Post-2015 Education Agenda Research Articles

Measuring Gender Equality in Education: Lessons from Trends in 43 Countries

Measuring Gender Equality in Education: Lessons from Trends in 43 Countries

Intergenerational Education Effects of Early Marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper analyses the evolution of the effects on educational inequality of early marriage by looking at the impact of whether women had married young on their children's schooling outcomes for 25-32 countries (Demographic and Health Surveys) in 2000 and 2010 for Sub Saharan Africa. We also explore indirect pathways −mother's education, health and empowerment as well as community channels− operating from early marriage to child schooling and assess the presence of negative externalities for non early married mothers and their children on education transmission in communities with large rates of child marriage. In our econometric analysis we employ OLS, matching, instrumental variables and pseudo-panel for a better understanding of changes over time. Our results show that early marriage is still a significant source of inequality, though its impact has decreased across time: girls born to early married mothers are between 6%-11% more likely to never been to school and 1.6%-1.7% to enter late, and 3.3%-5.1% less likely to complete primary school, whereas boys are between 5.2%-8.8% more likely to never been to school and 1%-1.9% to enter late, and 2.3%-5.5% less likely to complete primary school. Second, child marriage increases gender inequality within household’s with girls losing an additional 0.07 years of schooling as compared to boys if born to early married mothers. Third, our estimates show that mother's education and health mediate some of the effect of early marriage and that the large prevalence of child marriage in a community also impairs educational transmission for non-early married mothers. Fourth, empowering of young wives can weaken other channels of transmission of education inequalities. Overall, our findings highlight the need to target these children with the appropriate interventions and support to achieve the greater focus on equity in the global post-2015 education agenda.

Enabling environments for equity, access and quality education post-2015: Lessons from South Africa and Tanzania

In this paper we seek to contribute to the post-2015 education agenda by shifting the focus from considerations of what education goals and targets should be to a people-centred exploration of enabling environments, within and beyond education, for equity, access and quality. Theoretically, the paper draws on the capabilities approach. Empirically, we present data from two independent qualitative studies conducted in South Africa (n=40) and Tanzania (n=10) with university students who accessed higher education despite trends of low participation for their social class and/or gender. The paper highlights the importance of taking account of both instrumental and intrinsic values of education. Enablers in the domains of school, family and community are identified and their contribution to educational well-being and achievement are demonstrated.

How does classroom composition affect learning outcomes in Ugandan primary schools?

There is widespread agreement that schooling quality should be a priority in the post-2015 education agenda, but less agreement on how quality can be enhanced in a cost effective manner. In Uganda, classroom overcrowding is often considered a critical cause of poor learning outcomes. This paper investigates how various aspects of classroom composition, including class size and the achievement distribution of classmates, affect individual learning. Using test score data for over 250,000 children, such compositional factors are found to be relevant. However, their influence on learning is not so large as to justify major standalone policy interventions. Rather, pedagogical changes that support children with literacy difficulties merit particular consideration.

Can lifelong learning be the post-2015 agenda for the Least Developed Countries?

This paper discusses what approaches to ‘lifelong learning’ should guide the post-2015 education agenda for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) which refers to a group of 49 countries that are off-track in achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All goals. Reports prepared by major consultation groups such as the High Level Panel established by the United Nations and Global Thematic Consultation Group have proposed that ‘providing quality education and lifelong learning’ is an overarching post-2015 education agenda. It is an important breakthrough since ‘lifelong learning’ has been recommended; however, it is not clear what understanding(s) of lifelong learning has been articulated in those documents. How have those recommendations addressed the issues and challenges of the LDCs? In this paper, I review literature on lifelong learning and analyse major documents related to the post-2015 education agenda, especially the one prepared by UN High Level Panel. I conclude that unless the LDCs are given a leadership role for setting their goals—according to their contextual realities—the post-2015 millennium initiatives, such as ‘lifelong learning’ as a new educational agenda, will make no sense.

Lifelong literacy: Towards a new agenda

The Dakar Framework for Action (UNESCO 2000) aimed for basic education for all, including a massive improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015. It provided a framework which strove to effect education as a fundamental human right, requiring countries to strengthen their efforts to ensure that the basic learning needs of every citizen were met. The six Education for All (EFA) goals agreed on at the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000 aimed to (1) expand and improve early childhood education; (2) ensure universal access to primary education; (3) ensure equitable access for all to appropriate learning programmes; it aimed to (4) improve the levels of adult literacy by 50 per cent; (5) eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education; and (6) improve the quality of education. These six goals were encapsulated in the second of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aimed at ‘‘achieving universal primary education’’ by 2015 (UN 2000); an aim which has not, in fact, been achieved. UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova states that ‘‘15 years of monitoring shows sobering results’’ (UNESCO 2015, Foreword). As the target year for the EFA goals and the MDGs draws to a close, reflections on the achievements and the lack of progress have fed into debates concerning the vision, shape and scope of the post2015 education agenda and how it might be integrated with the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. Securing education and learning for sustainable futures is an issue which is high on this new agenda for 2016–2030. The discussions around the achievements – and the lack of progress – of the EFA goals are providing renewed impetus for

