No matter how many policies are agreed in Johannesburg to reduce
poverty, achieve the Millennium Development Goals, sustain the
planet and create a better tomorrow, all of them will ultimately
fail unless governments and international institutions enact
bold new measures to get children back into school today. Governments
must provide a quality education free of charge to every girl
and boy. Donors must back their efforts with the extra USD $5bn
per year needed to launch the EFA Action Plan, which has been
endorsed by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the G7 Education
Task Force, as well as developing country finance and education
ministers.
SUMMARY
Failure to end the global crisis in education makes sustainable
development impossible by denying nearly a billion people the
ability to make informed choices about their lives, their families
and their societies. The Plan of Implementation for the World
Summit on Sustainable Development recognises that education is
critical to sustainable development, and reiterates existing
international commitments to the Education for All goals and
strategies agreed in Jomtien in 1990 and again in Dakar in 2000
- including universal primary education by 2015.
However, the world leaders gathered in Johannesburg must do more
than repeat old promises. Two years after Dakar, aid to education
still languishes at pitifully low levels and 125 million children
are still out of school. In order to ensure that all girls and
boys can complete a full course of schooling, governments attending
the summit must take decisive new steps to deliver on the promises
they have already made.
The Global Campaign for Education, a broad alliance of child
rights activists, NGOs, and public sector and teachers' unions,
with members in more than 150 countries, demands that in Johannesburg:
DEVELOPING COUNTRY GOVERNMENTS SHOULD:
* Announce steps to end all fees and charges (including the costs
of uniforms and books) for public primary education within the
next three years. The massive increases in enrolment in Tanzania,
Uganda and Malawi following the partial abolition of charges
show that even a modest fee is a formidable barrier to poor children
- not to mention a violation of the right to education.
* Commit to a sustained increase in budget allocations to basic
education in order to reverse inequalities between rural and
urban schools and build an effective public school system that
delivers quality education to all communities.
* Pull out all the stops to get more girls into school and keep
them there, in time to meet the 2005 target for gender parity
in primary and secondary education.
* End discrimination against marginalised groups, such as indigenous
people, ethnic minorities, the disabled, working children, and
girls. Discrimination can take blatant forms: for example, providing
fewer trained teachers, fewer books and fewer hours of instruction
in schools or education programmes serving minority communities,
or making cutbacks in adult education programmes that benefit
marginalised groups. Discrimination can also take a more subtle
but equally damaging form when the education system is based
on a rigid formal school paradigm with no room for flexibility
or innovation to accommodate diverse cultural or physical needs.
RICH COUNTRY GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SHOULD:
* Increase aid to basic education, from the current low level
of 2% of bilateral aid, to at least 10% of aid budgets.
* Commit the funds needed to back the Fast Track Partnership
announced this June, which would enable high-performing countries
to scale up and accelerate their own Education for All strategies,
and ensure that realistic criteria are used to select and assess
Fast Track countries, so that more countries can participate.
* Launch a financing framework to extend action to tackle the
education crisis in countries beyond those included in the fast-track
process.
* Clearly state their active opposition to fees and levies for
primary education, and work with governments to find more equitable
and sustainable ways to finance primary education.
* Suspend efforts to promote greater private sector involvement
in the delivery of basic education - such as the World Bank Private
Sector Development strategy and the USA's Millennium Challenge
Account -until the implications and impact of such policies in
a developing country context have been thoroughly assessed.
1. THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF EDUCATION IN POVERTY ERADICATION
Poverty eradication depends on education - particularly the education
of girls and women. It is not only an end in itself but also
an enabler for other policies that help to reduce poverty:
ACCESS TO SERVICES AND RESOURCES
Without the ability to read, many people are unable to take advantage
of public services because they are unable to understand any
published information about how to obtain and quality for these
services (such as health, housing, credit, legal, or agricultural
services).
Furthermore, education places poor women and men in a better
position to demand access to services and resources. The greater
self-confidence and sense of entitlement or worth that educated
people carry with them often makes them more willing to request
services and use the resources that are offered to them. One
example is that women who have attended school are more likely
to register for government health services than those with no
education.
