Advancing Primary Education: A Worldwide Goal
Primary education is a powerful lever for poverty alleviation and social and economic growth. Its results can be empowering, enabling graduates to take charge of their lives and make more informed choices, contribute to the building of a democratic polity, increase earning potential and social mobility, improve personal and family health and nutrition, particularly for females, and control their fertility. World Bank studies in the early 1980s showed relatively high rates of return to investments in primary education. More recent research shows that it is the knowledge and skills acquired during primary education rather than the number of years of schooling completed that make a difference in personal economic mobility and national economic growth. Thus, to the extent that public investments in primary education are effective in conveying these learning outcomes, support for primary education is central to the World Bank’s mandate of poverty reduction.
A Long Way to Go
Primary enrollments grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, but there were stagnation and setbacks in the 1980s brought on by economic downturns, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Enrollments picked up again in the 1990s, spurred by the Education for All movement sponsored by UN agencies, including the World Bank. Still as of 2001 an estimated 103 million 6-11 year olds in developing countries—or about one-fifth of the total—were still not in school. United Nations global monitors now predict that at current trends nearly 47 million children will still be out of school in 2015. Among children already enrolled in primary school, learning outcomes have often been low—in some cases disastrously low—reflecting widespread ineffectiveness in teaching and learning processes. National test data from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Zambia all show a majority of primary school leavers to be achieving well below their countries’ minimum performance standards, with results in many low-income, rural areas being “only marginally better than for children who have not completed school” (Oxfam, 2001). Such results are echoed in UNESCO’s 2005 EFA Global Monitoring Report, aptly subtitled "the Quality Imperative."
Education for All and the World Bank
The Education for All (EFA) movement started in 1990 and renewed in 2000 has had, among other objectives, the goals of reaching universal enrollment in primary education and improving learning outcomes. The Millennium Development Goals of 2000, endorsed by governments worldwide, also covered universal primary school participation (completion) but did not mention learning outcomes. Over the past 15 years, during which the World Bank has prioritized universal primary education, the policy objectives have been remarkably stable: universal primary school enrollment (and more recently, completion); equality of access for girls (gender parity) and other under-served groups; and improved learning outcomes. The objective of the current IEG evaluation was to assess the development effectiveness of World Bank assistance to countries in their efforts to improve their basic knowledge and skills base through the provision of quality primary education to all children, particularly since the beginning of the EFA movement in 1990.
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At a Glance:
Primary Education and the World Bank |
The World Bank has committed on the order of $14 billion for primary education since 1963
Primary education contributes to poverty reduction mostly through improving basic knowledge and skills
Basic knowledge and skill levels, even among school graduates, have often been very low in developing countries
Bank policy objectives for primary education have emphasized universal access and improved learning outcomes
The education MDGs and the Fast Track Initiative emphasize primary school completion, not learning outcomes. |
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