The Chinese government has recently made early childhood development a national priority, recognizing the social and economic dividends that quality early learning opportunities reap for its human capital in the long term. As the country with the largest population in the world, 100 million children under the age of six in China stand to benefit from increased access to high quality early childhood education.

The quality of education in a country is indicative of its overall development prospects. Over the past two decades – building on the momentum generated by the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals – there have been significant increases in the number of children enrolled in school. Now, with discussions heating up around what the next set of development goals will look like in 2015, it is critical that learning across the education spectrum – from early childhood through adolescence and beyond – is included as a global priority. Starting early helps children enter primary school prepared to learn. High-quality early childhood development opportunities can have long-term impacts on a child’s later success in school.

Last month, the Chinese Ministry of Education, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund, launched its first national early childhood advocacy month to promote early learning for all children. The campaign, which includes national television public service announcements on the benefits of investing early in education, builds on a commitment made by the government in 2010 to increase funding for early childhood education over the next decade. The Chinese government pledged to build new preschool facilities, enhance and scale up teacher training, provide subsidies for rural families for access to early learning opportunities, and increase support for private early childhood education centers.

A new policy guide by the Center for Universal Education outlines recommendations that education stakeholders, including national governments, can take to ensure that all children are in school and learning. These steps include establishing equity-based learning targets for all children, systematically collecting data for tracking progress against these targets, and allocating sufficient resources to education beginning in early childhood. The policy guide, based on a report calling for a Global Compact on Learning, is available in Mandarin, as well as Spanish, Portuguese, French and, soon, Arabic.

The success of China’s productivity and growth over the last few decades is attributable in part to its commitment to building a robust education system. As international attention mounts around the post-2015 education and development agendas, the priorities of national governments must be a central organizing principle. When national governments take bold steps to prioritize early childhood development, the global community should take its cue and integrate early childhood development into the broader push toward access plus learning. There is an opportunity for the global education community to push toward reaching the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals while ensuring that the post-2015 agendas include a focus on the quality of education, learning and skills development, beginning with the youngest citizens.

      

 

 

Not all international gatherings get the attention they deserve. Next week, governments from around the world will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to decide on aid levels for the Global Partnership on Education. You probably won’t read about it in the media. The outcomes won’t register in financial markets. But for the millions of children in the world’s poorest countries, this is a summit that matters.

The Global Partnership on Education is the world’s main source of multilateral aid for basic education. Currently housed in the World Bank, but governed through a wider partnership of U.N. agencies, donors, developing country governments and representatives of civil society, it provides grants to countries to support quality universal primary education. Financial commitments made in Copenhagen will set the budget for the next three years.

Crowded as the international development agenda may be, the state of education merits urgent attention. Progress toward the 2015 Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education has slipped in the past few years. With 67 million primary school age children out of school, along with an even greater number of adolescents, the international community needs to act now if the promise of education for all is to be kept alive.

But getting children into school is just one part of the equation. The abysmal state of learning in many countries means that as many as 200 million children will probably leave primary school unable to read, write or do basic math. As highlighted in a recent Brookings report, all of this adds up to a global crisis in learning.

Failure to respond to the learning crisis will have grave consequences. Education is one of the most powerful drivers of progress in areas such as nutrition, child survival and maternal health. It is also an engine of economic growth, innovation and employment creation.

At risk of understatement, the backdrop to the financial replenishment of the Global Partnership on Education is not propitious. Donors have not responded effectively to the global learning crisis and development assistance budgets are under pressure. Aid levels for education in the poorest countries have stagnated at less than $3 billion—far short of the $16 billion needed to achieve the targeted goals. To make matters worse, several bilateral major donors—including the host country, Denmark, as well as the Netherlands, Spain and the United States—are heading to Copenhagen having recently announced cuts in their aid budgets for global education. Meanwhile, the World Bank has allowed International Development Association (IDA) support for primary education in sub-Saharan Africa, the region that has furthest to travel, to fall to just $157 million in fiscal year 2011 (compared to an annual average of $202 million between fiscal years 2005 and 2009)—with 2010 and 2011 primary education financing at the lowest level since 2000-2001.

The agendas of the G-8 and the G-20 are dominated by the ongoing crisis in the euro-zone, recession and global imbalances. Yet the Copenhagen meeting is also an opportunity for donors to step up to the plate, demonstrate leadership and deliver on the education promise made to the world’s poorest children.