PARTICIPATION AND DEMOCRACY
Educated men, women and youth are better able to participate
in the decision-making processes that affect their lives. Democracy
depends upon an educated population that is able to express their
needs and desires and to be heard. Wider, better-informed participation
in the political process is a catalyst for change.
Educated people demand greater accountability from the decision
makers. They are better able to follow the decision making process,
be it through media or personal observation, and to demand explanations
for the decisions that are made. As a result, education supports
good governance, which is key in deciding the course for sustainable
development.
Education is especially important to enable women and girls to
have a larger say in decisions at all levels, from the household
to the nation. Educated women are more likely to become leaders
and decision-makers.
Critical to development is the increased participation of the
stakeholders in the development of their resources. People who
have obtained even the most basic education are more capable
of protecting their interests in a resource or in development
that affects their interests. They have an increased capability
to participate at all levels of the development process with
greater knowledge and confidence. They have a greater ability
to initiate development plans and coordinate their efforts other
interested parties.
Education is usually necessary for people to be able to use the
legal process and the courts effectively to defend their interests,
for example to secure their traditional land rights and land
tenure. Literate people can also read and understand contracts.
No longer will their resources be taken from them through one-sided
contracts they were unable to read and had to sign by a thumbprint.
REDUCING INEQUALITY
A universal public school system that offers good quality education
to all can contribute to greater social equality and will help
assure equitable access to resources for all people. Educated
people are better able to participate in the economic development
of a country and will therefore capture a greater portion of
the resources. With greater access to education, the poor will
be better able to reap the benefits of development and gain a
larger share of the resources. This will have the effect of balancing
out many inequalities.
Education, particularly genuinely multicultural education that
is flexible enough to accommodate the different needs, languages
and cultures of minority groups, can reduce the effects of prejudice
and racism by promoting tolerance and opening up opportunities
for marginalized peoples.
ERADICATING CHILD LABOUR
One of the direct effects of free and equal education is it gives
children an alternative to work. When children are forced into
child labor, they have to give up school in order to achieve
short-term economic gain for their family. As a result, they
are forced to sacrifice the long-term economic benefits that
education offers. They are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty
that spans generations. The most effective way to offer the 246
million child labourers in the world the promise of breaking
out of the poverty cycle is to offer them a future with education.
First, a child that is in school is one less child labouring.
Second, a child who is educated is more empowered to make meaningful
decisions for his or her future that will lead to an escape from
poverty. Education creates opportunity.
SECURING LIVELIHOODS
Education is necessary for the impoverished, especially women,
to better access markets in which to sell their goods; and to
break out of the low skill - low wage - high vulnerability position
that can keep families poor for generations. It can help provide
confidence and knowledge that is needed to assure a good bargaining
position when selling goods at market thus safeguarding their
resources from exploitation from those with a stronger bargaining
position.
Education will also promote effective use of credit markets for
development of businesses and agriculture. People will be less
susceptible to losing their access to resources to creditors
since they will be able to initiate more effective business planning
and agricultural development.
Education can lead to greater productivity in agriculture. One
of the key elements to economic development and growth is an
increase in productivity, and one of the leading causes for an
increase in productivity is innovation. Basic education teaches
people the fundamental skills needed to develop new, innovative
techniques in agriculture and business. Local innovations are
needed in order to develop local technological developments for
alternative energy resources.
Education is necessary for the development of the "knowledge
economy." The World Bank has estimated more than half the GDP
in industrialized countries is based on the production and distribution
of knowledge. Some economists believe that most future economic
growth lies in the knowledge industry; this trend will leave
the uneducated in an even worse position.
IMPROVING HEALTH
Prevention of disease and death is greatly aided by even a basic
education. Even after controlling for income and other factors,
children born to women with at least a basic education are less
likely to die in infancy and less likely to be malnourished.
Also, with schooling, women themselves are less likely to die
during childbirth and the life expectancy for women is greatly
improved.
In many countries, certain illnesses, such as HIV/AIDS, are surrounded
by a cloud of cultural stigma and misinformation. Education can
help break down the taboo and mysteries surrounding the disease.
Furthermore, people who are empowered with an education are more
likely to press for access to adequate health care.
