The Case for Universal Education: Free, Quality, Universal Education For All

1
The Case for Universal EducationFree, Quality,
Universal Education For All
Prepared by Gene Sperling Chair, United States
Global Campaign for Education Director, Center
for Universal Education Council on Foreign
Relations
2
The State of Universal Education A Global
Overview
Over 72 million children around the world do not
attend primary school hundreds of millions more
lack access to secondary school or suffer from a
poor quality education.
3
The State of Universal Education

• More than 78 countries are at risk of not
  achieving the goal of universal primary education
  by 2015
• The most high-risk countries are primarily in
  sub-Saharan Africa but also include India and
  Pakistan
• About 70 countries failed to meet the gender
  parity goal for primary and secondary education
  by 2005
• Only 18 have a good chance of making this goal by
  2015
• The majority of low-performing countries are in
  sub-Saharan Africa. Others include Afghanistan,
  Pakistan and Yemen
• (All Statistics EFA GMR, 2008)

4
A Global Education Overview

• Children out of school
• Just over 72 million children are out of
• school throughout the world.
• Roughly 33 million of them are in sub-Saharan
  Africa.
• There are 23 developing countries that have over
  half a million out of school children each two
  of these countries are in Latin America.
• India, Nigeria, and Pakistan account for 27 of
  the worlds out-of-school children
• Over 226 million children are not enrolled in
  secondary school.
• Hundreds of millions of children go to school but
  receive a poor quality education.(All
  Statistics EFA GMR, 2008)

5
Where Are Children Out of Primary School?
Central/Eastern Europe 2.5
Central Asia lt1
North America/Western Europe 2.4
East Asia/Pacific 12.5
Arab States 8.5
South Asia 20.3
Latin America/Caribbean 3.5
Sub-Saharan Africa 49
Percentage of the Global Total Number of Young
People Out of Primary School by Region 2007 EFA
Global Monitoring Report Out of School
Children based on a total of 76.8million
6
How Many Children Enroll in Secondary School?
(All Statistics EFA GMR, 2007 Net Enrolment
Ratios in Secondary Education)
7
Why Invest in Education?
8
Benefits of Education

• Basic education is the
• building block for national
• development.
• Education has the power to
• Reduce infant mortality
• Reduce risk of AIDS
• Boost income growth
• Increase agricultural productivity
• Foster democracy

• No country has ever achieved continuous and rapid
  economic growth without first having at least a
  40 adult literacy rate (Center for Global
  Development, 2007).
• Studies show that a single year of primary school
  increases the wages people earn later in life by
  5 to 15 for boys and even more for girls (CFR,
  2004).
• For each additional year of secondary school, an
  individual's wages increase by 15-25 (CFR,
  2004).
• A 65-country analysis finds that doubling the
  proportion of women with a secondary education
  would reduce average fertility rates from 5.3 to
  3.9 children per woman (CFR, 2004).
• In Africa, children of mothers who receive five
  years of primary education are 40 more likely
  to live beyond age five (CFR, 2004).
• More productive farming due to increased female
  education accounts for 43 percent of the decline
  in malnutrition achieved between 1970 and 1995
  (CFR, 2004).

9
Wages and Productivity

• Educated women are more likely to enter the
  formal labor market, where they reap greater wage
  gains than the informal sector. A study in
  Brazil confirmed this correlation by
  facilitating the transition to the formal labor
  sector, education helped promote higher wages
  (Malhotra, 2003).

