensure resources and
results:
- At the G20, agree a global financial transactiontax of at least
$400 billion per year, with $100 billion of this for development
aid, including education.
- Back a reformed Fast Track Initiative and ensure that its
replenishment target of $2 billion for 2010 is met immediately.
- Explore other innovative approaches to raising and disbursing
funds for education.
- Target aid to countries facing the greatest challenges,
including those suffering war and conflict, and where girls are
most severely disadvantaged.
- Require the IMF and World Bank to pursue 'pro-education'
policies:
*The World Bank should agree a matched funding formula for
assisting FTI-endorsed countries, combining its resources with FTI
grants under a single stream, in the form of grants rather than
loans.
*The IMF should relax macroconomic conditions such as low inflation
and deficit targets to allow for counter-cyclical investment in
education up to 2015.
...
Education: A compelling case for development
Education Beats Poverty
... When people cannot read or write, when they do not have the
skills and abilities that a good quality education offers, they are
condemned to a life of poverty, ill-health and social exclusion.
This disadvantage gets handed down through generations. ...And it
is not only individuals who suffer - nations as a whole are
affected: lack of quality education holds back economic growth and
hampers democratic participation. ...
The other side of the story is that children who do go to school
and learn are healthier, better-nourished, and live longer and more
prosperous lives than those who are excluded. ...
Education is the key to women's empowerment and better health for
all
Time and again the global community has recognised the pivotal role
of women in improving the lives of their families and villages.
Both the EFA and Millennium Development Goals set ambitious targets
for girls' education, stating that gender parity should be achieved
by 2005. This target, tragically, has been missed by a mile.
...
Some key statistics:
- A child whose mother cannot read or write is 50% more likely to
die before the age of 5 and twice as likely to suffer from
malnutrition than a child whose mother completed primary school.
Educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunise their children.
Providing every mother in sub-Saharan Africa with secondary
education would save the lives of 1.8 million children every year.
- A girl in Africa who receives an education is three times less
likely to contract HIV/AIDS . If every girl and boy received a
primary education, 7 million cases of HIV/AIDS could be prevented
in a decade.
- Women with six or more years of education are more likely to seek
prenatal care, assisted childbirth, and postnatal care, reducing
the risk of maternal and child mortality and illness.
Education builds economic growth and stability
Perhaps most striking of all in the current global context is the
compelling evidence that failing to achieve universal education
holds back economic growth. ...
Simply getting all children into school has a direct positive
impact on economic growth. Then once children are in school,
ensuring that the education they receive is good quality multiplies
the impact because it provides them with the skills, knowledge and
abilities needed to thrive in the world. A recently completed study
from 50 countries established that every extra year of schooling
provided to the whole population can increase average annual GDP
growth by 0.37%. Where the education is good quality, the
improvement of cognitive skills increases the impact to 1%. Another
survey of 120 countries from between 1970-2000 provides compelling
evidence that education consistently and significantly affects
economic development and is a necessary precondition for long-term
economic growth. Put simply, the better the quality of education,
the bigger the impact on growth.
...
Some key statistics:
- The cost of failing to provide a good quality education for all
children in poor countries could be as much as $70 billion a year,
due to lost economic growth.
- No country has ever achieved continuous and rapid economic growth
without first having at least 40% of adults able to read and write.
- An adult who has completed primary education is likely to earn
50% more than an adult who has never been to school.
- A single year of primary school can increase the wages people
earn later in life by 5-15% for boys and even more for girls.
Where there's a will there's a way: Governments can act to ensure
education goals are reached
Education is an outstanding economic and social investment for
long-term development, and a vital building block for weathering
and recovering from crisis. Remarkably, there is strong consensus
among experts regarding what works to get children into school and
keep them there. Our School Report ranks governments on some of
these measures - many of them relatively low cost - in order to
deliver on the EFA goals.
There is widespread agreement that low-income countries with large
education challenges need to spend at least 20% of budgets on
education. Despite this, 28 countries in our analysis fall far
short of allocating this amount. Countries such as Liberia and Chad
are dramatically below target - contributing less than 10% of
budgets. These countries and others are failing to deliver on the
EFA targets because they persistently neglect to allocate
sufficient funds to the education of their own citizens.
Other effective policy measures are eliminating the burden of
school fees, investing in school meals and ensuring a supply of
qualified, motivated teachers. All of these contribute not only to
increasing access to education but also improving education
quality, which is needed to keep children in school and ensure that
they achieve meaningful learning outcomes during their time there.
...
Our analysis shows that governments have not consistently used
these key interventions, despite broad consensus on their impact.
Many of the poorest countries in our analysis have resorted to
meeting demand by employing unqualified teachers: Bangladesh,
Honduras, Chad, Liberia and Mozambique all have less than 50% of
their teachers fully trained. ...
There is even poorer performance when it comes to ensuring that
children who do attend school do not have to sit in the classroom
with empty stomachs: our analysis revealed only two countries from
within the poor world with appropriate coverage of school meal
provision. Malnourishment and hunger lead to children getting less
benefit from education, decreasing learning outcomes and increasing
drop-out rates.
...
Our report also benchmarks countries' political commitment on the
issue of fees in education. Despite almost universal
acknowledgement that fees prevent children entering and staying in
school, in sub-Saharan Africa families are giving an average of
one-quarter of their incomes to education. 23 countries in our
analysis still do not guarantee free primary Education For All, in
direct contravention of UN human rights standards, which make free
and compulsory primary education an immediate obligation for
states. Even in countries that do have a legal right to education,
parents are regularly forced to pay informal fees or in some cases
contribute to teacher pay. ...
