Investing in education for lasting impact

Reflections from the Global Educations and Skills Forum in Dubai. This year's theme was “Education, Equity and Employment: Delivering on the Promise”.

March 23, 2015 by Lydia Murimi, Global Partnership for Education
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7 minutes read
Learner Under Attack group discussion at the Global Education Skills Forum 2015 in Dubai (c) GESF

Political leaders, ministers of education, the private sector, civil society, UN agencies and other stakeholders gathered in Dubai last week to attend the Global Education and Skills Forum. The event, hosted by the Varkey Foundation, was held under the theme “Education, Equity and Employment: Delivering on the Promise”.  The role of the teacher was celebrated with the inaugural Global Teacher Prize.

Investing resources where they make the biggest difference

The need to invest in strong school systems by aligning resources with key challenges was called out by Andreas Schleicher of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He challenged countries to invest resources where they have the greatest impact, suggesting that prioritizing investment in teaching, rather than smaller classrooms, guaranteed a stronger return of investment. He shared that this has been done successfully in Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, countries that recognized the value of teaching and its impact on the education system. Ultimately, it had resulted in a reduction in the cost of education.

Illiteracy and poverty are causes of radicalism   

Chandrika Kumaratunga, former president of Sri Lanka compared the increasing number of attacks on students and schools with the situation in Sri Lanka in the 1990s when the world’s most radical fundamentalist group operated in the country, but did not target schools. While panelists debated over whether education was the enemy or a soft target, there was consensus that poverty and illiteracy were key factors in the radicalization of youth.

Panelists agreed that social impact bonds, estimated at about $1billion a year are going to be very important finance mechanisms going forward. Victor Hugh from Goldman Sachs Education noted that “up to 2012, education was less than 3% of all investments, less than $250 million a/year.In 2014 it was $1.8 billion. Education today is a more investable category than ever before.”

Julie Mercer of Deloitte, noted that there was no correlation between spending and results, and that “we need to think about the value for money delivered by a quality education”.

Mohammed Thneibat, Minister of Education in Jordan called on donors to take their responsibility seriously and increase their contributions to education. He stressed that education is a keystone for national development and that a successful education system guaranteed success, prosperity and security.

Local ownership and partnerships are key to sustainable development

Rwandan President Kagame stressed that to secure sustainable development a country needs to ensure systemic changes, apply learning, make continued investments in the right areas, have citizen ownership and facilitate capacity development at the different government levels.  He further noted that there was no dignity in perpetual dependency of handouts and that education delivers in two aspects: it empowers an individual, and in turn, the individual learns that they are useful to society. President Kagame also called on governments to engage with the private sector, particularly on technology which he described as crucial in every aspect, especially in education. He shared that Rwanda is moving towards a knowledge-based economy and technology in today’s world is the center of knowledge.

Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom noted that “government systems are good at managing the status quo, they are not built to be disruptive or to bring change. It is important to work with partners who come with the skills and expertise to improve what exists.”

Sustainable Innovation should significantly improve what exists, and it should be scalable

The panelists agreed that innovation was too important to be left in government hands as it was vulnerable to political pressure and that education reforms take time to survive beyond the shift of politics. It was noted that in the education sector there are more degrees than in any other sector in the economy which was ripe to foster a climate and culture for innovation.

The following advice was given to governments to encourage innovation: foster a climate and culture for innovation; institutionalize a systemic thinking process on how changes can be made; acknowledge that education reforms take time to service; and ensure that education is a shared agenda between external partners and countries.

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