So what needs to happen? The Global Partnership for Education has called for commitments of $2.5 billion for its pooled fund, or around $600 million annually, but the response has not been encouraging. While 15 out of 22 donors have accepted the invitation to attend the conference, current estimates indicate that just $1.5 billion will be committed.

The United States is the only G-7 country that does not provide support. Given Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s leadership role on girls’ education and America’s strategic interest in seeing a broad expansion of educational opportunity, this makes little sense. And at least 69 members of the U.S. House of Representatives agree, having sent a letter to Secretary Clinton urging the U.S. to make a strong commitment. France and Germany have provided derisory levels of support to the fund. The United States should offer to come into the Global Partnership as a financial partner with an initial pledge of $375 million over three years, subject to France and Germany making matching pledges. As the current president of the G-20, France should take the lead role in brokering a deal.

The World Bank is also well-placed to provide leadership. Last year, World Bank President Robert Zoellick pledged to increase IDA support for basic education by $750 million annually to 2015. Using the 2008-2010 commitment levels as a benchmark, this implies average IDA spending of around $1.2 billion annually without taking into account any new commitments at Copenhagen. Early signs have not been encouraging. IDA commitments for basic education fell sharply in 2011. According to the World Bank, this reflects a lack of demand from developing country governments. If that is the case, the World Bank should go to Copenhagen with a creative solution for channeling IDA grants through the Global Partnership.

Making a success of the financial replenishment meeting in Copenhagen should be seen as a first step toward a more ambitious global agenda. Recent governance reforms have made the Global Partnership on Education a more effective body. But far more needs to be done. In contrast to the global funds for health, the Global Partnership on Education does not utilize a financing window for the private sector, depriving the partnership of a source of innovation and dynamism. Some of the countries with greatest needs—notably those affected by conflict—are not even covered. And disbursement rates to some countries have been far too slow, although this has been improving.

Looking foward, the Global Partnership for Education needs to demonstrate a real value-added in the aid architecture. It should have an unremitting focus on creating incentives for policies that tackle education inequalities, strengthen learning outcomes and build national capacity. It needs to become a hub for innovation and flexible responses to real problems. And it has to reflect a level of ambition commensurate with the scale of the education challenge. Some commentators argue that this will take more fundamental reforms. Former British prime minister, Gordon Brown, and Australian foreign-minister, Kevin Rudd, have both called for the Global Partnership for Education to be reconstituted as an independent organization, building on the model adopted by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS and the Global Alliance for Vaccines.

With less than four years to 2015, the Copenhagen meeting should concentrate the minds of donors. A successful replenishment could provide the springboard for a renewed drive toward the education for all goals. Small investments of aid could yield dramatic advances. The question is not so much whether we can afford the investments but rather whether we can afford not to make them.

      

 

 

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week, the business community took bold action to put education front and center on the global agenda by holding a founding meeting of a Global Business Coalition for Education.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who recently called for more private sector engagement in his global education assessment, took this vision to over a dozen global CEOs during this inaugural meeting. Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan joined Gordon Brown and made the case as to how the challenges of education access, quality and financing affect the global business community.

In a previous policy paper by the Center for Universal Education, I outline what the Global Business Coalition for Education should look like and why investing in quality learning in developing countries not only benefits society, but has clear benefits for the business community.

In his call to form this new Global Business Coalition for Education, Gordon Brown challenged the corporate leaders at the meeting to recruit other CEOs to join during the inaugural year of the coalition. This should not be difficult because during the preparations for this meeting, many CEOs sent letters of support even though they were not able to attend. The former British prime minister reminded the CEOs of their strength as an advocacy constituency, reminding them from experience that when the business community speaks, leaders listen. In terms of next steps, Brown agreed to organize bilateral business leader delegations to meet with leaders of developing countries to discuss what assets they could bring to bear on improving learning opportunities and produce a summary of what we know works in education for the business leaders.

While companies have independently made significant contributions to education, the uncoordinated nature of corporate engagement has left the corporate sector without a unified voice in the global education agenda. Today’s meeting marked a turning point in a first step toward the bold leadership needed from the business community to be true partners with developing country governments and promote access and learning for all young people around the world.

