Will the growth of private schooling help achieve quality, universal and free education?

Last week, world leaders put their signature to 169 targets for the next 15 years. One of the education targets stands out in its scale of ambition: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes”. Declaring that primary and secondary education should be ‘free’ is consistent with education as a right.

Yet this commitment is also a cause for reflection. If education is being provided, how much does it matter if it is not free? If parents want to pay for their children’s education, is that wrong?

The spread of private education, especially low-fee private schools, has attracted much critical discussion recently. The debate was stirred by a recent lead article in the Economist that came out strongly in favour of private schools and the subsequent fiery responses written by those on the other side of the fence.

The Special Rapporteur on the right to education argued earlier this year that “privatization violates many of the norms of the right to education”. Yet, it is impractical to imagine disbanding all private schools tomorrow. Can we ever achieve our vision of leaving no-one behind if education is not always free, not even at the point of access?

The Role of the Philanthropic Sector in Achieving the Education SDG

This blog is part of a series of last minute reflections before a new education goal is set in stone. It is written by Kim Kerr, Deputy Director, Education and Learning at The MasterCard Foundation

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are putting forward an ambitious new agenda in education, one that is well aligned with The MasterCard Foundation’s goal to ensure access to quality, relevant education for youth, particularly in Africa. The Foundation applauds the expansion of the global goal in education to include universal secondary education as well as affordable, equitable access to technical, vocational and university education for youth. It is a welcome development that the international community is paying attention to a student’s full educational journey – from early childhood through to primary, secondary, vocational and higher education – as each level of the system has a role in supporting and enabling the previous level.

While The MasterCard Foundation contributes to achieving education goals in Sub-Saharan Africa, we know that resources are only a part of the solution. We often ask ourselves, where can the philanthropic sector best add value or play a catalytic role in the education sector? We focus on testing and piloting new approaches, scaling up approaches that work, disseminating learning and best practices, and convening stakeholders to encourage broader collaboration.

The new agenda for education in Argentina (and Latin America)

This blog is part of a series of last minute reflections before the new education agenda is set in stone at the UN General Assembly this week. It is written by Juan Carlos Tedesco, academic and previous Minister for Education in Argentina.

The starting point for the following reflections must be to acknowledge both the limitations and the achievements of the educational policies that have been implemented during the last decade, specifically in Argentina, but also in many other countries in the region. There is at present a new legal framework that guarantees the right of education and the provision of financial resources. However, the experience of the last decade leaves two fundamental lessons: (i) dedicating 6% of the Gross Domestic Product to education is not enough for accomplishing the accelerated goals this legal framework established; and (ii) the increase in the financial resources allocated to education does not translate automatically in improvements in quality and equality in the practice.

Students in class at a primary school located in one of the poorest areas of Antofagasta. Antofagasta has the highest GDP per capita in Chile but is also one of the most expensive cities to live in. This neighbourhood is one of the poorest areas of Antofagasta, where the school is located. Copyright: UNESCO/Hugo Infante

In order to generate any progress in quality and equality through an increase in financial funding, changes are needed in the institutional and cultural patterns that regulate the educational system. Both dimensions (cultural and institutional) are tightly related, and they focus the discussion on the challenges of introducing higher levels of accountability for results in the educational administration.

Many public officials believe that this responsibility for results grows with better evaluation systems. As such, the usual advice is to measure student results and promote teacher assessments. Nevertheless, both national and international experience shows us that measuring per se does not necessarily improve quality. Increased quality as well as increased accountability involves, besides financial funding and measuring instruments, a debate on what, who and how teaching is done. In other words, it means putting teaching and learning processes at the centre of the agenda.

Monitoring education inequality at the global level – how and what?

By Manos Antoninis and Marcos Delprato

World leaders are preparing to put pen to paper this week to conclude years of negotiations. The most emblematic pledge is likely to be the statement in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development document that “no one will be left behind”. In order to meet this pledge, across all areas of development and across all countries, we need measures to track progress in reducing inequalities. This blog looks at what these might these look like for education.

At the Global Monitoring Report we have been looking at inequalities in education for many years. This week, with the adoption of target 4.5 that aims to “eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable”, we hope there will be renewed urgency to find better ways to report and address these inequalities.

In December, we co-organized a workshop with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics on this issue. Last week, at the 2015 UK Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET) International Conference on Education and Development, we presented some of the challenges.