Education leads to higher wages. Studies show
that a single year of primary school increases
the wages people earn later in life by 5-15 for
boys and even more for girls (CFR, 2004).
Returns to secondary education are even
greater. For instance, returns to girls
secondary education were shown to be 15-25 in a
recent study (CFR, 2004). More education leads
to more productive and efficient farming. A
63-country study found that more productive
farming due to increased female education
accounted for 43 of the decline in malnutrition
achieved between 1970 and 1995 (CFR, 2004).
10
Education and Health

• An extra year of girls education can reduce
  infant mortality by 510 percent. This link is
  especially striking in low income countries
  (CFR,2004).
• Multi-country data shows educated mothers are 50
  percent more likely to immunize their children
  than uneducated mothers (CFR, 2004).
• In Brazil and Peru women with no education have
  about 6 children, while women with a secondary
  education only have about 3 (CFR 2004, UNICEF
  2007).
• When women gain four years more education,
  fertility per woman drops by roughly one birth,
  according to a 100-country World Bank study (CFR,
  2004).
• A 65-country analysis finds that doubling the
  proportion of women with a secondary education
  would reduce average fertility rates from 5.3 to
  3.9 children per woman (CFR, 2004).

11
Education and Health HIV/AIDS

• Educated girls are less likely to contract
• HIV/AIDS
• A study in Zambia found that AIDS spreads twice
  as slow among educated girls (CFR, 2004).
• Young rural Ugandans with secondary education are
  three times less likely than those with no
  education to contract HIV/AIDS (CFR, 2004).
• A review of 113 studies indicates that
  school-based AIDS education programs are
  effective in reducing early sexual activity and
  high-risk behavior (CFR, 2004).
• A study shows that HIV/AIDS education leads to a
  65 decrease in pregnancy among young girls from
  riskier, older partners (sugar daddies). High
  risk sexual activities are the main drivers of
  the spread of HIV/AIDS in this population (MIT,
  2006).

12
Every Child Deserves a Fair Chance

• Education is a human right.
• In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly
  signed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
  The Declaration states that, Everyone has the
  right to education. Education shall be free, at
  least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
  Elementary education shall be compulsory.
  Technical and professional education shall be
  made generally available and higher education
  shall be equally accessible to all on the basis
  of merit.
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child was
  agreed by the United Nations General Assembly in
  1989 and was ratified by 191 out of 193
  countries, making it a truly global bill of
  rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child
  states that countries should make primary
  education compulsory and available free to all.

Education is one of the eight Millennium
Development Goals by 2015, all children should
complete a full course of primary schooling. In
2007, the world reached the halfway point in
moving toward this goal.
13
The State of Global Funding for Education
14
Fast-Track Initiative

• Global compact of developing and donor countries
  and agencies to support global EFA goals by
  focusing on accelerating progress towards
  universal primary school completion by 2015
• Launched in 2002 and housed at the World Bank but
  not owned by a specific institution
• The FTI is a virtual fund designed to be a
  global compact for education developing
  countries present strong EFA plans and donors
  harness resources to cover the financing gap in a
  single process

15
Fast-Track Initiative

• Currently 36 FTI Countries with endorsed national
  education sector plans
• 30 more are pending endorsement in 2007 2008
• Three of currently endorsed countries Guyana,
  Honduras and Nicaragua are in Latin America

Catalytic Fund Provides funding in the form of
grants to help close the financing gap for
countries with limited donor presence. Commitment
s total about US 1.2 billion over 2003-2009
(All Statistics FTI, 2007)
16
A 10 Billion Financing Gap Remains

• Recently, the UK
• committed to spending
• 1.5 billion per year
• 15 billion over ten
• years to ensure
• countries long-term,
• predictable funding for
• education

• Currently, government donors commit approximately
  2.5 billion to education all children in the
  world
• The U.S. gives just 460 million/year, about what
  it spends to build 25 high schools
• Conservative estimates show a 5.6 billion
  financing gap to cover 6 years of education for
  all the worlds children
• To cover the 8 years necessary for real
  proficiency, the gap is probably closer to 10
  billion
• Two donors currently leading on education funding
  are the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

• Some examples of the UKs Commitment
• Mozambique will receive 91m over 10 years
• to help provide a national bursary for
  orphans
• and girls in rural areas, and to reduce
  classroom
• sizes in primary schools.
• Tanzania 515m from 2007-2017 to support
• their national education program.
• India with 395m from 2007-2011.