      

 

 

INTRODUCTION

We are facing a global learning crisis in developing countries. While there are tens of millions of children out of school, hundreds of millions more are in school, but receiving an education of such poor quality that they have little prospect of gaining the literacy, numeracy and life-skills that they need to be productive members of society. This crisis has economic and social benefits that are devastatingly high, stifling economic growth, perpetuating poverty, and creating unstable societies. This crisis has a direct impact on the business community and its bottom line. Corporations must come together under the united banner of a Global Business Coalition for Education to address the education crisis head-on for the benefit of both society and business.

As direct stakeholders in the quality of education of the world’s children and youth, the business community has tremendous assets to bring to bear on the global learning crisis. These assets include technology, innovation, financing, employee skills and talents, and a unified advocacy voice. While the business community does engage significantly in education, the impact of these interventions is minimal. In the aggregate, corporate resources are deployed in such an inefficient manner to support global education that these practices would never pass muster in the day-to-day business of a company. If the same tactics were used in product research, marketing and development, they would lead a company to a loss in market share.

A Global Business Coalition for Education would strengthen the business community’s engagement in education and allow it to serve as a force for results-oriented change in the education sector. Collectively, companies will benefit by:

• Reducing the inefficiencies by spreading the investment risk, lowering startup and transaction costs, creating economies of scale, leveraging investments, and making investments strategic and results-oriented.


• Narrowing the global talent gap in developing and emerging economies.


• Educating consumers so they can earn higher incomes and accumulate more disposable income to spend on products and services.


• Increasing the effectiveness, health and well-being of employees and their families.


• Creating more competitive business environments for attracting and retaining labor.


• Increasing the ease of doing business in developing and emerging markets.


• Improving government and community relations.


• Increasing profits from educational innovation.

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Expert Rebecca Winthrop explains that the education crisis in developing countries has three tiers of trouble: many children, especially those in conflict areas, can’t go to school; many children who do go to school are not learning fundamental skills like reading; and post-primary students don’t acquire the skills they need to get jobs. That’s disastrous for both the children and the nations where they live, Winthrop argues. Investing just four percent of national GDP in education, she says, can lift children out of poverty and improve overall economic success for the country in which they live.

Video

• The Education Crisis in Developing Countries

Audio

• @Brookings Podcast: The Education Crisis in Developing Countries

      

 

 

Editor’s Note: The Center for Universal Education co-hosted a side event with UNESCO and the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs during the High Level Segment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting brought together business leaders from multinational companies and representatives from governments and ministries of education to discuss engaging the private sector in education. His Excellency Lazarous Kapambwe, President of ECOSOC and the Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations, made opening remarks and Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO moderated the discussion. Justin van Fleet discussed the challenges and opportunities with corporate engagement in education.

The Current State of Education is Nothing Short of a Global Learning Crisis

Despite progress made since the start of the millennium to refocus efforts on education, progress in education has been slow and uneven with government commitments wavering. The current state of education is nothing short of a global crisis: 67 million children remain out of primary school and resource mobilization to reach the 2015 targets has fallen short by over $16 billion. Just as alarming, yet rarely discussed, are the hundreds of millions of children enrolled in school but not learning. This global learning crisis is characterized by alarming statistics: in some countries after five years of schooling children still have a 40 percent chance of being illiterate. Three out of ten young people in emerging economies cannot do basic math. And despite the rhetoric, education has yet to create truly effective, sustainable and scalable partnerships with the private sector like we have seen in other sectors, such as health.

We’re Missing True Champions from the Private Sector

An examination of private sector philanthropy has demonstrated the lack of a strong continent of champions for education. In the initial "Giving Pledge,” a collection of billionaires who have committed to giving away a substantial portion of their wealth to charitable causes, an analysis by Brookings found no support for quality education in developing countries among the inaugural pledging community. In another study we have underway, we find that 31 percent of the world’s billionaires are in developing and emerging economies – which lends hope for new champions. For instance, an example is the leadership of Azim Premji, who has dedicated a significant portion of his personal wealth to supporting education in India.

In terms of private foundations, a recent analysis by the International Education Funders Group, a new collaborative of private funders of education in developing countries seeking to be a catalytic force in advancing Education for All, revealed that nearly half of the European and North American foundations making grants to education are newly formed. And while this offers hope for new actors in education philanthropy directed toward developing countries, data from the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Prosperity suggests that among U.S. foundations, less than 5 percent of foundation funding to development goes to education.

