Donors Must Reverse Decline in Aid to Basic Education
In education, you have to spend a basic minimum to get results. But some poor countries spend too little to recruit enough teachers or train them well. So children fail to learn, and government money is effectively wasted. What this means is that the poorest countries still need aid, to push their education spending up to the level where it is effective.
January 29, 2014 by Pauline Rose, Research for Equitable Access and Learning Center
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4 minutes read
The Cost of the Learning Crisis

In education, you have to spend a basic minimum to get results. But some poor countries spend too little to recruit enough teachers or train them well. So children fail to learn, and government money is effectively wasted.

Globally, the human and financial cost of this failure is enormous: 130 million primary school- age children worldwide are not learning the basics despite at least four years in school, at an annual cost of $129 billion, as the latest Education for All Global Monitoring Report shows.

Aid can make education spending more effective

What this means is that the poorest countries still need aid, to push their education spending up to the level where it is effective. Aid to basic education is not only declining, however, but it is falling fastest in the poorest countries. It is crucial that aid donors reverse this trend at the Global Partnership for Education’s pledging conference in Brussels in June.

Aid spending on basic education fell by 6.3%, on average between 2010 and 2011, the latest year for which figures are available. This decline has hit poorest countries the most – falling by 9% in low-income countries. And the prospects for aid in the coming years look bleak.

Aid to basic education fell between 2010 and 2011 in 19 low income countries, 13 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa

In sub-Saharan Africa, home to over half the world’s out-of-school population, aid to basic education declined by US$134 million, a reduction that would have been enough to fund good quality school places for over 1 million children.

Countries need predictable aid to plan ahead

While annual fluctuations in aid may not be uncommon, such changes make it difficult for countries to plan. Given that a large proportion of education spending is on teacher salaries, sudden reductions in aid can mean that teachers are not paid on time, or that teachers leaving the profession are not replaced, seriously harming the quality of education.

In some countries, aid has been falling for more than a year. In Tanzania, for example, aid has played a key part in supporting efforts to get more children into school , but it fell by 12% between 2009 and 2010 and by a further 57% in 2011. This latest decline was  largely because of reductions by Canada and the World Bank. These cuts endanger the progress that has been made and could thwart efforts to strengthen the quality of education.

The Global Partnership for Education has a vital role in financing education in some countries, as the 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report shows. In June, donor countries must make sure they reverse the decline in aid to education, and commit to replenish the Global Partnership’s finances to make sure all children, regardless of their circumstances, are in school and learning.

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