The World Bank Education Strategy From 2000 to 2020

Introduction

Over the past few decades the achievement of universal primary education (UPE) under the Mantra of ‘education for all’ has been a focus for discussion and action within international community. The idea of UPE is not a new one. The rich countries in the world are making efforts for educational development of poorer countries since the end of the World War Two. The World Bank, for that matter, had entered in education arena in the 1960s (Mundey, 2006). Though the World Bank is engaged in education since last five decades yet I am tracking its history of engagement since last two decades. The reasons for doing so are- the one, of course, lack of time to read all its reports and another to understand the strategy of ‘education for all’ (EFA), which is somewhat rhetoric in World Bank’s last two strategies, e.g., 2000 and 2020.

World conference on ‘education for all’, Jomtien, 1990

The strategies of the Bank after 1990’s are dominated by the idea of ‘education for all’. It could simply because the World Conference on ‘education for all’ held at Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. Along with other international organizations, like UNDO, UNESCO and UNICEF the World Bank had played a major role in the organization of the conference. After looking at the goals of the conference it seems that the last two strategies of the Bank are dominated by the aims of the conference; for instance, universal access to quality education for all, equity in education, enhancing learning environment and strengthening partnerships to meet the goals. At the conference, delegates from 155 countries as well as representatives from 150 governmental and non-governmental organizations agreed upon ‘world declaration on education for all’.

In the education sector ‘2000 strategy’ of the World Bank, focus was more on enrollment and access to school. The strategy stated the mission of the Bank that “assurance to everyone complete a basic education of adequate quality and acquire foundation skills- and has further opportunities to learn advanced skills throughout life. While in ‘2020 strategy’ the focus of the Bank shifts towards learning. In developing countries it has been found that, compared to last two decades, more children and young people are entering school, completing the primary level and pursuing secondary education but leave without having learned much. It is therefore, the strategy 2020 of the Bank focuses on ‘Learning for all’. It means, children will not only attend the school but they will acquire knowledge, skills, values which will lead them to healthy, productive lives and to find secure employment. The Bank has rationalized the importance of ‘learning in schools’ by saying that the skills and knowledge acquired population is significant for the development of nation, not the numbers of years spent being at school. The Bank reiterated the significance of education for the development and growth of nation. Also, stated that education is a major tool for poverty alleviation and to achieve higher quality of life.

In the 2020 strategy, the Bank has adopted three pillars- ‘invest early, invest smartly and invest for all’. Invest early means, investment in the child development right from the infancy. Invest smartly means, invest such a way that it will you some returns and invest for all means invest in all children’s education irrespective of cast, class and income background.

The strategies of the Bank also emphasized the role of education in human capital. Due to high fertility rates in developing and poor countries, these countries have more numbers of young populations. If the children and young people in these countries would get access to quality education they will emerge as a good human resource. Now, in the present globalized era people with advanced skills and knowledge is considered as a key factor to drive economic growth. In this sense, it is very important for developing nations to provide quality education.

The strategy papers of the Bank have not explicitly defined ‘quality education’. But, I think, the Bank views quality education as a tool which makes individuals able to alleviate poverty and to live better life, adopt skills and knowledge occurred due to technological change, build peoples’ capacities to be more productive, become good citizen and emerged as a good human resource, contribute to society and eventually to national growth and development.

The Bank emphasized the role of private players into education arena. Private sector is playing important role in providing education in the developing countries. Even to the poorest communities, especially in the areas where governments do not reach. But the private schools are mainly caters to the privileged students, hence are responsible to create inequalities in education. But the governments in developing countries should typically have to provide appropriate regulations and oversights to ensure quality and relevance of privately provided services, as well as access for disadvantaged students.

During 2000 strategy, It was a global priority of the Bank in education to help client countries to identify and implement new strategic steps to improve access to learning opportunities of high quality; especially, to reach out to the poor and the marginalized. Its priority areas were early child development, school health and nutrition. In the next strategy, to fulfill these priorities, the Bank comes up with the idea of Multi-sectoral approach. In which the ministry education, health, infrastructure, and agriculture will work collaboratively to meet the goals of the national education. Another priority of the Bank was in relation to innovative delivery- distance education, open learning and using new technologies for learning, and systemic reform. These were to be addressed in the according to country conditions. In 2020 strategy, in order to achieve these priorities of the last strategy, the bank will create the global knowledge base to analyze globally but act locally. It means, due to global knowledge base, it would be easy for governments to analyze global data and find out the policy ideas to apply in owns country. The educational needs vary country to country. In the Bank’s view, there is not a single set of investment and the policy support that can be implemented across all the partner countries. One of the foundations of the global knowledge base is accurate and reliable information on the role and performances of the students, providers and institutions which allow policy makers to understand the connection between them and identify the required needs and institutional capacity gaps, as well as options for feeling them.