A first key challenge is determining which inequality measure to use. For the past 15 years, the parity index has been the common measure for differences in education participation between males and females. However, this is just one of a rather large possible set of measures to choose from – each with different advantages and disadvantages. And, unfortunately, different measures can yield entirely contradictory conclusions, as Patrick Montjourides of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics clearly showed at the conference, building on earlier work.

Aware of this challenge, the Technical Advisory Group on education indicators, which presented its proposal at the World Education Forum in May, left open the choice of which inequality measure should be used. To the greatest extent possible inequality should be addressed in a consistent way across the SDGs. For that reason, the final proposal of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators, to be discussed in Bangkok at the end of October, is hotly awaited.

Are We Ready for the new Sustainable Development Goals?

By Alice Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education. This blog is part of a series of last minute reflections before a new education goal is set in stone. 

 

For several years now, we in the development community have been talking about and working on the “post-2015” agenda – that moment when the new Sustainable Development Goals would pick up where the landmark Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) left off. Now, at long last, that moment is upon us, and the question is: “Are we ready?”

Education is at the heart of the global development agenda and, as we had hoped, the fourth goal on education is much more ambitious than its predecessor. The global and national infrastructure supporting education in developing countries is much more sophisticated and effective today than it was even 15 years ago when the MDGs and Education For All first emerged.

Stronger systems and best practices are now in place in many countries. Collaboration and critical coordination among all the internal and external partners is strong. An increasing number of developing countries have committed to major education reforms and initiatives. Many are implementing new approaches and are making exciting progress. But much more needs to be done to ensure the poorest countries can achieve a step change in education progress as is contemplated in the new goal.

Achieving the 2030 Education Goal by focusing on early learning

by Michelle Neuman, Program Director, Results for Development Institute. This blog is part of a series of last minute reflections before the new education agenda is set in stone. 

A quarter of a century after global education leaders met in Jomtien, Thailand, and boldly announced that “Learning begins at birth”, it is reassuring to see that early learning now features more prominently on the global development agenda:

Target 4.2: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.”

The inclusion of this target is an important accomplishment, and reflects the widespread evidence from low- and high-resource contexts alike of the importance of nurturing children’s development, care and education well before they begin formal schooling. This week, the UN will formally adopt the entire Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework under the themes of: People, Planet, Prosperity, and Peace. Reaching these lofty goals will depend on many factors, and delivering adequate attention to children’s early cognitive, socio-emotional, language, and physical well-being will be critical. To reach the 4 ‘P’s’ of the broader SDG framework, there are 4 ‘I’s’ representing vital issues that need to be addressed in order to make quality early learning a reality for all.

Partnerships in education

Development partnerships in education have taken many forms, including our very own EFA Global Monitoring Report. Partnerships will be even more necessary if the sustainable development agenda is to be successfully implemented. It is for this reason that the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) made them the focus of the 2015 edition of its flagship Development Cooperation Report, which was launched this week. This blog summarizes the chapter in the report which focused on the EFA Fast Track Initiative (FTI) and its successor, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a partnership that reflected the aspirations of the international community for a partnership approach to achieving Education for All.

Credit: Ivy Grace F. Rivera

Slow beginnings: The FTI was established in 2002 to catalyze increased contributions to basic education by both donors and governments. However, throughout the 2000s, it was plagued by criticisms for slow disbursement rates; a focus on primary education at the expense of other EFA goals; and the exclusion of some of the countries with the greatest need, either because they were fragile and conflict-affected or because they had not been able to come up with a solid plan. At the same time, the financing was not sufficient. Many of these conclusions were noted in the mid-term evaluation in 2010.

Reassessment: In 2011, the FTI was transformed into the GPE, with several reforms straight out of the rule book of a good partnership, including stronger leadership and more inclusive governance. By 2012, the GPE had become the fourth largest source of external financing for basic education in low and lower middle income countries. A change in procedures also meant that by the end of 2013 more than 40% of GPE disbursements were going to fragile and conflict affected countries, as the 2015 GMR showed.

Results: Despite improvements in its governance arrangements and operational procedures, the question remains open whether the promise of a catalytic effect in financing education has been realized. The report of the independent evaluation of the GPE is expected later this year. However, some of the evidence is clear.

On the domestic financing side, low-income country governments have allocated up to 1% or more of GDP to education since 1999. And yet, this has been mainly driven by increased domestic resource mobilization rather by an increased share of education in the overall budget.

On the development co-operation side, official development assistance to basic education more than doubled in real terms between 2002 and 2010, which might suggest success. Yet the share of education in total development co-operation portfolios actually continued to fall over the same period – and since 2010, support to basic education has declined.

