New Partnerships in Nigeria

By Shannon May, Co-Founder of Bridge International Academies

Nigeria has the biggest economy in Africa and in a recent London Stock Exchange report entitled Companies to Inspire Africa, Nigerian companies were listed among the fastest growing in Africa.

Image: Bridge

While Nigeria’s economy shows strength, its foundation for the future is weakened by an education system that is not keeping up. According to UNESCO, of the 260 million out of school children in the world, 9 million of them are in Nigeria, of which 4.7 million are primary school children. Unsurprisingly in this context, official figures reveal exceptionally low literacy rates of Nigerian adults and youths.

These are staggering statistics, and they require a committed response. Not least because of the consequences for continuing economic development. With some industries not able to find the right skills, there is a struggle to produce the goods and services that Nigerians need. Given this situation, it is not surprising that 60% of 15 – 24 year olds in rural areas are unemployed, and 35% of even 25-34 year old’s are unemployed or underemployed. With 78 million children under the age of 15 in Nigeria, focusing on making education the engine of growth for the next generation is critical to unlocking Nigeria’s potential demographic dividend.

The share of aid allocated to education has fallen for the sixth year in a row

A new GEM Report policy paper, Aid to education is stagnating and not going to countries most in need, shows that the amount of aid allocated to education has been falling for six years in a row. Donors are turning away from education when we need them most. Total amounts to the sector are now 4% lower than they were in 2010, while total development aid increased by 24%. The transport sector, for instance, not so long ago receiving just two-thirds what education did, now receives the same as or more.

Faced with hugely ambitious education targets in the global goal for education known as SDG 4, and aware that we previously calculated the need for aid to increase at least six times if we’re to achieve them, stagnating aid to the sector right now is putting our commitments at risk.

Many countries, and particularly the poorest, rely upon aid, and may even have been expecting an increase in aid given the renewed energy behind the SDG agenda, and emphasis on education as a driver of sustainability and development. Unfortunately, thus far, the change in priorities, and a shift to more effective spending if new money can’t be found, has not happened. The share of aid to basic education in low income countries fell sharply in 2015, based on the most recent figures. These countries – heavily reliant upon aid – now receive 23% of aid to basic education, compared to 29% in 2014.

Recess is out for G7 — but promised education report is still missing

Barry Johnston, Associate Director of Advocacy, Malala Fund

Last weekend, the G7 leaders met in Italy. While the burgeoning Trudeau-Macron bromance and Trump’s golf cart jaunt provided some light relief, a more disheartening story unfolded behind the scenes: G7 leaders quietly shelved a much-anticipated report on education.

The release of the G7 Accountability Working Group Progress Report promised to be an important moment for global education. It would have been the first time the G7 prioritised the topic on their agenda — as they’ve done previously with health and hunger.

Credit: Adam Scotti / PMO Photo

Previous progress and accountability reports have hardwired these issues into the G7 agenda. The education sector desperately needs this level of scrutiny and profile.

Funding for education has reached a global crisis: education currently receives less than half the money it requires. Without immediate and dramatic action, we can forget about getting anywhere near the SDG targets for education by 2030. G7 leaders had the opportunity to address the issue — but days before the summit when the report was due for publication, they stalled.

Education advocates refused to sit by as G7 leaders went back on their word. In just 48 hours, more than 27,000 Malala Fund supporters and allies in 134 countries mobilised and signed a letter calling on the G7 to #ReleaseTheReport.

Is the Paris agreement bad for the average worker?

Last night, President Trump dealt a major blow to an agreement worked on for years to protect the environment by helping control carbon emissions. The reason, we were told during his late night speech, something he oft repeated while on the campaign trail, was to ‘bring back jobs’. The agreement, he said, resulted in “lost jobs, productivity, shuttered factories and vastly diminished economic production”. This blog digs into that claim.

What is sure is that the greening of industry will require substantial shifts in industries. Green fuel will require moving away from non-green fuels, such as coal, and away from the mining that goes with that.

But these shifts are not bad news for workers, or those out of work looking for employment, as the Prosperity publication we released at this year’s World Economic Forum showed. Green industries, and the greening of industries employ vast numbers already – – 3.5 million in Bangladesh, 1.4 million in Brazil, 2 million in Germany and, in the United States, 2.5 million in the private sector and almost 900,000 in the public sector. By contrast, there are only 50,000 workers in US coal industry at the moment.

The numbers of workers employed in green industries are also expected to grow significantly as demand increases and innovation unfolds. For instance, renewable sources may account for almost half the total increase in global electricity generation between 2015 and 2040, with growth especially strong in China, India, Latin America and Africa.

The greening of industries is not confined to rich countries. Green industries in developing countries may receive more than US$6.4 trillion in investment between 2015 and 2025, with China and Latin America each receiving nearly one-quarter of the total.

Gender stereotypes in Bangladeshi school textbooks

By M Niaz Asadullah, Samia Huq, Kazi Mukitul Islam and Zaki Wahhaj*

Education is widely considered an effective means to address the socioeconomic challenges that women face around the world and a key Sustainable Development target. Yet girls systematically lag behind boys in many parts of the world. One country where girls’ schooling has risen sharply despite mass poverty is Bangladesh. The government implemented programmes to encourage girls’ education at all levels. The response was overwhelming. Gender differences in enrolment at primary and secondary level disappeared nearly two decades ago. Other indicators relating to gender parity have also improved.

