Education

Sunday December 2, 2007

More to be done

By KAREN CHAPMAN
educate@thestar.com.my

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008 assesses the extent to which commitments made seven years ago to expand educational opportunities are being met.

A MAJORITY of governments around the world have risen to the challenge of increasing the funds set aside for education.

But the performance of individual countries hinges on a host of factors.

Achieving EFA goals may be a real challenge for many areas. Seen here is a classroom in Uganda's Karamoja region. According to Unicef, some 80% of those between seven and 18 years old in the region have never been to school. – AFP
According to the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2008, education expenditure as a share of gross national product (GNP) tends to be highest across countries of North America and Western Europe, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. (See table)

The variations between countries within the different regions, though, are large.

Of 105 countries outside of North America and Western Europe, 26 spent 6% or more of GNP on education in 2005 while 24 spent 3% or less.

The report, released by Unesco on Thursday, also points out that overall education expenditure in GNP increased between 1999 and 2005 in 50 of the 84 countries that have data for both years.

However, across Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, South and West Asia, and the Arab States, the number of countries in which the share increased was almost matched by the number that saw a decrease – the respective totals being 23 and 19.

However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the share went up in 18 out of 24 countries.

According to the report's “Regional Overview for East Asia”, half the countries in the region devoted less than 3% of GNP to public spending on education, with considerable variation between countries.

It was 2% or less in Cambodia and Indonesia compared with more than 6% in Malaysia.

Since 1999, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and South Korea have increased education's share of GNP, while in Thailand the share has declined from 5.1% to 4.3%.

In contrast, the share of total government expenditure devoted to education was about 15% in the region in 2005.

This median level was lower than in Central Asia, the Arab States and Sub-Saharan Africa, but higher than in other regions.

The reports also points out that share of education expenditure in GNP is a result of several factors, including government ability to collect domestic revenue.

And a relatively low share does not necessarily mean education is a low government priority; it may signal a small public sector.

In Malaysia's experience, education in general receives a big slice of the allocation under the annual budget.

Under Budget 2008 for example, RM30bil was allocated to the Education Ministry and RM12bil to the Higher Education Ministry.

Universal primary education

Participation in primary education is increasing but is still far from universal

Worldwide, 688 million children were enrolled in primary school in 2005, up 6.4% since 1999.

According to the report, the number of children entering primary school grew by 4%, from 130 million to 135million, between 1999 and 2005.

The most impressive gains were registered in Sub-Saharan Africa (40%), the Arab States (11.6%), and South and West Asia (9.4%).

However, to reach universal primary education (UPE) by 2015, states the report, all children of the relevant age group should be enrolled in school by 2009.

(In April 2000 in Dakar, 164 governments together with partner institutions adopted a Framework for Action focusing on achieving the six EFA goals by 2015.

These relate to the expansion of early childhood care and education, achievement of UPE, development of learning opportunities for youth and adults, spread of literacy, gender parity and gender equality in education, and improvements in education quality.)

Enrolment rates went up after Dakar in Sub-Saharan Africa (growing by 29 million or 36%), and South and West Asia (35 million or 22%) while in the Arab States, it continued at almost the same pace as before Dakar.

The report points out that overall, children are more likely to be out of school if they are from poor households, live in rural areas and/or have a mother with no schooling.

Being a girl also heightens the probability of not being in school as does having a disability.

But in general once girls gain access to school they tend to do better than boys.

In 2005, some 512 million students were enrolled in secondary schools worldwide, an increase of more than 73 million since 1999.

The growth was driven by rises in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, and the Arab States, and East Asia.

Observing that governments have mainly responded to the learning needs of young people and adults by expanding formal secondary and tertiary education, the report also calls for greater attention to be given to non-formal means and settings.

Such learning activities, it says, deserve attention because they often reach disadvantaged youth and adults, and because too many children do not go to school or leave school without acquiring basic skills.

Non-formal education programmes are diverse and tend to be overseen by multiple ministries or other government bodies.

In many countries, however, small-scale initiatives run by non-governmental organisations dominate this area of provision.

Improved monitoring of supply and demand for non-formal education is therefore urgently needed at national levels.

Drawing on work from 30 countries regarding the provision of non-formal education, the report says household survey data show that non-formal education is the main route to learning for many disadvantaged youth and adults in some of the world's poorest countries.

Essential yet elusive

As the report states, literacy is a fundamental human right, a foundation not only for achieving EFA but, more broadly, for reducing poverty and broadening participation in society.

Yet, about 774 million adults worldwide, 64% of them women, remain illiterate.

The figure is drawn from censuses or household surveys that rely on indirect assessments; evidence from direct testing suggests that the full scale of the literacy challenge is actually much greater.

In addition, the report also points out that more than three-quarters of the world's illiterates live in only 15 countries, including eight of the nine high-population countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

And, according to the “Regional Overview for East Asia”, while adult literacy has improved in some countries in the region, others still face big challenges, including Laos (with a literacy rate of 69%), Cambodia (74%) and Malaysia (89%).

Teachers also received much attention in the report.

No EFA goal, it stresses, can be achieved without a sufficiently large and well-trained teaching workforce.

Worldwide, primary education systems employed about 27 million teachers in 2005, more than one-third of them in East Asia, where 28% of the world's primary pupils are enrolled.

The total number of primary school teachers increased by 5% between 1999 and 2005 – that is, at a slightly slower pace than enrolment.

It is also worth noting that overall the world will need more than 18 million new primary school teachers by 2015.

As Unesco puts it, the evidence since Dakar is clear: determined national governments have made progress in all regions and increased aid has worked to support this progress.

This momentum must be maintained and accelerated in the short time left to 2015 if the right to education at every age is to be fulfilled.

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