SUSTAINING THE ENVIRONMENT
Education can have a strong influence in attaining sustainable
consumption and production. A change in the consumption and production
patterns of individuals requires a transition into new technology,
increased efficiency, and increase in environmental awareness.
Education can lead to community empowerment giving communities,
who have more of a vested interest in their immediate environment,
more ability to participate in the decision making processes
for development. Also, an educated population can be more easily
trained in environmental monitoring techniques to take account
of their situation and share the information with local, regional
or national authorities and other interested parties.
Young people are the agents of change and determine the environmental
attitudes for future generations. A basic education will give
each and every person greater ability to understand their environment,
and they will be better able to participate in ecologically sound
economic development.
Population is growing at unsustainable levels and its effects
are being felt in all aspects of sustainable development policy.
Women who receive a primary education are empowered to make choices
about their own reproductive health and therefore often have
fewer children than women in the same country without a primary
education.
2. QUALITY, FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT ON POVERTY
Members of the Global Campaign for Education in many developing
countries around the world report a dramatic growth in the number
of private schools - both profit-making private academies, and
unregulated not-for-profit schools run by NGOs, which, however,
often charge fees or require in-kind contributions from parents.
We believe these trends represent a real threat to the attainability
of the Millennium Development Goals in education. We are deeply
concerned by efforts on the part of some donors, and some governments,
to encourage and expand the role of the private sector - on
the false grounds that "the market" can provide a "solution"
to the education crisis. Many Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
include commitments to increase cost recovery and/or private
sector involvement in basic services, including education. The
two issues are closely linked, as moves to increase the fees
charged by public schools, clinics and utilities are often part
of a wider effort to hand over what have traditionally been core
government functions and responsibilities to "the market".
The Private Sector Development Strategy (PSDS) recently approved
by the World Bank's Board sets out a global agenda to involve
the private sector in up to 40 per cent of World Bank concessional
(IDA) lending operations - including direct support (loans and
subsidies) to private firms to get involved in the delivery of
health care, water, sanitation and education. The Millennium
Challenge Account, announced by George Bush earlier this year,
will also support and subsidise "public-private partnerships"
in key sectors of development.
It is true that in many countries, public schools have been allowed
to deteriorate to such a low level that parents have been forced
into the arms of the private sector. The GCE joins parents, teachers'
associations, NGOs and concerned citizens of those countries
in demanding fundamental improvements in the quality, accountability
and efficiency of the government education system. The necessary
reforms may often include mainstreaming or up-scaling the successful
elements of private and NGO approaches. However, the desperate
state of public education in much of the developing world is
a consequence of decades of underinvestment in all aspects of
schooling, from management capacity to teacher training to physical
maintenance of school buildings. Simply handing over a larger
share of responsibility for education to "the market" is likely
to exacerbate these problems and may eventually lead to the effective
collapse of the public education system.
Experience in the health and water sectors shows that poor people
seldom enjoy the much-touted benefits of private provision:
* Private services tend to "cream off" the "best", most affluent
and influential service users - leaving the most vulnerable,
"difficult" and poorest people behind in the public system.
* It is often impossible for understaffed, under-resourced governments
to enforce regulations that are supposed to ensure the quality,
equity and accessibility of privately run services. Even rich
country governments, with battalions of lawyers and inspectors
in tow, struggle to achieve this.
* Those left behind in the public system also tend to be the
least organised and influential citizens. An exodus of middle
class and wealthy people into private clinics and schools means
that "no one" (who matters) cares when public services deteriorate.
* At the same time, resources that used to go into the public
system are often diverted into the new private services, leaving
public services worse off than ever.
* Unless governments have extremely strong capacity to monitor
and regulate private providers, there is an inevitable tendency
for the fees to escalate over time, further reducing access for
the poor.
* The private sector often lures the most skilled personnel away
from the public sector and exacerbates shortages of trained and
qualified staff.
* It is often claimed that resources and capacity will be freed
up in the public system when the affluent pay for their own schooling
or health care, allowing the public system to do more for those
most in need. However, the World Bank's private sector arm, the
International Finance Corporation, recently admitted that there
is no real evidence that this actually happens.