A Study of Ways to Improve Participation in the Basic Education Sector in International Development Cooperation

In 2015, a new direction will be set for the targets and agenda of Post-2015 Education of UNESCO at the World Education Forum in Incheon. At this point, as a signatory country of OECD/DAC from 2009, Korea needs to review its cooperative development of basic education and explore new strategies to improve its participation in this area. The purpose of this study is to review related statistics, documents and research published from national and international development cooperation organizations such as KOICA and UNESCO, and to suggest Korea’s future participation strategies for the post-2015 era of cooperative education development The suggested strategies are as follows: First, for the sake of philosophy or perspective for cooperative development of basic education, we should take into account the protection of human rights as well as human resource development. Second, the concept and scope of basic education should be extended to middle school education and informal education reflecting the goals of UNESCO"s Post-2015 Education agenda. Third, the needs of partnering countries should be assessed systematically by experts from both fields of basic education and development cooperation. Fourth, our main target of this area should move to quality improvement from improving access to education through cooperation in the field of teacher education, curriculum development and ICT using instruction. Finally, for the sake of effectiveness, systems for stable funding and participation of experts in education should be implemented through private-public cooperation including universities.

Education quality, and teaching and learning in the post-2015 education agenda

At present, there is an intense and wide-ranging debate on the future of global development. This debate occurs in a context of increasing global inequality, global economic recession, conflict, and climate change. Discussions about the post-2015 education and development agenda in this context ambitiously seek to eradicate poverty, promote social and economic inclusion, tackle climate change, promote equity, and access to quality education. While the exact goals are not yet agreed and the shape of the final post-2015 development is still to be settled, there is a widespread consensus that education is priority and that equitable and quality education is core to the agenda. In this context, this paper discusses the continuities and discontinuities in the proposed post-2015 quality agenda through a textual analysis of UNESCO consultations on Education for All (EFA). In particular, this article focuses on the UNESCO post-2015 position paper and the Muscat Global Education meeting agreement in April 2015. They are significant policy texts as they evidence the current global education discourse on education and the development agenda and reflect the broad consultations and thinking reflected in the thematic consultations. They also are important as they seek to clarify and secure the focus on the Education for All goals within a future post-2015 development agenda. The analysis of these texts pays particular attention to how quality is conceptualised in these texts, how it is translated into targets and how teachers are located in the global education quality discourse. The paper argues that while potentially broad conceptualisations of quality emerge from these texts, quality is still being defined as literacy and numeracy and still being constrained by what can be measured. While teachers are identified as crucial to the quality agenda, there is still a failure to engage more broadly with teaching and learning as well as the diverse contexts of teaching and learning. The article argues that what is needed is a continued foregrounding of quality as a dynamic, process oriented social justice endeavour to give effect to a holistic and comprehensive approach to the broad quality agenda.

Transformation or continuation? A critical analysis of the making of the post-2015 education agenda

As the target date of 2015 draws near for both the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals, consultations are well-underway to begin defining the shape and scope of the post-2015 development agenda. Between September 2012 and March 2013, UN Member States, private sector representatives, multilateral development agencies, epistemic communities and non-governmental organisations participated in the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Participants involved emphasised education as a societal good and a fundamental human right. Participants also highlighted the importance of education in addressing broader global challenges, stating that ‘education and learning should be transformative and foster global citizenship, thereby assuming its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies’. Such discourse suggests a shift in the objectives and priorities of global education in the post-2015 context. Is it possible that the post-2015 education agenda will represent a counter-hegemonic vision for global education? This paper engages in discursal analysis of the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda to offer a preliminary answer to this question.

Future-perfect/present-imperfect: Contemporary global constraints on the implementation of a post-2015 education agenda

A future-perfect global education agenda is currently being designed. Much extant research investigates the past-imperfect implementation of successive waves of global education goals. This article is based on a study that investigated the ways in which formal policy commitments in a post-MDGs agenda may be constrained by contemporary global policy practices. Using narrative analysis of interview data from key global policy actors, I argue that future policy will be constrained by: first, the assumptions that currently underlie global policy actors’ narratives of quality and equity; and second, new consensual aid implementation mechanisms that monitor narrow definitions of quality.

English

This paper examines the implications of the post-2015 education agenda from an aid perspective. It does so by analysing how Western European and North American countries have been referred to in the main strands of the post-2015 literature relating to education; how current priorities in the post-2015 education proposals might affect future development aid; how the donors have responded to Education for All (EFA) and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) since 2000; how the changing aid landscape and wider range of aid providers could impact on the financing of education post-2015; and finally how there could be improved allocative efficiency in development assistance.