From the Department for International Development
30 October 2001
Children out of school
By the Rt Hon Clare Short MP, Secretary of State for International Development
At the EFA High Level Group, UNESCO, Paris
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The World Education Forum at Dakar took place 18 months ago. This is the first meeting of the High Level Group since Dakar and therefore an important opportunity to take stock of progress. It is the job of the High Level Group to drive forward progress towards the achievement of the agreed goals: universal primary education by 2015, and the elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005. It is important that we agree on how the group will carry forward its responsibilities.
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Children out of school numbers and location
There is a paper that the UK Government will circulate at this meeting, Children Out of School. It details the size and nature of the challenge facing us. It points out that 60 per cent of those children not enrolled in primary school are girls, and that nearly 87 per cent live in three regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia and the Arab states and north Africa. Approximately one third of Africa’s enrolment deficit is to be found in just two countries: Nigeria and Ethiopia. It also notes that in 17 countries, enrolment rates declined during the 1990s. And it shows that in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the numbers of school-age children out of school exceed the number enrolled.
The paper emphasises that the estimated 113 million out-of-school children tend to suffer from multiple disadvantages including poverty, gender discrimination, disability, the impact of HIV/AIDS, the consequences of violent conflict and the need to work in order to survive. Thus the policy response needs to be multi-dimensional: addressing the demand for education, as well as its supply; and linking education strategies with support for improved livelihoods for the poorest, action against discrimination, and more effective efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and conflict.
The figures give some indication of the scale of the education challenge that confronts us. Clearly we need to do more to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to resolve conflict. We must also ensure that our work makes special efforts to provide for children affected by the HIV/AIDS and those displaced by conflict. But it would be wrong to draw the conclusion that these problems make progress impossible. Our paper also shows what can be achieved, even in relatively short periods of time, when countries put in place good policies. Enrolment rates of school-age children of over 90 per cent have been achieved in Cape Verde, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Enrolments in Uganda, Malawi and Mauritania have doubled in five years. It is vital that we learn from these lessons of success and build on this success
Implementing commitments made at Dakar
At the Dakar meeting, the pledge was made that “no countries seriously committed to Education for All will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources. ”To implement this commitment we need to answer two critical questions: when is it clear that a country is ‘seriously committed’ and how will the international community fulfill its pledge that such countries will not fail for lack of resources? Clarifying what these commitments mean is very important for UNESCO and the High Level Group. Clearly UNESCO is not an implementing agency. But it needs a firm view of the strategies needed to achieve UPE and a determination to use all its influence to drive forward progress. We need to clarify what developing countries need to do to show a serious commitment to Education for All. I suggest, commitment is manifested through strong political will and national resolve to give high priority to achieving universal primary education and eliminating gender disparities. This includes the development of sound national education policies, closely linked to the country’s poverty reduction strategies. However, it should not require the creation of separate EFA plans, outside of the context of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), or in addition to existing education sector plans. I understand UNESCO has been encouraging the creation of separate, national EFA plans. I hope this will be reconsidered. Like many others, the UK believes that we should work to strengthen existing plans and regional structures, rather than creating new ones, with the risk of duplication and administrative overload. What matters is the substance of a government’s education strategy, not what it is called.
A second indicator of serious commitment is the rapid abolition of user fees and other direct cost barriers to education. No child should be denied access to a basic education because she or he, their parents or guardians cannot pay for it. We know that even when education is nominally free, costs are often passed on in the form of charges for books, uniforms, exams and transport. These can sometimes amount to around 20 per cent of a family’s income, making education unaffordable for many children. That will not do.
A third crucial demonstration of a government’s commitment is the resources it is prepared to allocate to education, and specifically to basic primary education. Whilst we all understand that the quality and management of education spending is as important as the quantity, we must also be clear that it will not be possible to meet the education targets unless governments are able to increase the resources allocated to basic education. This may also require a shift in focus of existing education spending, away from the tertiary sector and towards basic education.
A fourth, essential indicator is concrete evidence of efforts to promote gender equality. This may include training teachers so that they have greater awareness of gender issues and reforms to the school curriculum to remove bias and stereotypes. It should also include much greater emphasis on the creation of a safe school environment fear of physical or sexual violence is a significant cause of girls dropping out of school as they get older. In many countries, action on gender equality may also require positive incentives for families to send their girls to school, including bursaries, scholarships and completion bonuses.
Being serious about the education targets means clear commitments in all of these areas. Where countries are making these commitments, we must be ready with answers to the second question, of how development agencies will meet their commitment that countries will not fail through lack of resources.
I believe that the delivering of this pledge is best analysed and acted upon at the country level. It is only at this level that concrete plans for developing the education sector can be weighed alongside the national resources that are available and that any funding gap can be calculated.
We should work to ensure that the Dakar commitment on resources is incorporated into all country level negotiations on PRSPs and similar planning frameworks. If countries are seriously committed to the education goals then agencies must respond appropriately and it is at this level that UNESCO through its partners in the UN system should ensure that adequate funding is provided to countries that are firmly committed to making progress.
To achieve accelerated progress will require a step-change in the level of international financing to support and sustain UPE. This will be particularly necessary in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite progress in recent years, development agencies as a whole are still not giving basic education the resources it needs. Development agencies and the international development banks, including the World Bank, must increase the resources committed to helping reforming governments deliver universal primary education. We also need the IMF to take full account of anticipated aid flows in helping countries to design fiscal packages.
At the same time, we need much greater co-ordination between development agencies. This is a more general objective and applies to all development work, but it is critically important for education getting development agencies to work together around a country’s own development strategy, as set out in the PRSP; and reducing duplication and excessive conditionality, and therefore the transaction costs and administrative burden faced by developing countries. We need much faster progress on all of this too.