In light of this extremely worrying evidence from the health
and water sectors, we call on the World Bank, the IFC, the US
Government and others to suspend all proposals that would divert
aid funds into the promotion or subsidisation of private sector
involvement in basic education. An urgent review of the impact
and implications of such policies in a development country context
should be carried out for discussion during the Spring Meetings
of the World Bank and IMF.
We further call on all governments to announce a timetable for
abolishing all fees, charges and "community contributions" for
public primary education within the next three years, and to
make a sustained commitment to adequate and intelligent public
investment in an effective, universal system of state schooling.
We call on donors to actively oppose the imposition of fees,
charges and "community contributions", and to help governments
to remove fees without compromising the quality or accessibility
of public schools. Donors should make an upfront commitment to
help pay for the additional books, classrooms, and teachers needed
to accommodate the increased enrolments following the abolition
of fees.
3. UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION: AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL
Getting every child in school by 2015 is the most achievable
of all the Millennium Development Goalsii. The Dakar conference
in 2000 laid the groundwork for a compact, whereby Governments
that make quality basic education a priority in their own plans
and budgets will receive the additional financial support they
desperately need from the international community. Many countries,
like Tanzania, have adopted sound education policies, but urgently
need financial support.
Donors pledged in Dakar in 2000 that no country seriously committed
to Education for All would be thwarted in its achievement of
these goals by a lack of resources. After two years of much talk
and little action, the past few months have seen a potential
breakthrough in implementing this promise.
In March 2002, several countries, including the US, Canada, and
EU member states, pledged to increase aid to support the attainment
of the Millennium Development Goals. In April, the world's finance
and development ministers endorsed an EFA Action Plan. A highlight
of this plan is a mechanism to fast-track countries with sound
education strategies, so that they receive more resources to
tackle their education crises immediately. Beyond these star
performers, the Action Plan would also create a framework for
coordinating donor efforts, to mobilize and channel the necessary
resources to meet the education financing needs of all countries
on an ongoing basis.
By June 2002, the Action Plan had also received the backing of
the G7 Education Taskforce, UNICEF and UNESCO. Clearly, it provides
the best opportunity in a generation to get every child into
school. Now, donors must commit the funds needed to get this
plan off the ground.
THE NEXT STEPS
The World Bank estimates that US$5 billion in additional donor
funds will be required annually to implement the EFA Action Plan,
and achieve universal primary education in the 47 countries for
which data is available. About US$4 billion of this should come
from the G7 richest countries, US$700 million from World Bank
IDA funds, and US$300 million from non-G7 donors.
It is vital that donors commit funds up front as callable resources.
This would signal intent and act as an incentive to southern
governments. It would also avoid delays in the process such as
those that have been experienced with the HIPC debt program when
countries have not received debt relief on time despite having
met qualification criteria.
The World Bank assumes that developing countries will cover 80%
of additional costs of providing free and universal basic education.
A more realistic proposal would be for developing countries to
cover 50% of the financing gap, with the remainder being filled
through additional bilateral and multilateral aid and debt relief.
World Bank figures also fail to take account of the full cost
of strategies to improve quality, equity, and access for girls
and other marginalized groups. Major additional resources need
to be rapidly channelled towards efforts to improve equity, such
as subsidies or incentives to encourage girls to stay in school,
school feeding programmes, and the abolition of both formal and
informal fees.
Achieving education for all will also require the abolition of
fees and charges, as argued above. The abolition of fees and
charges must be accompanied by increased flows of resources so
that schools do not re-introduce fees by the back door. As enrolments
increase with the abolition of fees, additional money needs to
be invested in teacher training, books and elsewhere so that
schools do not experience overcrowding and loss of quality.
The EFA Action Plan proposes fast tracking an initial group of
18 countries in 2002/3 with the additional resources they require
to get every child into school. We believe that the international
community could be more ambitious. A much larger group of countries
are being held back from making progress towards EFA by a lack
of resources. In many countries public expenditure management
is improving, strong poverty reduction strategies are being developed,
education has been identified as a priority, and there is a clear
education financing gap. Yet these countries are currently excluded
from the fast track initiative by unrealistically demanding and
rigid criteria.
