MDG2 on Universal Primary Education Completion:

1. MDG2 on Universal Primary Education Completion: Sorely At Risk!

2. EXHIBIT A DAVAO CITY, Philippines, 2007 -- A 12-year-old girl, who became despondent over her family's poverty, hanged herself inside their makeshift house a day after her father told her he could not give her the P100 ($2) she needed for a school project. Using a thin nylon rope, 12-year-old Mariannet Amper hanged herself in the afternoon of November 2. She was a sixth grader at the Maa Central Elementary School.

3. EXHIBIT BEstimated out-of-school children, 2005, millions Source: Global Monitoring Report 2008

4. Behind the glowing evidence… In 1999 there were 96 million children not in school. In 2005, the number had gone done to 72 million. The decrease in 6 years is about a fourth. At this rate, the world will not achieve MDG2 in 2015.

5. Top reasons why children are being pushed out of schools and learning centers: From an Education Watch survey by ASPBAE in 2006-07: • Families cannot afford school fees and informal charges • Children need to help family earn income • Children needed to help at home (watch siblings) • Distance of school to home • Lack of interest in schooling POVERTY

6. EXHIBIT COn gender parity • Only 18 out of 113 countries that missed the gender parity goal at primary and secondary level in 2005 stand a chance of achieving it by 2015. • Boys’ under-participation and under-achievement are of growing concern in secondary education.

7. Impact of major threats on MDG 2 & 3 and EFA Goal 5 • Rise in povertylead parents to pull or keep girls out of school if choices need to be made on who to send to school. But in some countries poverty may disproportionately affect boys’ education as well (e.g. Mongolia Philippines.) • Increase in food price may lead to poor nutrition level of girls, especially when family preference is given to boys in food sharing, decreasing their chances of schooling.(e.g. South and West Asia) • Girls and women are esp. disadvantaged in emergencies context and at greater risk of exclusion from education and exposure to unsafe environment and sexual abuse (e.g. the Tsunami, cyclone Nargis) From : UNESCO Asia-Pacific Office EFA Thematic Working Group on Gender

8. Recommendations for policy cohesiveness on gender Broaden the scope of MDG 3 to include achievement of gender equality in education by 2015. (MDG 2 and 3 are limited to gender parity.) • Articulate and strengthen links between gender issues in education and its impact on gender equality in society at large • Move the discussion beyond parity (esp. in East, Southeast and Central Asia): • “Parity” often seen as “equality”. e.g. “We have no gender issues” . • Reducing the gender gap or achieving gender parity in education has not automatically translated into equality between men and women. • There is a lack of indicators to measure gender equality in education (EFA Goal 5) • Mainstreaming and institutionalizing gender throughout the education system and learning process at all levels: • School environments remain physically unsafe and gender insensitive – e.g. no separate toilets. • Teacher attitudes and practices, curricula and textbooks continue to be gender-biased; and fields of studies and occupational choices remain clustered by gender. • Gender responsive policy planning and budgeting in education is not institutionalized.

9. Profile of children missing an education Overall, children are more likely to be out of school… • If they are from poor households • Live in a rural area, and/or • Have a mother with no schooling • Being a girl accentuates the probability of not being in school for each of these categories

10. EXHIBIT DWhere is lifelong learning? • More than ¾ of the world’s 774 million adult illiterates live in only 15 countries, including eight high population countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. India alone has nearly 35% of the world total. • Of the 101 countries still far from achieving ‘universal literacy’, 72 will not succeed in halving their adult illiteracy rates by 2015. Question: How can poverty be halved if adult literacy is not halved? Trivia: Men & women 60 years old this year share their birth year with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. How ironic if their rights were violated!

11. Policy recommendation: Youth and Adult literacy are nowhere in the MDG targets and indicators • Include Youth and Adult illiteracy rates among the indicators tracked under MDG1 on halving poverty

12. EXHIBIT EEducation in situations of displaced and forced migration • 35 ‘fragile states’ (failing economic systems and countries in conflict) identified by the OECD15 accounted for roughly 37% of all out-of-school children in 2005.