17
Key Issues in Education
18
Key Issues Quality

• There is some good news - several countries
• have made significant progress
• Brazil has launched an initiative FUNDEF to
  reduce regional funding inequities. Proformação
  is a program started to train unlicensed teachers
  using distance learning.
• South Africa instituted incentives for
  better-trained teachers to work in poorer schools
• Chile has been adopting more participatory
  learning methods to replace rote learning

• Major quality challenges include
• Class size
• In countries with the highest pupil-teacher
  ratios, barely one in three students who start
  primary reach grade 5.
• Teacher education
• In Tanzania and Ghana, less than 20 of all
  teachers have formal training
• Resources
• Over half of sixth graders in major African
  nations are in classrooms without a single
  textbook
• Other factors of quality pedagogy, language of
  instruction and school facilities.

A Southern Africa Consortium Study found that in
four out of seven countries, fewer than half of
sixth-graders achieved minimum competence in
reading.
2005 Global Monitoring Report Summary The
Quality Imperative
19
Key Issues Avoiding the Access/Quality Tradeoff

• Major expansion of access to education can suffer
  serious declines in qualitythe student-teacher
  ratio may zoom to 1001 from 501 in ill-equipped
  classrooms (IMF, 2005).
• The heads of state in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania
  all made major commitments in recent years to
  abolish fees and saw enrollments skyrocket by
  millions overnight.
• In Kenya, enrollment increased from 5.9 million
  to 7.2 million yet they added no new net teachers
  (UN Millennium Project, 2005)
• Without long-term, predictable funding,
  Ministries are hesitant to add new teachers
  because salaries are reoccurring costs that
  constitute the largest component of an
  expansionusually averaging over 80 percent of
  education budgets in major developing nations
  (IMF, 2005).

20
Key Issues School Fees

• In 2005, of 94 poor countries surveyed, only 16
• charged no fees at all
• Yet, countries have made strides. Strategies
• include
• Eliminating Fees Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and
  Tanzania
• Enrollment of the poorest girls in Uganda nearly
  doubled when fees were eliminated from 46 to
  82
• Reduction of Fees Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nepal,
  Peru, China, and Senegal
• Scholarship Programs Bangladesh, Mexico, and
  Brazil
• Mexicos Progressa program gives cash grants to
  the poorest families to offset the opportunity
  costs of schooling. Enrolments have increased 8
  for boys and 14 for girls
• Meal Programs Kenya

International Food Policy Research Institute
Mexico Progresa
21
Key Issues School Fees

• Households spent significant amounts of money on
  school fees
• Generally, 5-10 of annual income, but up to
  20-30 in poorer households (CFR, 2004).
• In some cases, fees can cost up to a months
  salary (UN Millennium Project, 2005).
• Even when direct fees are eliminated, other costs
  remain
• School uniforms
• Transportation
• Learning materials
• Opportunity cost of child not working/helping at
  home
• Parent/Teacher Associations or community fees

22
Key Issues Girls Education

• In Brazil, illiterate mothers have an average of
  six children while literate mothers choose to
  have less than three children and are better able
  to care for and invest in their children's
  well-being.
• Educated women in Bangladesh are three times more
  likely to participate in political meetings.

• Investing in girls empowers women throughout
• their lifetime.
• Even a few years of education helps young
• women
• - make informed choices that promote
• sustainable families
• - improve their own health and well-being
• - achieve economic self-sufficiency, and
• - even increase their political participation.
• A single year of primary education correlates
  with a 10-20 increase in women's wages later in
  life. The return to a year of secondary education
  for girls is even higher, in the 15-25 range.
• Educated girls are more likely to delay sexual
  activity and have fewer sexual partners over
  their lifetime, reducing her risk of disease.
• (All Statistics CFR, 2004)

23
Key Issues Rural Education

• Teachers in Rural Areas
• Teacher shortages in
• rural areas, particularly
• in sub-Saharan Africa,
• are a major barrier to
• education.
• Studies show that working
• in rural schools is more
• difficult and less motivating than teaching in
  urban schools, mainly because of poor living and
  working conditions
• As a result, rural schools have
• relatively fewer qualified and experienced
  teachers
• higher turnover (UN Millennium Project, 2005)

