"Schooling without learning is a terrible waste of precious resources and of human potential" – The South Asian paradox

Abstract

In 1990, at a prestigious conference all agreed that universal primary education is crucial for enhancing human capital – it is key to economic development, reduction in poverty, and empowering girls. The conference endorsed Education for All (EFA), a commitment to universal basic education focused on "actual learning acquisition and outcome". In 2000, a subsequent conference endorsed EFA and the Dakar framework, which influenced the second Millennium Development Goal: enable, by 2015, universal primary education for all children. In terms of enrollment, gender parity, and survival to the terminal primary grade, MDG2 was a success. However, MDG2 failed in terms of learning outcomes. To demonstrate this failure, the article compares the impact of national survival and literacy rates on change in national per capita GDP (2015–19). Literacy is measured by the World Bank's learning poverty rate at ages 10–14. Regressing national per capita GDP change on learning poverty rate reveals a strong association with literacy; regressing on survival rate reveals a very weak association. The article analyzes major institutional obstacles to explain the paradox: why do governments in South Asia (and elsewhere) forgo the benefits, to all, from universal literacy?