The Case for Universal Basic Education for the World's Poorest Boys and Girls

Abstract

ONE OF THE silent killers attacking the developing world is the lack of quality basic education for large numbers of the poorest children in the world's poorest countries--particularly girls. Yet unlike many of the world's most grievous ailments, this is a disease with a known cure. We know what tools are needed and what models are proven to work. We also know that the cost of that cure--perhaps $7.5 billion to $10 billion per year--is minuscule compared with the enormous benefits such education would bring for health, economics, women's empowerment, and basic human dignity. An estimated 110 million children--60% of them girls--between the ages of 6 and 11 will not see the inside of a classroom this year. Another 150 million are likely to drop out before completing primary school. More than half of all girls in sub-Saharan Africa do not complete primary school, and only 17% are enrolled in secondary school. (1) Rates in rural areas are even worse. For instance, a 1996 study in Niger found that only 12% of girls in rural areas were enrolled in primary school, compared with 83% of girls in the capital. (20 The situation can be even worse for vulnerable children. In developing nations, those with disabilities and those affected by AIDS face even greater obstacles to education, while orphaned children are less likely to be enrolled in school than their peers who live with at least one parent. Only 6% of children in refugee camps are enrolled in secondary education, and opportunities for internally displaced children are even more limited. (3) Access is only part of the story. The other crucial factor is quality. As highlighted by Education for All: The Quality Imperative, the 2005 Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO, too many children leave school without mastering a basic set of skills. Ensuring a decent quality of education is an essential component of reform. (4) STRONG EVIDENCE The good news is documented in What Works in Girls' Education, a 2004 Council on Foreign Relations report that I co-authored with Barbara Herz, and is reinforced in a Mother's Day 2005 report by Save the Children: we have extremely strong evidence both on the high returns on girls' education and on what works to get girls in school. (5) What is striking is the breadth of benefits derived from educating girls--not only economic benefits in terms of higher wages, greater agricultural productivity, and faster economic growth, but also health benefits, HIV prevention, and women's empowerment. Two 1999 World Bank studies found that closing the education gender gap in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa would have led to faster economic growth between 1960 and 1992, while increasing the share of women with a secondary education can yield growth in per-capita income. (6) Another 63-country study attributed 43% of the decline in malnutrition achieved between 1970 and 1995 to more productive farming as a result of increased female education. (7) Even more impressive are the gains to health that come from educating girls. An extra year of female education can reduce infant mortality by 5% to 10%. (8) In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40% less likely to die before age 5 than are children of uneducated mothers. (9) Across both Africa and Southeast Asia, mothers who have a basic education are 50% more likely than uneducated mothers to immunize their children. (10) Education has also proven to be one of the most powerful tools to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. A recent study in rural Uganda found that, in comparison with young people with no education, those with some secondary education were three times less likely to be HIV*positive, and those with some primary schooling were about half as likely to be HIV-positive. (11) In Kenya, a study of 17-year-old girls found that those in secondary school were almost four times as likely to be sexually inactive as those who had dropped out after primary school. …