13. Policy recommendation for children in emergency situations of conflict and disasters • Inter-government agreements and laws enacted on the right to education of every child within their territories, whether their own citizens or not • Provide registration for children to allow them to attend public schools in recipient countries, waiving documentation requirements (e.g. birth certificates)

14. Strong advocacy proposal from Latin America education coalition: A Call to review and annul the “Return Directive of the European Parliament on the return of nationals from other countries that find themselves illegally in their territory” allowing for detention for up to 18 months to Non-documented immigrants and forbidding their readmission to Europe for the period of 5 years. It also allows the expulsion of 18 underage not accompanied by their parents, without considering their schooling and family situation. [The Return Directive was approved by the European Parliament at the end of June and will be enforced in 2010.]

15. On commitments by donors • To achieve UPE, $11 billion is needed per year until 2015. • Since the Dakar Framework, total ODA commitments for education rose rapidly, • From $6.5 B in 2000 to $10.7 B in 2004 • 65% increase in real terms

16. On the positive side… • The increases benefited low-income countries • Regional distribution of aid for education changed with more shares of total going to South & West Asia (from 12% to 20%) e.g. Bangladesh & India got 75% of UK aid to basic education and 50% of IDA’s in 2004 • Basic education got more attention with 90% increase from 2000 to 2004

17. EXHIBIT FReversals . . . • 2005 saw severe decline in commitments by $2 billion, going back to 2002-level • The decrease is at odds with positive statements made by donors in recent years about their intentions to increase support to education significantly

18. And more bad news . . . • While aid to education was targeted to the poorest countries as a group, it did not necessarily go to the neediest among them. • Among some largest donors, there was dramatic reduction in aid to basic education in 2005 e.g. UK and IDA decreased by 70% and 80% each

19. Source: GMR 2008

20. The aid of largest donors to education represent only a small share of their total ODA • Donors to the FTI committed $570 M by 2006 and a further $360 M by end-2007. As of June 2007, only $130 M have been disbursed to 18 countries. (In Asia, only Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia and Timor-Leste have FTI programs) • Largest donors France, Germany and Japan allocate most of their aid to funding large numbers of foreign students to their universities • ODA is packaged not only in grants but also soft loans and therefore countries like Indonesia & Philippines add to their already huge debt burdens when accessing assistance • Spending of aid is restricted by IMF’s systematically cautious conditions on government spending e.g. caps on teacher salaries in a situation where 18 million more teachers needed worldwide

21. On the real impact of aid to education • Studies suggest that on average increasing aid to education by 1% of recipient county’s GDP increases net primary enrolment ratios by 2.5 to 5% and completion rates by 2.5% • But with poor governance, impact of aid to education may even be negative (e.g. misallocation, corruption)

22. Partnerships for MDG2: What do we need to see from governments and donors? GOVERNMENTS: • Eliminate direct and indirect school feesin basic education, provide alternative delivery modes (e.g. mobile teaching, learning modules, flexible school calendar, etc.) • Adopt and adapt International Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE) minimum standardsto address issues related to children in emergency situations • Target and direct innovative programmes for children of poor families, incentives for disadvantaged groups (dalits, ethnic, those with disabilities, etc) to complete primary and secondary education and/or attend NFE programmes; set policy for easier re-enrolment to formal system, especially for young parents; use of mother tongue in initial grades/levels • Allocate resources for promoting gender equality in education and other neglected goals of EFA2015 such as ECCE and adult literacy • Develop multi-year planning and budgeting process that would assure budget predictability

23. DONORS: • Increased, better quality, untied, and effectively-targeted education ODA • FTI to expand to more eligible countries and include funding for non-formal and adult literacy apart from UPE • Donors fund capacity-building of partner governments to effectively spend and report on education ODA-funded programs • Set up a Civil Society Education Fund for them to more effectively engage governments on education policy and monitor progress of MDG2 and Education for All 2015 • Involve CSOs in education ODA policy & budget allocation decisions in institutionalised formal forums • Donors cancel debt (which is not counted as ODA); ODA for education and health should be in grants and not loans

24. SIX WILL FIX • 20% of National Budgets; 6% of GNI to education • 6% of education budgets to adult education; 3% to adult literacy • 15% ODA to spend on education and 60% of education ODA for basic education

25. Thank you! For the FTF-GCAP Poverty Hearing UN MDG High Level Event New York, 23 September 2008 On behalf of the International Council on Adult Education Raquel Castillo Asia Advocacy & Campaigns Coordinator Real World Strategies for Education for All ASPBAE / Global Campaign for Education