What We Know About the Corporate Sector

We have some emerging data coming out of the corporate sector to help us see the promises and limitations of corporate engagement in education. We are in the process of surveying global companies and have identified over 200 – nearly 55 percent of non-US based Global Fortune 500 companies – that are engaged in education in developing countries. Over 80 percent are based in developed countries and another fifth are based in developing countries. Of those based in developing countries, we find that over 30 percent make south-south investments in education, from one developing country to another. These south-south transactions in education are particularly interesting and merit further exploration. We are hoping to have some estimates regarding the magnitude of these investments in the coming months.

In the United States, our study projects a $500 million contribution to developing countries education systems each year. These contributions are led in scale by the energy and technology sector. We also find they are highly focused on career-centered education such as science, technology, engineering, math, entrepreneurship and workforce training.

The important thing to remember about corporate engagement in education – and what we must be clear about if we want to make partnerships successful – is that companies are not in the business of social outcomes. They are accountable to shareholders to make a profit and business goals must be consistent with any social goal in their philanthropy strategies. Understanding this notion can help set expectations and assess mutual interests that are compatible to leverage for increased social investment in education. Our research shows companies invest in education in locations where their employees live and work or where there is a strategic market interest. They invest in education where they have market and growth opportunities, where they would like to promote community relations and brand recognition or where they can engage their employees.

Corporate contributions have several limitations that can be summarized as highly fragmented engagement in global education with a limited impact at a systemic level. Contributions tend to be small, short-term and uncoordinated. We found that over 70 percent of corporate contributions are for less than three years of support; half of those are one-time contributions. We found that only one quarter of U.S. companies actually coordinate contributions with the host governments. And more than half of corporations in our research report not coordinating their contributions with anyone – this includes other companies, foundations, donor governments, or host governments at any level. Additionally, these contributions which fly below the radar of national and local education plans, focus significantly on acute labor needs and ignore systemic challenges endemic to the global learning crisis. Some of these neglected areas include early childhood development, early learning, and transitions to relevant post-primary education opportunities. On top of this, corporate contributions to education do not reach the most marginalized. We found that the higher the level of education poverty in a country, the lower the probability of corporate engagement in education. Corporate contributions favor emerging economies at the expense of those countries or regions in greatest need.

The Role of Governments and Multilaterals

But the disconnect is not just on the part of companies and the private sector. The corporate sector has identified several reasons why it may circumvent working with governments or multilateral organizations. Overall, the disconnect can be described as a lack of understanding of business culture. Companies expect partners to demonstrate specific and tangible uses of resources, provide direct and timely feedback about corporate contributions and facilitate additional connections for the business at the local level. Companies find that governments and multilaterals often lack clear plans and deliverables which make the investments difficult to justify. They also find that the high administrative costs make collaboration prohibitive and that visions of potential investments often lack opportunity to scale up successful projects throughout countries and regions.

Moving Toward True Collaboration

Collaboration within the private sector is not impossible and in fact, leveraging assets to have a real impact on education is not only possible, but taking place today. One example comes from the private foundation world. A few years ago, instead of starting a parallel program focused on global education, the Gates Foundation partnered with the Hewlett Foundation to develop a single strategy to promote quality education in developing countries. What emerged was a clear, five-year plan which jointly mobilized $90 million focused squarely on promoting learning in developing countries. This collaboration has allowed us to understand the scope of the global learning crisis by building evidence through programs such as ASER in India and UWEZO in East Africa and has also taken a deep look about what needs to take place in classrooms to really give children a chance to learn. And this is just one instance of leveraging resources and collaborating.

When I look around the table at the unique assets each of you bring to the table, I cannot help but think that if we get serious about leveraging each others' core strengths and collaborating in earnest, the potential for impact is enormous. So what does this mean for companies? Until companies see global education as a core business interest – not just social responsibility or philanthropy – the impact will not be significant. The global learning challenge has a direct impact on society and the bottom line. From the talent of current employees and future employees to the income potential of your consumers, learning is vital. Every CEO should be talking about the global learning crisis, and more importantly, making pledges about what the company brings to the table and is willing to do to support government efforts to cure this silent crisis eroding development potential.

