A lack of funding is causing an increase in the number of out-of-school children globally, and Unesco’s education leaders are worried
- Since 2021, out-of-school children numbers have risen by six million to 250 million, with many countries facing an annual funding gap of about US$100 billion
Whether at government level or in the corporate context, leaders speak with conviction about their commitment to education and training. They are united in believing in the importance of providing the next generation with the skills and learning needed to make it possible to find work and get on in life.
“Education is the most effective and empowering investment a country can make – for its people and for the planet,” says Manos Antoninis, director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report issued by Unesco, the UN’s heritage body. “Early childhood education is crucial for the cognitive, social and emotional development of every child to prepare them for a journey of lifelong learning, which benefits entire communities and societies. Importantly, educated men and women also enjoy higher living standards and better health.”
For anyone who shares this belief, the findings of the latest GEM Report, titled “Technology in Education”, and released to coincide with the UN General Assembly SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Summit in New York on September 18-19, are cause for concern. Worryingly, since 2021, the number of out-of-school children in different parts of the world has risen by six million to reach 250 million. Low- and lower-middle-income countries are facing an annual funding gap of close to US$100 billion to achieve their national targets, equivalent to just US$80 per child. And there is a general sense of “continuing stagnation” in far too many places.
“The world is not on track to reach the global education targets of SDG4,” Antoninis says. “This is largely due to the exclusion of girls from school in Afghanistan, but also because of a lack of progress globally to keep up with the growing numbers of school-age children.”
The GEM Report spells out the extent of action required if countries are to get close to hitting their national targets. In round terms, 1.4 million youngsters need to be enrolled in early childhood education every year up to 2030. That translates roughly to a new child starting school every two seconds. And overall primary completion rates need to almost triple.
Education is the most effective and empowering investment a country can make – for its people and for the plane
“One of the main factors slowing progress is the lack of funding,” Antoninis says. “One in three countries allocates to education an amount below the two minimum thresholds – that is, less than 15 per cent of total public expenditure and below 4 per cent of gross domestic product.
He adds that in the category of aid for education, funding fell by 7 per cent from 2020 to 2021, while sub-Saharan Africa experienced a drop of as much as 20 per cent. The latest statistics also show that the share of aid allocated to education was 9.8 per cent of the total in 2021, marking the lowest point on that scale since 2015.
There are a number of reasons behind this shortfall, ranging from persistently high levels of poverty and the turmoil caused by Covid-19 to the impacts of conflict and social unrest.
But there are also education-specific challenges,” notes Antoninis. “Only six in 10 children who reach the end of primary school achieve minimum proficiency in reading, and the average progress has been 0.7 percentage points per year. Also, if the quality of education is not adequate and the cost is high, then poorer parents have fewer incentives to send their children to school. Therefore, countries need to increase spending levels and make investments in education equitable in order to advance change. And we know that continuing inequality in education leads to resentment and social tensions.”
With a view to accelerating progress on multiple fronts, the SDG4-Education 2030 High-Level Steering Committee came up with a new “dashboard” of country commitments last year to coincide with the UN’s Transforming Education Summit.
“But there are also education-specific challenges,” notes Antoninis. “Only six in 10 children who reach the end of primary school achieve minimum proficiency in reading, and the average progress has been 0.7 percentage points per year. Also, if the quality of education is not adequate and the cost is high, then poorer parents have fewer incentives to send their children to school. Therefore, countries need to increase spending levels and make investments in education equitable in order to advance change. And we know that continuing inequality in education leads to resentment and social tensions.”
With a view to accelerating progress on multiple fronts, the SDG4-Education 2030 High-Level Steering Committee came up with a new “dashboard” of country commitments last year to coincide with the UN’s Transforming Education Summit.
Since then, the list of benchmarks has been expanded to include targets on school connectivity and content related to climate change. This is now expected to feature in national curriculum frameworks, as well as in science and social science subjects for primary and secondary classes.
Another closely watched point of interest has been China’s up-and-down engagement with the private sector. For example, from the 1990s, private and NGO-run kindergartens began to take the place of certain state-run institutions under what became known as a “walking on two legs” policy.
Partly as a result, the pre-primary gross enrolment rate increased from 43 per cent in 2006 to 89 per cent in 2019, and the country found itself more heavily reliant on these private providers.
“By contrast, the government banned profit making in grades one to nine in its 2018 regulations, and its 2021 private education law has imposed further safeguards to regulate profit making and fee setting,” Antoninis says.
Just how that plays out is sure to come under close scrutiny at future UN forums as the implications for funding, standards, enrolments and international schools operating in China gradually unfold.
Hong Kong, whose education system is ranked among the world’s most advanced, can also expect to remain in the spotlight as the authorities and sponsoring bodies wrestle with issues including the city’s low birth rate and the resultant shortage in pupils, and the need to merge schools and redeploy unused buildings.
In these difficult times, these are the sorts of challenges about which many educators around the world can only dream.