Place of residence largely determines school
enrollment Over 80 of out-of-school children
in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia live in
rural areas (EFA GMR, 2007). The share of
children out of school is at least twice as large
in rural areas as in urban areas in twenty-four
of the eighty countries analyzed in a recent
study (EFA GMR, 2006) The share of rural
out-of-school children is even higher in some
countries Ethiopia (96), Burkina Faso (95),
Malawi (94), Bangladesh (84) and India (84)
(EFA GMR, 2007). In Ethiopia, rural children
were sixty times more likely to drop out than
urban children(EFA GMR, 2007).
24
Key Issues Incentives

• Making Schools Girl Friendly For girls, a
  crucial aspect of making schools safe and
  accessible is ensuring female teachers are
  present especially when girls are older and
  providing private latrines.(Source CFR, 2004)

• Eliminate Fees Eliminating fees has a dramatic
  effect on encouraging parents to send their
  children to school yet unless donors and
  governments work to find new resources to make up
  for lost revenue from fees and to pay for the
  additional teachers to meet rising enrollments,
  class sizes can escalate and quality can suffer.
• Scholarship and Stipend Programs Programs that
  reduce direct and opportunity costs by not only
  paying for books, tuition, and fees, but also for
  lost labor time have been very effective in
  Brazil, Bangladesh and elsewhere.
• Safe Schools, Close to Home When school is
  nearby, roughly 1 kilometer or less from home,
  school seems more accessible and parents are more
  willing to send their children to school.

25
Key Issues Incentives

• Community Involvement Many African and Latin
  American countries have made great strides with
  parent-teacher management committees that allow
  parents to be involved in monitoring school
  quality and education spending.
• Active learning and good use of time Moving
  away from rote learning to active problem-solving
  is consistently effective across cultures from
  Colombia to Egypt to Bangladesh, programs that
  put the child at the center improve achievement.
• Health services as incentives School meals and
  take-home rations also help improve attendance,
  especially for girls. Programs to de-worm
  children or provide vaccinations or
  micronutrients at school, for instance, can also
  help parents see short-term benefits. (Source
  CFR, 2004)

26
Key Issues Teachers

• Not enough teachers
• Class sizes are at 100 students per teacher in
  Uganda and other African countries in Chad they
  can reach up to 200
• Estimated 15 million more teachers needed
  worldwide
• Teachers low attendance
• Worse in rural areas
• Low enforcement of attendance
• Poorly trained teachers
• Teachers level of education and training linked
  with students enrollment and attainment
• Rote learning methods
• (All Statistics EFA GMR, 2007)

27
Key Issues Conflict

• 25 million children are refugees or
• live in conflict areas
• Education Funding for Children of Conflict often
  Falls through the Cracks
• Education is not seen as life-saving like food
  or shelter and therefore does not receive
  emergency aid funding
• Donors are often hesitant to invest in conflict
  and post-conflict countries because the
  governments are considered fragile (Sperling,
  2007).
• Although education for children of conflict is
  often forgotten, it is critical. It can
• Be crucial for healing
• Bring a sense of normalcy to a chaotic situation
• Prepare children for reintegration to society
  upon return home

28
Key Issues Conflict

• Only 6 of all refugee girls are enrolled in
  secondary education (Womens Commission, 2004).
• With more than three million reported internally
  displaced persons and many more
  unreportedColombia has the second-highest
  population of IDPs in the world after the Sudan
  (Womens Commission, 2004).
• The UNDP and NGO sources believe that youth
  comprise 50 of the internally displaced
  population in Colombia (UNDP, 2006)
• Schools are often not safe for refugee and
  internally displaced children. Unsafe schools
  can place girls at risk for sexual abuse and boys
  at risk for military recruitment

29
Key Issues HIV/AIDS as an Obstacle to Education

• Children affected by AIDS are less likely to
  attend school or remain at the appropriate grade
  level