Girls fare worst in the Fight for a decent life
Our final ranking is made up of indicators that assess girls'
chances of getting an education. It reveals how girls - especially
those living in poor areas - are massively disadvantaged compared
to boys. Girls' enrolment in primary education has slowly inched
towards parity: currently 53% of out-of-school children are girls
compared with 60% in 2000. However, there remain several countries
with significant gender gaps. One example of this is Pakistan,
where 73% of boys enrol compared to only 57% of girls. In
addition, across most countries, once girls are in school they have
a lower chance of completing primary education compared to boys. In
Malawi, of those that enrol, 22.3% of boys complete primary
compared to 13.8% of girls. In Burundi the situation is similar,
with 44.9% of boys that enrol completing primary compared to 27.3%
of girls.
...
Ensuring gender equality in education was the only MDG that should
have been achieved by 2005. This target has been missed by a mile
and it is vital that international efforts are now channelled into
ensuring that girls get the same opportunity as boys to receive
access to a good quality education. The most important reason for
this is that education is a human right, regardless of gender.
However, there are many additional benefits both for the individual
girls and their wider communities as demonstrated above.
Though the benefits of girls' education are many, daunting
obstacles prevent girls them from getting into the classroom, and
then staying there throughout school. However, these barriers can
be reduced through government action:
- Hire women teachers. The presence of a female teacher can help
girls and parents feel more confident in sending their daughters to
school. In addition to protecting girls from potential abuse,
having female teachers provides girls with role models. Increasing
the number of female teachers has also been shown to increase
enrolment.
- Prevent abuse. Sexual harassment and violence form major barriers
to girls' and young women's access to education and their ability
to benefit from it. They are powerful factors in influencing
parents to keep girls out of school, for girls themselves avoiding
school and for girls' underperformance in the classroom. ...
- Allow young mothers to come back to school. Girls who become
pregnant are often prevented from going back to school after the
birth of their child. There is need for policy change to re-admit
girls, alongside challenging the stigma and associated bullying
which also prevents girls from coming back to school.
- Build and equip more schools. In many rural regions, the most
significant issue preventing girls from attending is simply one of
distance between home and school. Many parents prevent girls from
going to school because of fears for their safety. In Egypt in the
1980s constructing new schools in rural areas boosted girls'
enrolments by 60% and boys' enrolments by 19%.
...
Playing fair means paying your share
In order to fulfil the pledge that poor countries should have
enough funds to deliver their education plans, developed countries
need to make the cash available to get every child a good quality
education and ensure second chance learning for those who miss out.
The Report Card ranks the efforts each donor country has made to
provide their fair share of the $16 billion in external financing
that is needed each year to secure EFA. The burden of filling this
financing gap should be shared fairly between donor countries on
the basis of their respective wealth. Currently this is far from
being the case: Norway is in 1st place, donating 130% of their fair
share, and at the other end it is the USA, which should be most
embarrassed, donating only 16% of what is required of them. The
miserly performance of the G8 nations plays a major part in holding
back progress - some 87% of the gap is attributable to their
failure to pay up.
...
Smoke and mirrors in aid reporting
In 2008, total German aid to education was $1.65 billion - making
Germany the second biggest national education donor in the world.
However, as always 'the devil is in the detail'. In its aid
reporting, the German government includes government spending on
university subsidies that are directed to foreign students coming
to study from developing countries - this is called imputed student
costs. ... The funds do not go to students directly, but to the
universities themselves.
The vast majority of the subsidized students are from the elite in
developing countries who have the initial financial resources to
study in Germany and afford the living costs.
Of the total $1.65 billion in German aid to education in 2008, $927
million went on imputed student costs, amounting to 56% of the
total. Within sub-Saharan Africa, German aid to education was $224
million and 45% of this total was spent on imputed student costs.
Germany is not the only donor culprit here, as France also uses the
same flawed system for reporting levels of aid to education. French
reported aid to education was $1.7 billion in 2008, making them the
biggest national education donor in the world. However, of this,
$919 million went on imputed student costs, amounting to 54% of the
total.
The Global Campaign for Education is calling for the reform of
accounting processes for levels of aid to education. Imputed
student costs should not be allowed to be reported as aid to
education, as including them provides a distorted picture of how
much money actually gets to the recipient countries. Imputed
student costs do not contribute in any way to the accomplishment of
the EFA goals - they do not provide teacher training, new
classrooms or educational resources for those that need them most.
Quality counts - aid should fund the core running costs of
education
While it is important that there is enough aid going to the right
places, the quality of aid plays an important role. Put simply, the
aid available could be made to work better if it was available to
be spent on teachers, books and schools, rather than expensive
consultancies or overpriced goods and services in the donating
country. The Netherlands are the top donor in this regard, with
Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Ireland each also providing
a good example for other donors follow. Greece is the worst donor
here, but it is the performance of Germany that is particularly
concerning: 81% of their aid to education is tied, only 1.1% is
given as budget support, and 74% is in the form of technical
assistance. This suggests that aid to education is being spent on
highly paid consultants, often from the donor country, rather than
directly assisting in providing EFA. Germany is not the only
culprit: over 50% of aid to basic education from the USA, Belgium,
Portugal and France is also spent on technical assistance.
...
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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