• MDGs and education

MDGs and education

This report examines the worst places in the world to be a school child. The ‘School Report’ table findings paint a stark picture of the lives of children from around 60 of the poorest countries demonstrating that a dramatic upscaling of effort is needed in order to give the next generation better prospects than their parents and lift themselves and their countries out of poverty.

The report also provides country case studies, highlighting places where education challenges remain most severe, or where governments have most comprehensively failed to live up to their commitments.

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.  the report shcows that despite promises from leaders across the world, chronic under investment in education means that 69 million children are still out of school.

The key findings of the report include:

• economic Impact leading to cuts in education provision: millions of children are becoming the victims of the financial crisis with poor countries’ education budgets being cut by $4.6 bn a year
  

• unequal provision of education: in Nigeria, the sixth biggest oil producer in the world, a lack of political will is a major factor in the country having the highest number of children out of school in the world. Gross inequality in the provision of education has led to 8.2 million children out of primary school with many more dropping out within the first year. Over half of these children are in the north of the country, with girls suffering the most with many receiving just 6 months of education in their lives
• secondary and tertiary education: while there has been progress in primary provision of education, only one country in Africa has more than 50 per cent of its children in secondary school.
  

The report makes a number of recommendations including:

Poor countries should:

• be vocal and passionate advocates of investment in education on the global stage
• put a minimum of 20 per cent of their budgets into education, half for primary schooling
• end fees and charges that prevent families sending children to school
• help girls and marginalised 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
• target aid to countries facing the greatest challenges, including those suffering war and conflict, and where girls are most severely disadvantaged
• 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 macro-economic conditions such as low inflation and deficit targets to allow for counter-cyclical investment in education up to 2015.

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