The ultimate goal of universal primary completion was not achieved. The 2015 GMR showed that one in six children did not complete a full cycle of primary education. And while there was progress in getting children to school after 2000, most of that was achieved before the partnership even began disbursing. More than a dozen years after the partnership was set up, lack of data and the complexity of attributing results to interventions make it still difficult to establish whether it has made a palpable difference to education outcomes in its partner countries.

Learning for the future: The establishment of the FTI and the GPE was in line with the spirit of the Dakar Framework and the principles of aid effectiveness. However, experience shows that it can take considerable time for such efforts to take shape and bear fruit.

By now, the partnership has created a strong momentum and the 2015 milestone provides a great opportunity to build on its lessons. At the launch of the Development Co-operation Report, both OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and DAC Chair Erik Solheim argued that strong partnerships for the SDGs should not mean reinventing the wheel and should build on what is already in place. It is clear that the partnership after 2015 will need more funds and better evidence of how funds have been used in order to deliver improved education outcomes.  The ongoing preparation of the GPE Strategic Plan 2016-2020 but also the International Commission on the Financing of Global Education Opportunities are critical steps.

To read the full chapter this blog was taken from, please go to OECD Development Co-operation Report 2015, Making Partnerships Effective Coalitions for Action

 

What kind and level of literacy will create sustainable societies?

Today is International Literacy Day, focusing on the theme of ‘Literacy and sustainable societies’. The day will pay particular attention to exploring and consolidating the synergies between literacy and each one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be adopted at the UN High-level Summit this September. This blog explores what improvements need to be made in understanding, monitoring and defending literacy if we are to reap its full benefits post-2015.

Less than three weeks from now, the international community will resolve: “to end poverty and hunger everywhere; to combat inequalities within and among countries; to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies; to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources.” It will also resolve to “create conditions for sustainable, inclusive and sustained economic growth, shared prosperity and decent work for all, taking into account different levels of national development and capacities.” All of the 17 goals and 169 targets to be adopted at the UN Summit aim to contribute to these developments, including, notably, education and learning.

Literacy, the theme of today, is prioritized in at least two respects. First, the notion of ‘lifelong learning’ for all children, youth and adults is central to the SDG goal on education. Second, literacy and numeracy, which were well integrated in the Education for All Goals, are explicitly mentioned in target 4.6 of the SDGs.

The fact that literacy has re-appeared as a SDG priority is of no surprise. We know that literacy can improve health, reduce disease, encourage tolerance and political participation, encourage environmentally friendly behavior and empower women to make the right decisions for themselves. Literacy should also part of the broad SDG ambition because we know how far we have to travel before we can say it has been achieved.

The GMR, for instance, has frequently exposed the extent of illiteracy among youth and adults. Our 2013/4 Report proved the chronic need for better teaching and learning by showing that around 175 million young people in poor countries – equivalent to around one quarter of the youth population – cannot read all or part of a sentence, affecting one third of young women in South and West Asia. The Gender Summary that year showed that over 100 million young women in low and lower middle income countries are unable to read a single sentence. On current trends, the Report projected that it will take until 2072 for all the poorest young women in developing countries to become literate.

The GMR 2015 released this year showed that there has been barely any improvement in adult literacy rates since 2000: from 82% to an estimated 86% in 2015.  Worldwide more than 750 million adults are unable to read and write, a severe handicap for living a fulfilled life, one that is faced by over half of all women in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia. Most recently, to prove the need for equitable progress towards literacy, the GMR also referred to its WIDE database to show that the poorest young women are six times less likely to be able to read than the richest.

If we are to put forward cogent arguments for literacy to be placed near the top of the long list of targets governments and donors have to achieve by 2030, and reap the full benefits of literacy over the next fifteen years, we will need to understand it better. Work is needed on the ways in which, and the mechanisms through which, literacy on the one hand, and formal years of schooling on the other, impact sustainable development and sustainability practices. This would be a very good start.

We also urgently need to develop, pilot and establish a short literacy assessment, or module, aimed at adults, which can measure literacy levels in a flexible, straightforward and effective manner. For too long, we have been using outdated conceptions of literacy as some universal skill that adults do or do not possess, rather than a proficiency measured on a continuum. Better common understanding of what progress in literacy means, and a module that can direct assess literacy levels in different languages, are essential if we are to evaluate the effectiveness of lifelong learning and/or adult education programmes post-2015.

