Academy for Educational Development

Cites Need for Long-term Commitment, Secondary Education, Technical Training

Washington, D.C., May 25, 2005 — AED President Stephen F. Moseley said USAID's new education strategy "builds on a long history of USAID's approach to education by developing close partnerships with the countries it is serving at the national and local level." Moseley spoke at the agency's Advisory Committee on Foreign Aid meeting held today. He cited 10 key issues that will play an important role in the success of the new strategy.

Global common agenda

This strategy is set forth at a time when there is common agreement by almost all nations on the critical needs of education and education's contribution to the economic progress plans of countries.

The highlights in this plan for emphasizing access, quality improvement in the classroom, administrative reform, accessibility for girls on an equal basis with boys, attention to those who have not been served by the system in the past through literacy training, special attention to the devastation of HIV/AIDS, and a number of other common points are a framework in which USAID now participates along with many other donors. This is an excellent basis on which to agree on systemic reform.

USAID funds have high leverage for reform

USAID's and other donor's investments recognize that education is one of the most efficient and productive investment areas, since every dollar invested in foreign aid often leverages $95 - 100 dollars of a country's own budget to bring about reform.

Foreign aid buys innovation through technical assistance, training, and certain kinds of materials, so that the vast majority of resources devoted to the education system are in fact leveraged to become more productive. This is not always true with other sectors, as we know.

Every reform requires long-term commitment

The strategy recognizes that there is no "quick fix" for education reform. While it is appropriate to identify segments of five-year commitments so that we can measure interim results and know that we are on the right track, the fact is that the formulas for education reform require 10 and 15 year efforts to ensure that the methods and processes are adopted, that new generations of teaching approach are applied, that communities have a long-term participation and that the outcomes proceed on from primary school into secondary school and beyond to ensure that the workforce capacity is developed.

You can now look back and see over 25 countries where USAID's investment for 10, 15, sometimes 20 years has paid off in terms of great improvement in education outcomes, more equity in the system and a sustainable base on which further reforms can be made by the countries.

We must build tools to measure learning gains

It is possible to regularly measure the impact of education investments. Certainly the more quantitative aspects are easily measured and systems have been put into place to measure the participation rates, graduation rates and so forth.

Learning rates are not so easily measurable, but progress is being made as testing and assessment measures are being put into place. Much more needs to be done to measure learning gains and qualitative differences.

New Policy - Basic ed is both primary and secondary education and technical higher ed

The new policy clearly identifies USAID's new priority as, first and foremost, basic education, but included within this is attention to quality and access for secondary education. For the last two decades, most attention has been given to primary schooling and alternative delivery of primary education to those who may have dropped out or missed out on the opportunity to obtain an equivalent primary education.

The good news, however, is that it is time to continue forward with the reforms and investments needed to achieve high quality secondary education for all as part of the goal of Education For All. With that, to ensure productive economic progress, technical and employability skills must come for those at the secondary level and for those who have not achieved or have dropped out of the secondary system.

The policy appropriately includes special attention and identity of the technical and/or community college concept as one which has applicability more widely and indeed is being adopted by many countries.

Business must be targeted for career and economic progress

A critical ingredient in a world in which growing disadvantaged populations and economies have the potential of leaving people out at the most needy level is the direct involvement of business and industry in collaborating with Ministries of Education and communities to help define the needed outcomes of education. This must include business entrepreneurship, skills development and a greater linkage between education, skills building and business outcomes.

Fortunately we are beginning to see a number of international businesses that participate in developing countries recognizing the critical need for investment in and encouragement of improved quality and access to public education. It also means that we must work with local businesses within countries to encourage their own direct involvement and their advocacy for necessary investments for quality education.

Public understanding and advocacy is critical for success

Another kind of advocacy which is critical is the need to educate our public policy leaders here in the United States - in the Congress, at the state and local level - about what happens with education money when it is invested in developing countries.

We know from the general parameters of surveys done by InterAction, the University of Maryland that education and health are the two areas the public ranks highest as priorities for investment of our foreign aid.

Only 5-10% of the investment in foreign aid has ever gone to education. It was down to 2% only a few years ago. Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Mr. Kolbe, the Republican head of the Foreign Aid Appropriations Committee on the House side and Mrs. Lowey, the ranking Democratic member from New York and thanks to the continuing priority-setting as well by the Administration, this has moved up considerably to almost $400 million dollars per year plus special supplementary investments for Iraq, Afghanistan and a few other countries.

But this amount is still modest relative to the levels of support that will be needed. We know that the proportion of the total need as set forth out of the Dakar conference means that the United States would need to double the amount - to at least $800 million dollars - it is investing to meet its fair share of the responsibility to achieve the goals which this policy sets forth as being worthy.

Leadership training in education and other fields is essential

This policy also notes that it is important to continue to include participant training investments in the portfolio of USAID activities. I would just note that over the last 20 years, the level of training investment for long-term degree training has fallen from about 25, 000 students per year to only about 1,000 students per year - and those are only in very special cases such as West Bank/Gaza. The reality is that many higher education institutions abroad and within countries have been strengthened, and it is appropriate that the investments in higher education by countries go to those institutions. At the same time, we need to recognize the long run ability of the United States to play its leadership role in the world depends on our continuing to build relationships also at the higher education level.

Disabilities must be recognized

Nutrition, food, and public health must go hand-in-hand with education, but education must recognize, with international help, the burden that must be addressed in terms of the disproportionately high number of children with disabilities. A lack of attention can result in further learning disabilities, and to a very large component of populations not being able to achieve an adequate level of education, even when it is made available.

There is of course, the special emphasis on HIV/AIDS. Recognizing that the longer children stay in school and regularly attend school, it is a direct and indirect reducer of incidence of HIV/AIDS among some of the most vulnerable teenagers, especially girls. At the same time, the policy recognizes the dramatic impact of HIV/AIDS on the teacher force itself, especially in Southern Africa, but increasingly in a number of other parts of the world.

New approaches needed to obtain new goals

South Korea and a number of other countries - including Thailand, Indonesia - that have received foreign assistance have partly accomplished the dramatic improvement in their education systems by building peristatal research, planning, development and advocacy capacity attached to the Ministry, but not part of the delivery system, so as to ensure a constant renewal of the reform effort. Jordan is another excellent example that set progress forward in the Middle East, and is something that is being promulgated now through UNESCO in similar ways. Countries can use the new technologies for continuing education, distance education, school-to-work, service testing, testing, administration and research.

One example mentioned in this strategy is the new Global Learning Portal (www.glpnet.org) for teachers which USAID is supporting along with several of our business partners, including Sun Microsystems.

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