Education and Sustainable Development Goals in

the Commonwealth and Beyond: Shifting the

Discourse

07/03/16

Why education matters

The global challenge
The trends
What evidence tells us it will take to bend the
curve
How to measure progress

What we know
Education matters for countries to become more
prosperous, fair and equal.
Education builds human capital for future economic growth.
1 standard deviation increase in student scores is associated with a 2
percent increase in annual GDP per capita growth.
[Psacharopoulos & Patrinos 2004]
Returns to education for girls and women are high/higher;
In Pakistan, the return to an additional year of schooling ranges between 7
and 11 per cent for men vs. 13 to 18 per cent for women [Aslam, 2006].
Education not only creates human capital, it also contribute to better health,
less crime, better civic engagement. Education beyond the primary level is
particularly important in improving girls life chances, delaying early
motherhood, and in girls having healthier, better nourished children.
Half the reduction in deaths of children under-5 over the last 4 decades can
be attributed to basic education for girls.
[King & Winthrop 2015]
Girls who have no education are three times more likely than those with
secondary or higher education to marry by the age of 18 [UNFPA, 2012].

The Education SDGs

By 2030:

Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to
relevant and eff-ective learning outcomes

Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so
that they are ready for primary education

Ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education,
including university

Increase by [x] per cent the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational
skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for
the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

Ensure that all youth and at least [x] per cent of adults, both men and
women, achieve literacy and numeracy
Ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including,
among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender
equality, promotion of a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity
and of cultures contribution to sustainable development

International scene
Education SDG broader: from early childhood to tertiary
and stronger focus on quality, costs rising.
Insufficient finacing: ODA spend declining, especially in
LICs with aid to basic education falling from 44% to 40% in
2012. Domestic financing increasing but not as share of
national budgets and per capita spend strained by
population growth
Education architecture patchy UNESCO weak, GPE only
global fund still fairly young, improving; new
International Commission on Financing Global Education
Opportunity, chaired by Gordon Brown.
Progress with agreeing measurement of learning globally
has been slow, and many countries not ready to measure
and report on SDG.

The education challenge

Despite much progress, the number of out of school children
is now growing
121 million children and adolescents out of school, 54% are girls,
34 million in conflict affected countries (36%, up 6% since 2000). [UNESCO]
School age populations are still increasing in most LICS

There is a learning crisis. Even when children are in school,

theyre not learning enough
250 million children not learning the basics, even after 4 years in school
757 million adults (2/3 women) lack basic reading & writing skills [UNESCO]

Low levels of learning in early grades cut short potential to

transition through the education system, to gain other skills,
limited their participation in a growing economy.
In LICs, only 1 in 3 adolescents finish lower secondary school compared
to 5 in 6 adolescents in U/MICs.
If trends continue, universal lower secondary completion will only be
achieved towards the end of this century.

Whilst skills are not always a binding constraint to growth, failure to

equip young people for the labour market is likely to constrain
growth for decades.
[Education for Development, DFID 2015].

LEARNING CRISIS
Most LICs are far far behind OECD countries

Girls falling further behind as they get older

On access, 33% of countries still to achieve gender parity in primary education,
and 50% in secondary education. More than half of all countries with remaining
gender disparity in primary school enrolment are in SSA (UNESCO GMR 2015).
Many SSA countries have made very little progress, or even regressed, in
improving girls learning (EIU 2012).
GEC data shows the older girls are, the wider the gap in literacy levels becomes
(compared with international norms); by age 15, girls are over 6 years behind
international benchmarks of reading fluency (GEC 2014).
Figure: Average trajectory of literacy skills across GEC Projects among enrolled girls by
age (horizontal axis) in years behind international benchmarks (vertical axis)

BUSINESS AS USUAL WONT DELIVER

Must accelerate what all children learn every year

What works
Individualised,
repeated
teacher
training.
Teaching to
student
learning
levels.

Accountability
boosting
interventions,
e.g.
incentives.

What works: (1) Pedagogical interventions that

match teaching to individual student learning
levels
- Assessment in Liberia: Train teachers to
use an initial reading assessment and
then continually assess student
performance (Piper & Korda 2011)
- Tracking in Kenya: Assign students to
separate classes based on initial ability
so that teachers can focus instruction at
the level of learning of individual
students (Duflo, Dupas & Kremer 2011)
- Assessment & tracking in India: Teach
daily Hindi sessions tailored to ability on
initial test, regardless of age or grade
(Duflo et al 2015)
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including computer-assisted learning

(CAL)
-

Use math software to help students learn at their own

pace in India (Banerjee et al. 2007)

Provide laptops including learning software & games

linked to the curriculum to students in China (Mo et al. 2012)

But just giving out laptops or desktop computers wont

guarantee gains

One Laptop Per Child in Peru unaccompanied by

parent or student training (Cristia et al., 2012) & mainly

used to search the internet in Uruguay (De Melo et al.

2014)

Computers not tied to curriculum or integrated into

classroom instruction in Colombia (Barrera-Osorio &
Linden, 2009)

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What works: (2) Individualized,

repeated teacher training
- Train teachers and provide them with regular
mentoring to implement early grade reading
instruction in local language in Kenya &
Uganda (Lucas et al. 2014)
- Provide local contract teachers with two
weeks of initial training but reinforcement
throughout the year in India (Banerjee et al.
2007)

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 often associated with a specific

method or task
- Combine student reading groups with inschool supervisors to provide ongoing
guidance to group leaders in Chile (Cabezas et
al. 2012)
- Help teachers learn to use storybooks and
flash cards in India (He et al. 2009)
As opposed to a similar (not identical)
program introduced without teacher
preparation (He et al. 2008)

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What works: (3) Accountabilityboosting interventions, such as

incentives
Provide teacher performance incentives in
India (Muralidharan & Sundararaman 2011)

- Or even teacher attendance incentives (Duflo

et al. 2012)
- But its important to think about how best to
design incentives
In Kenya teacher performance incentives
induced teaching to the test (Glewwe et al.
2010)

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 or contract teachers
- Supplement civil service teachers with locally
hired teachers on short term contracts in
Kenya (Duflo, Dupas, & Kremer 2012)
- Hire community teachers with completed
secondary school to provide remedial
education to students falling behind in India
(Banerjee et al. 2007)

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What works

Stop
Institutionalised costly formal preservice training.
Sanctions rather than incentives to
improve teacher attendance.
Teaching above students ability.
Splitting education into
dysfunctional carriages based
around levels of education/age.
Focusing on inputs only.

Continue
To tackle inequality early.
Address transitions.
Support measurement of learning outcomes with
national assessments.
Commission research particularly on technology to
transform learning.

relevant and effective learning outcomes

need to balance measurement of learning that tracks

national progress against international goals with
tracking of learning at classroom level
The critical challenge is to ensure that the classroom is
not neglected as a black box, without the necessary
support to translate targets into progress.
We should develop more sophisticated methodologies
that can study the process of teaching in the classroom,
not measuring single variables or proxies.