Although immediate donor action in high performing countries
is vital, countries with weaker policy environments must not
be ignored. Donors should support and accelerate interim strategies
aimed at meeting immediate educational needs and getting countries
'on track' to achieve education for all, while simultaneously
working to develop long-term capacity to produce and implement
national plans of action. At each stage of this 'escalator approach'
countries should be assured of the additional donor resources
they need in order to build their capacity, and deliver quality
basic education for all.
A global financing framework does not mean the creation of a
new education fund or the establishment of a new UN bureaucracy.
The Global Campaign for Education proposes a very simple and
practical approach:
* Wherever possible financing gaps should be filled through donor
co-ordination at the national level (usually through the consultative
group process).
* An EFA Donor Consortium should fill remaining financing gaps
at a twice-yearly donor financing conference. The first donor
conference should take place in November 2002, immediately after
the UNESCO High Level Group meeting which will scrutinise progress
on the Education for All Goals.
* The financing conference should mobilize financing from IDA,
debt relief, bilateral aid, and the private sector.
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
DEVELOPING COUNTRY GOVERNMENTS SHOULD:
* Announce steps to end all fees and charges (including the costs
of uniforms and books) for public primary education within the
next three years. The massive increases in enrolment in Tanzania,
Uganda and Malawi following the partial abolition of charges
show that even a modest fee is a formidable barrier to poor
children - not to mention a violation of the right to education.
* Commit to a sustained increase in budget allocations to basic
education in order to build an effective public school system
that delivers quality education to all communities.
* Pull out all the stops to get more girls into school and keep
them there, in time to meet the 2005 target for gender parity
in primary and secondary education.
* End discrimination against marginalised groups, such as indigenous
people, ethnic minorities, the disabled, working children, and
girls. Discrimination can take blatant forms: for example, providing
fewer trained teachers, fewer books and fewer hours of instruction
in schools or education programmes serving minority communities,
or making cutbacks in adult education programmes that benefit
marginalised groups. Discrimination can also take a more subtle
but equally damaging form when the education system is based
on a rigid formal school paradigm with no room for flexibility
or innovation to accommodate diverse cultural or physical needs.
RICH COUNTRY GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SHOULD:
* Increase aid to basic education, from the current low level
of 2% of bilateral aid, to at least 10% of aid budgets.
* Commit the funds needed to back the Fast Track Partnership
announced this June, which would enable high-performing countries
to scale up and accelerate their own Education for All strategies,
and ensure that realistic criteria are used to select and assess
Fast Track countries, so that more countries can participate.
* Launch a financing framework to extend action to tackle the
education crisis in countries beyond those included in the fast-track
process
* Clearly state their active opposition to fees and levies for
primary education, and work with governments to find more equitable
and sustainable ways to finance primary education.
* Suspend efforts to promote greater private sector involvement
in the delivery of basic education - such as the World Bank Private
Sector Development strategy and the USA's Millennium Challenge
Account -until the implications and impact of such policies in
a developing country context have been thoroughly assessed, and
have been reviewed by the Development Committee of the World
Bank and IMF.
REFERENCES
i Save the Children UK, 2002. Globalisation and the Rights of
Children.
ii The September 2000 UN Millenium Declaration commits all 189
UN member states to achieving the 8 Millenium Development Goals
by 2015. They include eradicating extreme hunger and poverty,
and achieving universal primary education.
ABOUT THE GCE
The Global Campaign for Education is a worldwide alliance of
NGOs and trade unions active in more than 150 countries. Members
of the GCE's elected Board are: ActionAid Alliance, African Networks
Campaign for Education for All (ANCEFA), Asia-Pacific Bureau
for Adult Education (ASPBAE), Brazilian National Campaign for
the Right to Education, Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE
Bangladesh), Education International, Global March Against Child
Labour, Oxfam International, South African National NGO Coalition
(SANGOCO).
Please send comments on this paper to:
Anne Jellema
Advocacy Coordinator
GCE-CME, 5 bd du Roi Albert II, B-1210 Brussels, Belgium
anne@campaignforeducation.org
www.campaignforeducation.org
GCE thanks Global March Against Child Labour and SCF-UK for their
contributions to this paper.
