Extreme poverty has been halved in a few decades and many parts of the world are now richer, better educated and more peaceful than at any other point in human history. Nine out of ten children and almost as many girls as boys now go to school. About 48 million more children are in primary school today than just 15 years ago. Benin, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique and Sierra Leone have increased the number of children finishing primary school by 20%, according to the latest UNESCO Education for All Report. So, overall good progress has been made.
Education is essential for development
Enrolling all children, keeping them in school and providing a good education is essential for development. The education a country has today is the economy they will have tomorrow. All great success stories in recent times have put education at the core of development. The late founder of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, emphasized the importance of education during his entire life. No other country is now doing better on the PISA education surveys.
The Republic of Korea went from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the richest by focusing on education and industrialization. Young Koreans are now 390 times richer than their grandparents were and Korea is the second best performing PISA country.
Too many children are still not in school
Huge improvements have been made in securing basic education for all. But we have to get every child in school and make sure no one is left behind. Around 58 million children are still out of school. Half of these children live in conflict and war. Many others are forced to work because of poverty. Other vulnerable groups are the disabled, those living with HIV and ethnic and linguistic minorities. Rural girls are also particularly likely to be out of school.
But there are many success stories to learn from. The Brazilian Bolsa Familia program providing cash stipends to low-income families in exchange for enrolling children in school greatly contributed to improved education for the poorest children. Ghana and other African countries have seen huge improvements by abolishing school fees. More funding and targeted polices for the poorest and most vulnerable children will be needed to achieve universal primary education. The Global Partnership for Education has done significant work funding education in low-income countries and strengthening their education systems over the past decade.
Aid for education is still decreasing
But despite global aid at record high levels, development assistance to education has decreased since 2010 and the share of basic education aid going to the poorest nations has decreased from 40% to 34%. This negative trend must be turned around.
Most children now start school, but almost half of all students in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and West Asia eventually drop out of primary school. Children must learn when they are in school and they must finish school.
Good policies are crucial to improve education standards and there are many success stories proving it. Vietnamese 15- year olds perform better at school than children in much richer countries. The number of girls in Bangladeshi schools has increased by four and they are now doing slightly better than the boys.
PISA for Development launched
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) together with Zambia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Cambodia, Senegal and Guatemala have launched PISA for Development as a contribution to improve quality of education worldwide. Since 1997, PISA has been the leading reference on the quality of education systems. PISA is a powerful tool because it gives countries an honest assessment of whether their students are on the right track.
Brazil has used PISA to prioritize relevant education policies and improved the quality of education faster than any other nation over the past 10 years. PISA also opens up opportunities to benchmark performance and learn from the best. The seven top spots on the PISA for Development ranking are occupied by Asian countries and Chinese cities. There must be many things we can learn from Asian success stories whether the secret is aspiring students, good teachers or something else. Identifying policies that work and implement these on a global scale is the key for improving the quality of education.
Good teachers are crucial
Good teachers are at the core of good education. But in one third of developing countries, less than 75% of teachers have any training at all. The relationship between good teachers and good education is well documented and makes intuitive sense. Much could be achieved by improving the quality of teachers globally.
Almost all Nepalese children now go to school and the number of pupils per trained teacher has been reduced from 260 to 28. Mali has doubled the number of students in school while increasing the number of teachers per student.
Development assistance can have a big impact if used catalytically to improve the quality of teachers. Let us work for a global coalition to improve teachers!
Good education leads to good development. Leaving no child behind, learning from the best and improving teachers would do much to ensure good education for all.