Education - The Root of All Good

Education experts put a series of powerful arguments on the table Wednesday in testimony before a congressional committee aimed at persuading legislators to support increased U.S. spending on global education--especially girls' education--to $1 billion annually by 2006.
OneWorld US - May 16, 2003
Alison Raphael, OneWorld U.S.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 15 (OneWorld) - Education experts put a series of powerful arguments on the table Wednesday in testimony before a congressional committee aimed at persuading legislators to support increased U.S. spending on global education--especially girls' education--to $1 billion annually by 2006.

Addressing the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, the experts pointed to studies showing that increasing educational opportunity and quality leads to stronger democracies, better health, higher incomes, and smaller family size--thus decreasing population pressures on natural resources.

"Basic education is the fundamental building block for successful development--effective returns from investments in economic development, health and HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS (news - web sites), environmental change, family planning, improved nutrition, and democracy building are all highly dependent on an educated citizenry," said Stephen F. Moseley, president of the Washington-based Academy for Educational Development.

Moseley also chairs the Basic Education Coalition, a grouping of 18 organizations dedicated to meeting the goal of Education for All (EFA) by 2015 set at a UN-sponsored meeting in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. At the time, 180 countries pledged to achieve universal primary education by 2015, and while some countries--such as Kenya and Brazil--are moving ahead swiftly, others are falling behind.

At present, 115 million children are not attending school, 150 million do not complete primary school, and 200 million have substandard learning environments. Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East are moving most slowly, although several countries within these regions have made progress.

A $1 billion commitment from the United States would mean $2-$3 for every child currently unable to complete primary school, Moseley told committee members.

Current U.S. spending on global education--around $300 million--is comparable to what a single U.S. city spends to build 12-16 high schools, added Gene Sperling, director of the Center on Universal Education of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Sperling went on to cite studies that dramatically demonstrate the crucial role of eduation in development. One report on 63 countries found that progress in educating girls led to poverty reduction, dramatically improved farm yields, and reduced levels of malnutrition in those countries over a 25-year period.

A 1994 World Bank (news - web sites) study showed that mothers who have basic education are 50 percent more likely to immunize their children against communicable diseases. And a review of data from 100 countries revealed that partcipatory democracy was more liable to emerge when primary school enrollment increased, especially if girls enrollment caught up to that of boys.

While increasing school enrollment is mainly the job of national governments, which foot most of the bill, funds provided by external donors, such as the United States, UNICEF (news - web sites), and others, often help these countries innovate and experiment with new techniques and strategies.

In Brazil, for example, Unicef supported a scholarship program for out-of-school youth in one city that became a model for the rest of the country. The program provided the poorest families with a small stipend to replace the funds that the child might have earned if working, as long as the family kept the child in school.

In Kenya and Uganda, eliminating school fees boosted school enrollment through the roof, but the countries need help keeping up with demand--building more schools, providing more books, training more teachers.

The Basic Education Coalition is hoping to see $350 million for global education for FY04, and subsequent increases in coming years to reach the $1 billion level.

Speakers at the hearing told subcommittee members that if the U.S. takes the lead by promising to spend more on global education over the next three years, it would likely inspire other donors to do the same and thus help ensure that the goal of Education for All by 2015 can be met in most developing countries.