I would urge companies to realize that the talent gap – or whatever the motivation is for your investment in education – cannot be solved by a band-aid approach. Education should be a corporate-wide strategy and priority for employees, communities, and consumers. And every CEO should be aware of how this global learning crisis is directly impacting his or her business’ bottom line and be aware that lack of investment or advocacy to other governments and leaders isn’t just hurting society, but business. Companies should focus on how they can invest in learning, particularly early childhood education, learning in early years and transition to post-primary that is relevant. These investments should pay particular attention to marginalized populations. I would also urge companies to become strategic and innovative with the way they think about deploying their resources and coordinate financing with governments and other corporations or foundations. I extend an open invitation for everyone here to join our Brookings Working Group on Corporate Philanthropy for Global Education and to be part of the Global Compact on Learning which is bringing together donor governments, multilateral organizations, foundations, NGOs and growing number of corporations and developing country governments to chart a new learning agenda leading up to and following 2015. Companies should also engage with the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative, which is taking the private sector contribution to education seriously in support of their mission through a constituency group for private foundations and private sector actors. There are opportunities for real change and not just more of the same.

While it is important to acknowledge that not every government or multilateral organization will find working with the private sector to be of interest, if you wish to engage more with the private sector, I encourage you to develop concrete opportunities for corporate engagement. Look at business interests and the potential for how contributions of cash, in-kind resources, or employee expertise could support you education plans and strategies. Commit to measuring the impact of programs and scaling successful innovations. By working successfully with the private sector, donor governments, host governments and multilateral actors can begin to develop track records of working with the private sector to support sustained learning.

In summary, there is a learning crisis and an education resource crisis. The two go hand-in-hand. And it is the challenge for everyone in the room – and our peers not present at other multilateral organizations, ministries, development agencies and corporations, to take the learning crisis seriously and instead of “more of the same,” really change the way we support education in developing countries to put learning front and center. I look forward to hearing from our other colleagues and then to having a substantive discussion about how we can increase the impact of our efforts.

      

 

 

According to a story on CBS Evening News this week, there are “plenty of jobs if you’ve got the right skills,” pointing out that companies in the U.S. have thousands of technology-based job openings without enough skilled people to fill them. But if companies are serious about tackling the global talent gap, especially in developing countries, they need to move from purely focusing on job training to also include investment in good quality education more broadly. Here’s why:

Our latest research suggests that U.S. companies by-and-large make short-term, uncoordinated social investments most heavily devoted to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, entrepreneurship education and skills training developing countries. These contributions aim to close the talent gap and in many instances include remedial literacy and math training for youth and adults. However, these companies are not really investing in early childhood development or early learning, which are vital points of intervention if we want to solve – not patch – the talent gap.

If corporations continue to invest only in education at the secondary and job training levels, they are just sticking a band-aid on the talent gap instead of focusing on the root cause— the lack of early learning success. Investment in early childhood development and quality primary school prepares the next generation to continue on with further education and acquire new skills without needing remedial education and training programs. And, if corporations coordinate their investments in adolescent education with other donors and national governments, education systems can better cultivate individuals with the necessary life and critical thinking skills to be productive members of society and the economy. Young people who can read, do math and think critically are not just useful to the technology sector, but have the transferable skills needed for a variety of economic and civic activities. 

The Global Compact on Learning outlines the priorities and strategies needed to address the global learning crisis and charts the course for a new generation of young people with employable and social participation skills. It also outlines specific roles corporations can play to advance learning for all in a way that is not only a good thing for society, but is smart for the company’s business interests. Instead of investing millions in workforce preparation in the short-term, companies should really invest more broadly in education early on if they are serious about closing the talent gap in developing countries. This long-term investment will lead to a generation of young people with the transferable skills needed for the jobs of today or tomorrow.

      

 

 

Event Information

Children and youth all around the world are facing a serious learning crisis. Beyond the 67 million children who are not attending primary school in low-income countries, there are countless children who are going through five years of education without learning basic reading, writing and math skills. While there has been remarkable progress in getting more children into school during the past decade, much remains to be done to ensure that all children and youth can attain a quality education. Evidence shows that targeted attention to three priorities – early childhood development, literacy and numeracy in lower primary school and relevant learning for youth in post-primary school – could jumpstart global education development so that all children are prepared to lead safe, healthy and productive lives.

On June 15, the Center for Universal Education at Brookings presented its new report, "A Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in the Developing Countries," which calls for a renewal of global cooperation on education in low-income countries. Jenny Perlman Robinson, lead author of the report, was joined by a panel of experts from the multilateral, private and nongovernment sectors to discuss the new global education agenda and the urgent need for international cooperation and action in tackling the global learning crisis.

