From their pronouncements, it appears policy makers understand the centrality of education to development; but with only a few exceptions donors have failed to match those high sounding statements with commensurate investments. We can hope that the success of the kickoff for pledging for the Global Partnership for Education – donors pledged $1.5 billion of the required $2.5 billion – inaugurates the reversal of this trend.
The historic march to get all children into school is moving forward. In a recent publication of Education Policy and Data Center with Annabette Wils, Universal Basic Education: A Progress-based Path to 2015, we demonstrate that, with a modest increase in investment, the donor community can make real the goal of Universal Primary Education (UPE)– not by the EFA/MDG goal of 2015, but within the following decade.
Using a realistic projections model grounded with historic data, trends, and costs, rather than the typical aspirational goals, this policy brief documents the tremendous progress that has been made by 40 poorest countries in enrolling and keeping children in primary and early secondary school, and the likely continued progress that will be made as these countries’ economic progress allows them to cover a rising portion (but not all) of the costs of basic education. Donor assistance is necessary, but at a level that is only modestly higher than current levels of assistance and for a limited period of time. By 2025 the need for donor assistance for basic education will have peaked and begun to decline, and the global education community will be able to declare success on UPE and direct its attention to other education needs – quality, early childhood, upper secondary, and tertiary education.
The donor community should not pass up this opportunity – to set a firm, realistic target and know the cost of achieving it within a set period of time—a global goal that is definable and affordable in a specified period of time.
Yes, the world is facing serious financial and economic difficulties. But the cause is not the uneducated girls and boys in the poorest countries, and their futures and the potential they can contribute to the advancement of their countries should not be the price to be paid by the financial missteps of wealthy countries. The funding required from donor institutions for the 40 least developed countries – rising from $7 billion in 2010 and peaking at $13 billion in 2016 – is not even a rounding error in the budget adjustments needed in Europe and America.
National leaders with vision and who care about the world that today’s youth will inherit and the contribution they can make if given the proper tools of learning need to step up to support the innovated Global Partnership for Education and match the well-accepted analysis of the critical role of education with the appropriate modest budgetary resources.
