Education and “Human Capital”
School Literacy Training Non traditional education Education, empowerment and agency
Education and Development*
“creates choices and opportunities for people, reduces the twin burdens of poverty and diseases,
and gives a stronger voice in society. dynamic workforce and well-informed citizens able to compete and
cooperate globally opening doors to economic and social prosperity”
*World Bank
Educational achievements 1990-2000*
10 million more children went to school every year during that decade.
The overall adult literacy rate rose to 85 per cent for men and 74 per cent for women.
Enrollment in primary school rose from 599 million in 1990 to 681 million in 1998.
The number of out-of-school children fell from an estimated 127 million children to 113 million children.
Globally, there was a 5 per cent increase in enrollment in pre-primary establishments.
*EFA
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
Indicators6. Net enrolment ratio in primary education (UNESCO)7. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5 (UNESCO)b
8. Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds (UNESCO) (Gender Indicators)
9. Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education (UNESCO) 10. Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old (UNESCO)
Net enrollment ratio in primary ed
India 83.33
Low income 79.54
Lower middle income 91.33
Middle income 91.57
Upper middle income 93.21
High income 97.43
World 87.86
Girls enrollment (as % of boys) by regions
Ratio of girls to boys in primary/secondary (2000)
Primary completion (1995-2001)
Enrollment is not completion
Primary Completion Rate by region
Projections for achievement of Universal Primary School completion by 2015 (155 countries)
Completed: 37 Will probably achieve by 2015: 32 Probably won’t achieve by 2015: 70
Global Snapshot of Literacy
• A person is literate who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life. A person is illiterate who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.
• 875 million people (64% are women)
Women’s Literacy (15-24) Least Developed Countries
Men's literacy (age 15-24) Least Developed Countries
Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old
Illiteracy by Regions
MDG 2: Key Problem areas
Global Initiatives
EFA: 1990, Thailand (Education for All) (govs, civil society, int’l orgs)
World Education Forum: Dakar Framework for Action– Ensure universal primary education for all children by 2015 (also an
MDGs) – Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education
(also an MDGs) – Improve early childhood care and education – Ensure equitable access to “life skills” programs – Achieve a 50 percent increase in adult literacy by 2015 – Improve all aspects of the quality of education
MDG’s 2000
Dakar Framework for Action elements
Education seen as a human right NGO’s more vigorously involved Resource mobilization is central: cooperative
initiatives between countries and donors Accountability for funding built in Plans should be developed with a wide range
of participants
New World Bank programs
Fast Track Initiative– http://www1.worldbank.org/education/efafti/
Education for the Knowledge Economy – http://www1.worldbank.org/education/eke.asp
High Performance Schools– http://info.worldbank.org/etools/bspan/PresentationView.asp?
PID=1141&EID=579
The politics of knowledge and education
Initiative raise important questions. What are the invisible discourses, cultural
patterns and assumptions, world views development agendas inherent in different types of educational approaches?
How are these evident in approaches to education in development?
English Medium Schools in India*:development or divisions?
Nagar and Faust argue that these schools contribute to inequalities and divisions within the class structure of India
Wealthier students who can afford to attend private schools are trained not only in the language of the core, but in the discourses, attitudes and behaviors of the core, thus separating themselves from the periphery
Indian language schools are seen as inferior and this contributes to an erosion of traditional Indian culture and knowledge
*Nagar and Faust, 2001.
Education and cultural change
“When I first joined my engineering school at seventeen, I was a misfit. I was not into boozing or smoking or body building or English music and films. I didn’t eat out in expensive places….So….everyone [in my hostel thought] I was stingy and boring. Soon enough, I had to learn to drink and smoke, I had to learn to love Heavy Metal, and I had to learn to enjoy eating out and spending money. Before going to that school, my reading interests were diverse….I read a lot of Hindi fiction and Hindi magazines. In the technology institute, people read computer journals and stuff about automation and production. I didn’t even understand that stuff but I felt pressured to look at them. I started reading English books and English fiction there. All my Hindi reading was left behind…..But even when I left that school, those changes stayed with me. And now due to my professional field,[it is hard for me to return] to my old interests even though my new life alienates me from my family and neighbors. I have continued to move in the direction of my new interests because five years ago, I wasn’t accepted by my upper class classmates. I was afraid of them. But now I am accepted and admired by the same people. “—Interview with Pracheta, 1995
English Medium Schools in India:alienation from families and common people?
Non English mediums school kids called “vernacs” or HMT’s (Hindi Medium Type=Hindustan Machine Tools)
“I developed an inferiority complex when I went to my daughter’s school [even though] I have a Master’s degree in Hindi and a teacher’s training diploma. Interview with Poornima, 1995.
“An English speaker always wants to show himself off as separate from us, the common people. And in doing so, he distances himself from the traditions, customs, and values of his society. Those educated in English-medium schools have a hard time understanding basic things that I learn naturally from my social context….Their world is totally different from ours.”—Interview with Amit 1995
English Medium Schools in India:Geographies of education creating a “blocked majority”?
Spaces of modernity v. Spaces of tradition Sociospatial divide: Divided by education Blocked Majority:
– people whose values and ideas are rejected by their own children
– Unequal access to power, authority and social status
– “growing amnesia” about the poor
Educational Development Consultants: IDRC v. Creative Associates International
IDRC: RoKS: “Research on Knowledge Systems” “to explore, from a developing-country standpoint,
the ways in which knowledge is produced, communicated, and applied to development problems, and to investigate the policy and institutional frameworks that govern this process.”– Promote analysis and debate at the local,
national, and international level of key issues in the evolution and functioning of "knowledge systems" in developing countries;
– Serve as a channel for independent southern perspectives and voices
Linkage: Citizen Panels
Community Based Research– Citizens conducting knowledge development about
science, technology policy, other issues– Self education towards public participation in policy
development
Red Thread Women in Guyana
Educational Development Consultants: IDRC v. Creative Associates International
Creative Associates International, Inc.– $58 million 1 year contract with USAID to provide:
Supplies, desks, Train teachers Revise textbooks Rework curriculum and provide standards based education tools
No other bidders; key individual at Oct 2003 meeting on redoing Iraqi education
Process is extremely opaque Director of program is an educator from Texas who is a
leader in Standards-based Education