After the program, the panelists took audience questions.

Audio

• A Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries

Transcript

• Transcript (.pdf)
• Global Compact on Learning Question and Answer (.pdf)
• Download the Policy Paper (.pdf)
• Global Compact on Learning Powerpoint Presentation (.pdf)

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• 0609_global_compact_policy_paper
• 0615_gcl_final_ppt

      

 

 

The causes of the recent revolutions in the Arab world are numerous and complex, and certainly cannot be attributed to one factor. Many experts spoke about the big role that social media played; others addressed the deep-seeded frustrations with corruption, state legitimacy and foreign policies.

However, one tipping point that experts have focused on is demographics– specifically, the youth bulge. Nearly one-half of the population of the Middle East and North Africa is under the age of 20 and high rates of unemployment (25 percent) among 15 to 24-year-olds in the region continues to be of huge concern. While access to education is an essential pathway out of poverty in many countries, in Morocco and Algeria, university graduates are less likely to be employed than their peers who have only completed primary or secondary school. In Egypt and Bahrain, those with a secondary school education have higher rates of unemployment than their peers with just primary school educations. 

Education has played an important role in the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa with many commentators noting that educated youth have been integral to what has come to be called the “Arab spring.” However, what they fail to mention is that spending many years in school has failed to give many Arab youth a good education. These revolutions were not propagated by well-educated youth; these uprisings were spurred by the needs and demands of poorly educated youth, whose knowledge and skills do not meet the demands of a rapidly-advancing world. Arab governments generally have allocated a significant portion of their national income to education; Djibouti, Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen each spend more than 5 percent of their gross national product on education. This has led to significant progress toward universal access to school; the regional gross enrollment ratio in primary school in 2008 was 96 percent (although the gender disparity is worth noting, with boys at 100 percent gross enrollment rate and girls at 91 percent). Ninety-seven percent survive to the last grade of primary school and then 95 percent of those transition to secondary education. Yet, there has been very low return on investment in terms of meaningful educational outcomes. Education systems throughout the region are hindered by low quality, irrelevancy and inequity:

Low Quality. Internationally comparable reading test scores at grade 4 show that, in Kuwait, Qatar and Morocco, over 90 percent of the students scored lower than the minimum benchmark, which indicates that these students have not acquired basic reading comprehension after at least four years of schooling. The results do not improve over time either. Math and science scores for grade 8 show that the majority of students in Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Qatar are below the minimum threshold. These students lack a basic understanding of whole numbers, decimals and simple graphs. According to Kevin Watkins, education systems in the Middle East and North Africa are plagued by: teachers who are poorly trained, as well as poorly regarded in society; an emphasis on rote learning over critical thinking; and curriculum that seeks to train students to either work in the public sector – where the number of jobs are quickly diminishing – or continue onto post-secondary education, which most students are not able to do for a myriad of reasons.

Irrelevancy. This mismatch of skills learned in school and those needed in the workplace has led to the proliferation of “waithood,” which refers to the increasingly common period of time that Arab youth have between graduation and getting their first job. Part of the unemployment problem is supply since these countries are not generating enough skilled jobs to absorb the increase in the educated labor force. But the other half of the problem is preparing young people with the necessary skills for jobs available. This is dependent upon the quality and relevancy of the education provided, particularly in the post-primary years. Research linking education to employment for Arab youth shows that one-third of them cannot do basic arithmetic and two-thirds of them self-reported that they didn’t have the skills they needed to get a good job. Education systems are largely preparing students for employment in government bureaucracies where there is little job opportunity but not for the range of private sector work available.

Inequity. Although the attention in recent months has focused on the educated youth in the Arab world, there are still millions of children from poor households who are out-of-school. Their educational needs and rights cannot be ignored. This region also has some of the largest gender gaps with boys’ enrollment and completion often far exceeding that of girls. In Egypt, girls from poor families living in the rural Upper Egypt region are doubly disadvantaged; half of them receive fewer than four years of schooling and one-quarter of them have fewer than two years of schooling.