Thirdly, we need better ways of capturing data on literacy and numeracy from different contexts so that results can be compared internationally. While this might take some years to develop, once such an assessment instrument has been validated, the data it generates will be eye-opening. Just as with PIAAC and other existing assessments like LAMP and STEP, such an assessment would provide a far stronger empirical basis to discern the relative social, political and economic impacts of literacy skill levels and years of formal schooling completed.

Fourthly, we need to assess the literate environment in which adults become motivate to acquire and retain literacy skills. As the GMR 2015 showed us, literacy requires not only a better supply of learning opportunities but also more opportunities to use, improve and retain literacy skills. Such opportunities have been growing since 2000. The rapid expansion of ICT, holds considerable promise. It may be possible to take advantage of widespread mobile phone use to promote stronger literate environments and reading practices, though clear evidence is not yet available on the impact of ICT on literacy skills.

Without these improvements, target 4.6 in the SDGs will remain vapid. A society without proficient readers cannot expect to achieve a sustainable future.   Opportunities must be available for all those who desperately want to be literate, so that the world can move closer towards the vision encapsulated in the Sustainable Development Goals. We know what to do. We must urgently work towards it so that no one is left behind.

UNESCO committed to leading coordination of new education agenda

by Jordan Naidoo, Director- Education For All and International Education Coordination, UNESCO

As Education 2030 –the new international education policy—takes root, countries will begin the difficult task of reviewing their education policies and systems in order to improve education and learning for all at every level. This blog explains the role that UNESCO will play, as the lead agency for Education, in helping achieve the vision of the new agenda.

Education 2030 as encapsulated by Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD) sets a fresh and more ambitious universal education agenda. The new agenda continues and builds on the EFA movement, taking account of lessons learned. One key change from the EFA movement to the post-2015 agenda is that there will be a single renewed education goal embedded in the overall development framework. The agenda also goes beyond ‘business as usual’, with an even stronger focus on inclusion and equity and on education quality, learning and skills. Another new feature is that it is universal and is owned by the entire world, developed and developing countries alike.

The United Nations has a special collective responsibility to coordinate the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at global level under the close supervision and guidance of its Member States. Accordingly, UNESCO, along with other agencies, and together with GPE and OECD, are expected to individually and collectively support countries in implementing Education 2030.

Leading and Coordinating

UNESCO will continue its mandated role to lead and co-ordinate Education 2030. To ensure strong global coordination as written into the Incheon Declaration, UNESCO, in consultation with Member States, the WEF 2015 co-convenors and other partners, will develop an appropriate global coordination mechanism in order to join up efforts to reach the new agenda that will work within the wider 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development architecture.

Reflections as a new education era dawns

This blog marks the start of a series in the run up to the UN Sustainable Development Summit to be held on 25-27 September.  We have some 25 days until the new goal and targets for education from now until 2030 are set in stone. Our series asks some key players and thinkers to reflect on what has been accomplished thus far, as well as their concerns as the new agenda takes hold. Here, we present some initial thoughts about the beginning of a new era for education, nationally and globally.

Scaling down ambitions

Thanks to the final outcome document already approved by Member States, we can safely say we know what to expect from the UN Summit. The broad ambition of the new education agenda is clearly apparent: for example, completing free quality primary and secondary education, universal access to quality early childhood care and preprimary education, an emphasis on learning and skill acquisition. And yet, taking a closer look at the final version, we see that final negotiations resulted in countries downscaling their ambitions in important respects.

In target 4.4, for instance, where it once called on governments to equip ‘all’ youth and adults with skills, it now asks for just ‘significant increases’.  A similar change has been made in 4.6, where now only a ‘substantial proportion’ rather than ‘all’ adults should have literacy and numeracy by 2030. And in target 4.c, the number of qualified teachers now should be ‘substantially increased’ rather than ensuring they are accessible to ‘all learners’. Who precisely will define whether an increase is ‘substantial’ or ‘significant’? If each and every country advances a different definition, then the basis for holding countries to account will be slippery slope of missed opportunity.

Perhaps more substantial, however, is the fact that the ambition of ‘lifelong learning’, anchoring the entire SDG on education, is being squandered. The term is not mentioned in any target or means of implementation. How can countries be expected to develop effective ‘infant to adult’ education policies when no target seriously links formal and non-formal education opportunities across the life course? An earlier formulation of the adult literacy target (4.6) referred to ‘a proficiency level in literacy and numeracy sufficient to fully participate in society’, but this has now been reduced to just calling for ‘literacy and numeracy’: an outdated conception of learning carrying less ambition.