• HIV/AIDS creates a new class of vulnerable
  children
• 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost
  one or both parents to AIDS.
• By 2010, this number is expected to exceed 25
  million.
• AIDS Kills Teachers
• In Zambia in 2000, approximately 815 primary
  school teachers died as result of AIDS the
  equivalent of 45 of the teachers that were
  trained that year
• AIDS Leads to Absenteeism, as teachers attend
  funerals, care for the sick, or become ill
  themselves
• In high prevalence countries HIV/AIDS can account
  for up to 77 of absenteeism
• (All Statistics CFR, 2004)

30
Regional Overviews
31
Spotlight Sub-Saharan Africa

• In Burkina Faso, Mali and Mozambique, only 10 of
  children from the poorest 40 of households who
  entered primary school managed to complete it
• Teacher-to-student ratios are 701 or higher in
  Chad, the Congo, Ethiopia and Malawi. Some
  classrooms have upwards of 150 students
• Several countries have more than 1 million
  children out of school Burkina Faso, Mali and
  the Niger

• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to about half the
  worlds out-of-school children 38 million.
• 6.5 million of these children live in Nigeria
  2.6 million live in Ethiopia
• 80 of children not enrolled in school live in
  rural areas
• The combined effects of exclusion are staggering
  In Guinea, an urban boy with an educated mother
  and belonging to the wealthiest quintile is 126
  times more likely to attend school than a rural
  girl from the poorest quintile with an uneducated
  mother.
• Only 21 of girls are enrolled in secondary school

2007 Global Monitoring Report Regional
Overview Sub-Saharan Africa
32
Spotlight South Asia

• Almost half of the worlds illiterate adult
  population nearly 400 million live in
  Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
• In Nepal 43 of pupils repeat grade 1 only 31
  of teachers are trained

• 16 million children in South and West Asia are
  not enrolled in primary school
• 4.5 million live in India 6.5 million live in
  Pakistan
• Over 80 of the children who are not enrolled
  live in rural areas
• Over three-quarters of the 16 million South and
  West Asian children who are out of school have
  never been enrolled and may never go to school
  the rest either have been enrolled but dropped
  out or are likely to enter school but at an age
  beyond the official entry age
• Only 16 of Afghani children enroll in secondary
  school
• Children in the poorest 20 of households are
  three times as likely to be out of school as
  children from the wealthiest 20

2007 Global Monitoring Report Regional
Overview South/West Asia
33
Spotlight The Arab States

• School retention is high, more than 94 of
  students reach the last grade of primary
  education. However, only 48 of those students
  complete primary school.

• About 6 million children are not enrolled in
  primary school
• 59 of them are girls
• 70 of out-of-school children live in rural
  areas.
• Gender parity remains low in the region for
  every 100 boys only 90 girls enroll in primary
  school, the gap is even larger in secondary
  school
• Children from the poorest income group are more
  than 3 times as likely to be out of school than
  those from the wealthiest category, the ratio gap
  being particularly large in Algeria (6.4) and
  Sudan (5.5).
• A child whose mother has no education is twice as
  likely to be out of school as one with an
  educated mother. The ratio is close to 2.8 in
  Iraq.

2007 Global Monitoring Report Regional
Overview The Arab States
34
Spotlight Latin America/Caribbean

• In most Latin American countries, less than 80
  of teachers have been trained
• Less than 60 of teachers have been trained in
  Ecuador and Peru.

• About 95 of children are enrolled in primary
  school
• 2.7 million children are out-of-school
• 800,000 of these children live in Brazil 700,000
  live in Colombia
• 60 of out-of-school children live in rural
  areas.
• Despite high enrollment, retention and completion
  remain a major issue. For example, about 500,000
  children in Central America drop out of school
  each year
• Secondary School is a Bigger Challenge Only 65
  of boys and 69 of girls enroll in secondary
  school
• The Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Guatemala
  have some of the lowest rates of public spending
  on education hovering between 1-3

2007 Global Monitoring Report Regional
Overview Latin America/Caribbean
35
References

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36
References, Continued

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• UNESCO, Education for All Global Monitoring
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