There is clear need for the Arab World and the broader global community to focus on the quality, relevancy, and equity of educational opportunities, particularly during adolescence. This is highlighted in the Center for Universal Education’s new report “A Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries.” Improving learning outcomes and education quality will require concerted focus and collective action. First, young children must get an early start on learning in life with quality early childhood development programs. Second, children must learn basic literacy and numeracy skills in the lower primary grades in order to continue and succeed in school. Third, young people must complete primary school and have access to educational opportunities that equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to live safe, healthy and productive lives.

The emergence of a global learning crisis and waning international support for education lead us to call for a new Global Compact on Learning that provides a broad framework and a series of targeted actions to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for all children and youth, especially the most marginalized. The Global Compact seeks to mobilize the international community – including developing and developed country governments, multilateral actors, private sector foundations and businesses, and local and international civil society – to put learning at the center of the global education agenda. Bold action and commitment are needed from all groups working together to embrace the following six principles:

• Leadership from developing and developed countries, as well as from heads of foundations, corporations and NGOs, must deliver and act on one clear consistent message: that learning matters for all children and youth, even the hardest to reach.
 
• Partnership among actors committed to improving learning in the developing world must leverage efforts to maximize the impact and ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction.

• Financing is needed to achieve learning for all, which means that more resources must be dedicated while existing resources are used more effectively.

• Measurement of learning achievement in a way that can track progress against existing disparities and provide useful and timely insight for classroom-level practices is essential to fulfilling these goals.

• Advocacy that mobilizes public opinion to send strong signals to governments on the importance of learning for all and then holds those governments – developing and developed – accountable for the results.

• Building evidence to answer remaining questions about how to improve education and then using that information to scale up proven solutions for tackling the learning crisis.

      

 

 

INTRODUCTION

We had to leave behind all of our possessions. The only thing we could bring with us is what we have in our heads, what we have been taught—our education. Education is the only thing that cannot be taken from us.
—Woman who fled from Darfur to Chad, 2004 (Women’s Refugee Commission)

Education Is Essential for Development

The case for education, as expressed in the quotation above from a Sudanese woman in Breijing refugee camp in eastern Chad, is simple. First and foremost, education is a fundamental human right and the birthright of every child. It is also the springboard for human development, creating the conditions for progress in health and gender equity and it plays a key role in helping to tackle some of the world’s other pressing challenges such as climate change, food security, and peace building. Economic growth and poverty reduction depend on an educated and skilled workforce.

In developing countries, one additional year of education adds about 10 percent to a person’s earnings. For a woman farmer in Ethiopia, this can mean being able to provide adequate nutrition, health care, and education for her children. There are more young people on the planet than ever before with 1.3 billion of the world’s twelve to twenty-four year olds living in developing countries. Investing in their knowledge, skills, and competencies has been called the “education growth premium” and no developing country has sustained high rates of growth without investing heavily in educating its young people. For example, if all children in low-income countries left school knowing how to read, something which currently does not happen, then 171 million people could move out of poverty. There is broad agreement— and significant evidence—that education enhances people’s ability to lead happier, healthier, and more productive lives.

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On Tuesday, March 22, education leaders from around the world will meet in Jomtien, Thailand to discuss the progress of education across the globe. This 10th meeting of the Education for All High-Level Group marks two decades of concerted global effort to improve educational attainment, particularly in the world’s poorest countries. The discussions will most certainly celebrate the development of the Education for All (EFA) movement, which began in Jomtien in 1990, and has led to six widely shared, time-bound goals for meeting the learning needs of all by 2015.

And there is indeed a great deal to celebrate. Driven by the EFA movement, more children are entering and completing primary school today than ever before. Even in the poorest countries, average gross enrollment rates in primary school have risen to 80 percent and completion rates over 60 percent. There has been a significant decline in the number of out-of-school children from 100 million in 2000 to 67 million in 2008, with over 80 percent of the decline in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia. Gender disparities in primary enrollments are narrowing and more children are making the transition from primary to secondary school. A recent study found that girls’ enrollment in primary school has increased from 82 percent to 100 percent from 2002 to 2008 in 43 Fast Track Initiative (FTI) countries.

However, despite this progress, there is an education crisis facing many of the world’s poorest countries that delegates must tackle head on this week in Jomtien. The nature of this crisis is essentially one of learning and primarily manifests itself in three dimensions: (1) the 67 million children and 73 million adolescents who remain out of school without opportunities to learn; (2) children who are in school but not learning basic skills, such as reading, math and critical thinking, which in turn leads to further drop outs and low transition rates to secondary school; and (3) children who are progressing through school but not learning relevant skills that will prepare them for a productive, healthy adulthood.