System approach- building global level knowledge base

In 2000 strategy, the Bank’s aim was to help developing countries to identify and implement their next strategic steps to improve access to high quality learning opportunities. Also, to helped them to build up educational sector plans that were technically sound and ambitious as well as to make them financially capable and implementable in the social context of the country. It means, in 2000 strategy, the Bank was helped developing nations to strengthen their education systems to meet the educational goals. In 2020 strategy, to achieve ‘learning for all’, along with reforming education system at country level, the Bank added one more strategy; that is Building a high quality knowledge base for education reforms at the global level. It has been seen that developing and many poor countries have not education related data, such as enrollment, retention, dropouts, and number of private school enrollments, learning outcomes etc. Also the Bank will also focus on assisting nations to build the national capacity to govern and manage educational system, implement quality and equity standards, measure system performance against national educational goals and support evidence based policy making and innovations.

Shift from ‘Hardware’ to ‘Software’

World Bank is lending to all levels of education, including teacher training and vocational education. Over the years there has been a significant increase in bank’s lending in education. In primary education, especially, there is phenomenal increase over the years. It had crossed the $600 million limit during 1995-98. Since 1963, Most of its funds were going for civil work and equipments. Then there was a decrease in civil work and equipment funds from 100% in 1960 to 45% in 1995-98. It might because in 1960s many poor countries not had schools hence building schools was the first step of the Bank. After building a school it last for many years. As a result, there is a gradual decrease in expenditure on civil work and increment in other areas, such as- education material, technical assistance, training and other education related aspects. The Bank started giving attention towards pre-primary education since 1980s. And from starting there has been constant lending for technical assistance. In 2000 strategy, the use of new technologies in education was one of the important priorities of the Bank. The use of radio to deliver instructions in mathematics, science and English was emphasized in the countries like Africa, Latin America and Asia. In many other countries the use of print and other technologies were used to deliver training to teachers. Moreover, the effective use of television and Internet to access the information and to deliver education and training to the learners of all ages. Even the developing countries were also experimenting with the various forms of new technologies and were able to develop multimedia material that reflects upon local values and culture. In relation to the use of new technologies, the Bank’s role was to support countries not only as a consumers cut also as a producers of these multimedia tools.

Decentralization in Education

The 2000 strategy of the Bank suggest decentralization in education to strengthen administration and planning at the level of local government for all level of education. Partnership amongst various levels of governments such as centre, state and local government can improve governance and management to provide better services. Also, the people working at local level know better about the situation and the problems. Hence they can find out the solutions to improve the quality of education.

Attention towards Girls’ education

Despite the significant progress made in expanding access to education there was still remained the gap in enrollment and achievement between boys and girls. Educated women can participate in labor force. Also, women literacy leads to lower fertility and child and mother mortality rates. The equity considerations and high economic and social benefits associated with girls’ education led the Bank to reduce the gender gap and invest in girl’s education. The Bank had taken a number of approaches for girls’ education, such as providing school scholarships, school meals, basic health care and provision of textbooks. The Bank also increased access to close and safe school, accommodate socio-cultural values and educated parents and communities about the benefits of the girls’ education and established supportive national policies that target girls. During 2000 strategy the Bank found out thirty-one countries where the international goals were not met at the contemporary rates of progress. Of these thirty-one counties fifteen had been targeted where the gaps between girls and boys were large; for example, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nepal and Pakistan etc. in these countries, with special initiatives, the Bank increased the awareness among national policy makers in relation to constraints that deter the countries to reach out the goal of universalization of primary education.

Through PISA report, 2009 it has been found that more equitable education system achieve greater overall educational progress. And hence, the key function of education system is to monitor the learning outcomes of different population group. As well as, frame policies and programmes that examine the coverage of the system and address the disadvantages faced by some population group, e.g. disadvantaged, marginalized, disables and girls.

Partnerships with organizations

The global challenge of ‘learning for all’ is immense hence it requires partnership and collaboration among many actors. In order to improve the quality of education in developing countries the Bank works with the respective governments. In addition, the Bank partner with UN agencies such as UNESCO and UNICEF. Also, it promotes global commitment to achieving education for all goals and the education MDGs.

Conclusion

In this rapidly changing world if developing countries want to be developed, education should be major area of focus. Education plays a vital role in poverty alleviation and growth and development of the country. Due to higher rates of fertility rate in developing and poor countries these countries have a more numbers of young populations. To transform the young population into good quality human resource it’s very important to invest in education. Educated populations will not only drive economic growth and development but also have positive impact on indicators of human developments. The World Bank is the largest external funder in education. Hence it influences the educational policies across the world. The 2000 strategy of the Bank was to enhance access and to quality education while the next strategy focuses on learning aspects. In addition, it also priorities the global knowledge base to overcome the deficiency of educational data.

References

Mundy, K., (2006) Education for all and the development compact. Education and social justice,52, ½.

The Write to Education: Towards Education for all throughout life (The World Bank education sector strategy 2000 (1999): Washington DC, UNESCO Publishing.  

Learning for All- World Bank Group education strategy 2020, (2011): Washington DC, UNESCO Publishing.