Yet, perceptions of appropriate gender roles in rural Bangladeshi society today still accord largely with traditional stereotypes. Three years ago we conducted a nationally representative survey of women aged between 20 and 39 years in which respondents were asked about whether or not they agreed with statements consistent with traditional gender stereotypes. Two-thirds of the respondents believed that a woman should not earn more than her husband as this can lead to tensions within the home. Two in five believed that boys need more nutrition than girls to be strong and healthy and that the husband should have final say in all important family matters.

Why have traditional gender stereotypes persisted in spite of significant increases in the schooling of girls? According to the GEM Report, the answer may lie in the school curriculum. Student attitudes towards gender roles are strongly shaped by the characters and roles they encounter in the textbook pages. But gender bias remains rife in textbooks.

Inclusive higher education in South Africa: not just a policy project but also an ‘ethical project’

By Professor Ruksana Osman, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

As the recent GEM Report paper showed, equitable and affordable higher education remains elusive to the majority of students from working class backgrounds.  Any deliberation about higher education policy is at once local and global – facing the twin challenge of needing to be responsive to immediate demands for educational improvement and social transformation as well as sufficiently competitive with the edge on quality and innovation.

Working here at Wits University, where protests first began in the now-globally known #FeesMustFall campaign, I offer a South Africa perspective on the story. When the country reimagined its post-secondary system, it held out the promise of access and equity for students into a differentiated system offering mobility and opportunities previously denied to the majority by apartheid. This policy reform process has proven to be a huge task generating some success but also much disappointment in different sectors of society.

When will they ever learn?

By Ben Hewitt, Director of Campaigns and Communications at Theirworld

Denying a child an education does not happen by accident. It is the end result of policy and funding choices made by individuals in positions of power.

It is up to national governments, and sometimes regional or local administrative authorities, to determine what percentage of expenditures should be directed toward education. It is up to donor governments to allocate aid for the poorest and most marginalised boys and girls. It is the choices of leaders to unlock the funds necessary to ensure our Sustainable Development Goal of a universal and quality education for all is met. And now it is up to us to act.

The wrong choices have been made too easily in the past. These decisions have resulted in a quarter of a billion children and young people being out-of-school today. And our decisions have only exacerbated an education crisis borne out of the Syrian Civil War – a mass of more than one million Syrian refugee children locked out of an education.

Make no mistake – when the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries meet in Hamburg in July for the G20, the choices they make will have consequences. This year, there is no way around the education financing question. Indeed, 2017 is different. Leaders gathering in Germany have been asked to support an education financing breakthrough – a big plan capable of tackling an even bigger education crisis. These leaders can be the foundational visionaries that lend their support to an International Financing Facility that could unlock and mobilise an additional $13 billion annually for education by 2020. 

And the winners of our youth photo competition are…

We’re delighted to announce the three winners of the youth photo competition we launched just over a month ago around the themes of Target 4.7 in the new global education goal. Selected from a huge amount of talented submissions, the three winners are listed in order below.

The top submission is Domyson Dulay Abuan’s photo, entitled the ‘Lens of Sustainable Education’.

Image: Domyson Dulay Abuan: ‘Lens of Sustainable Education’

The photo is taken of a Grade 6 student from an Elementary School in Laguna, Philippines, who has made recycled materials to make a make-shift camera. The photographer, Domyson Dulay Abuan explains that the students are learning ICT skills, which are “relevant to present and future times. Their access to ICT tools and its uses will serve as their portal towards globalization. It is also the window that would show them the relevant issues faced by their community and the world. This will enable them to formulate solutions and bring in positive change, not just for themselves but for future generations as well.”

Countries, Experts and Agencies Meet to Measure Progress toward Education 2030

By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Given the time it can take to mobilize around development goals and establish effective monitoring systems to track progress, the 2030 deadline for the achievement of the global goal on education is just around the corner. Nevertheless, there are times when it is wise to pause for a moment and take stock. With crucial meetings of the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML) and the Technical Coordination Group on SDG 4 (TCG) in the coming weeks, this is just such a moment.

GAML is developing the standards and methodologies needed to measure learning outcomes globally, while helping countries to produce and use the information to achieve SDG 4. The TCG builds political consensus on the SDG 4 measurement agenda by bringing together Member States, multilateral agencies and civil society groups.

Much has been achieved: the foundations to track progress on SDG 4 are now in place, most of the indicators have been set and development work is underway for those remaining indicators. The institutional mechanisms are ready to go. We now need to move forward, confident that those in power will prioritize – and act on – the robust data that are needed to track progress.

These initial stages have been arduous and time-consuming. Working in close partnership with a wide range of bodies, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics has spent years developing the necessary monitoring frameworks and indicators. It’s worth reminding ourselves of two basic principles that have guided this work as the heavy lifting begins to measure education progress.

For Africa to achieve inclusive growth, it will need to learn how to get there

The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa is taking place in Durban, South Africa this week under the theme ‘Achieving inclusive growth: responsive and responsible leadership’.  The current prosperity enjoyed by pockets of people around the world – Africa included – has left too many people behind. As we seek to make our economies, and the wealth they generate, more inclusive, everyone must have opportunities to continue learning throughout their lives.

The GEM Report Prosperity publication, released at the global World Economic Forum last January, shows that the world, and particularly sub-Saharan Africa, is facing a massive mismatch between available skills and labour market needs leaving scores of people behind. A relevant, well-designed and good quality education system can reverse this.

Africa’s expanding youth population presents the continent with a tremendous opportunity for new growth and leadership. Responsive and responsible leaders are a-plenty among this generation, although they are in desperate need of a good quality education that confers flexible skills and competencies. Foundation skills – literacy and numeracy – are critical for higher order thinking, creativity, problem solving, and social and emotional skills. Without them, an education means very little.