Millions of children drop out of school every year before completing primary school, a waste of human potential and investments. Almost half of all children out of school today live in countries affected by conflict and these countries receive much less funding and are much less equipped to reach the EFA goals than other low-income countries. As children enter adolescence, enrollment rates fall. One in five children of lower secondary school age is out of school. Girls and young women in developing countries remain at a considerable disadvantage in access to education, particularly at the secondary level. For girls, additional factors of discrimination intersect to exacerbate the marginalization and exclusion they may already face as a result of their gender—this includes poverty, language, conflict and geographic location of residence. Before even starting school, millions of children suffer from poor health and malnutrition that irreparably impairs their cognitive development and learning potential.

For those who are able to go to school, sitting in a classroom hasn’t necessarily translated into learning. The latest data reveal a learning crisis around the world that risks reversing significant gains in access—and indeed in improving lives—in many countries. A recent study found that in many countries, student outcomes have either stagnated or regressed over the last 10 years. In some sub-Saharan African countries, children with five years of education had 40 percent probability of being illiterate. In Peru, only 20 percent of 15-year-olds were able to identify one piece of information in a text.

The Way Forward: Key Priorities for Improving Learning Opportunities & Outcomes

If national and international partners don’t take swift, bold action to address this education crisis, the EFA goals—and the U.N. MDG education goals—will not be met. Business as usual will not get us there. At current pace, most of the goals will fail to be met by 2015—many by a wide margin.

The Center for Universal Education at Brookings, in partnership with a wide range of actors, has been examining recent research and empirical data and has identified an emerging consensus that there are at least three critical transition points that are essential to support in the lead up to and beyond 2015. These transition points are particularly important for girls and young women who still face considerable challenges in accessing education. Ensuring that girls and young women have equal access to quality learning opportunities is a basic human right as well as delivers high social and economic returns to individuals, families and communities. While there are no silver bullets or one-size-fits-all approaches, recent research, empirical data and on-the-ground experience suggest the following three policies are essential to improving learning opportunities and outcomes for children and youth:

• Prepare girls and boys at an early age to learn and do well in school. The argument for focusing on early childhood development (ECD) and early learning is strikingly straight-forward: early life experiences have a significant impact that persists well into adulthood. Research suggests that critical brain development occurs before the age of seven, influenced by nutritional and health status, as well as by interactions with people and objects in the environment. Better health and nutrition is linked to better test scores, more consistent attendance, lower repetition rates and higher grade completion. Extending ECD opportunities to children in poor and marginalized communities can overcome household deprivations and set them on the right track at an early age to succeed in school. Building children’s social and emotional aptitude (e.g. positive coping mechanisms, self-regulation, interpersonal and decision-making skills) at an early age is crucial for future academic success. It is especially important to ensure girls are prepared to enter school at the proper age as many of the gender disparities in later school years can be traced back to initial intake into primary school.
  
  
• Build foundational skills in reading and numeracy in the early grades. Research shows that the trajectory of a child’s reading progress at the end of the first grade can predict his/her skills throughout primary school since reading skills are self-reinforcing (strong readers acquire double the vocabulary that build better reading skills than weak readers). Early learning success in reading and math also contribute to higher retention rates as children who are successful early on are more likely to remain in school longer. Strategies to build these foundational skills include training teachers in effective methods of reading instruction; maximizing the amount of time spent on literacy and numeracy activities; supplying appropriate level reading materials to children and communities; and providing mother tongue-based multilingual education language of instruction. While the language of instruction can be one of the most contentious and politicized issues in any education system, it has profound effects on the ability of millions of children—and girls in particular—who don’t speak the official language to access and learn effectively in school.
  
  
• Support opportunities to transition to (and complete) post-primary educational opportunities that build relevant life and labor skills. Quality post-primary education is one of the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty and inequality within and across countries. There is considerable evidence as to the strong social and economic benefits from secondary education, particularly for girls. Preparing young people to participate in the 21st century knowledge-based economy requires strengthening the link between education and the local labor market and focusing on transferable skills, such as computer literacy, communication and financial skills. Given the wide heterogeneity of young people, there is a need for more non-formal and flexible approaches for learners. Second chance and catch-up programs that offer clear pathways back into school or work provide critical opportunities for young people who have missed out on years of school.