Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

010CHAPTER 32Education for All Global Monitoring Report‘When my childis in school…I have to pay forhis uniforms,so money is givenout while it isnot coming in.[…] School isvery costly.’Parent,Nigeria5. Costs of uniforms andtextbooks climb sharplyupon the transition fromprimary to secondaryschool. One review oftextbook provision insub-Saharan Africa foundthat in eleven countriestextbook costs wereentirely financed byparents and that, next totuition fees, this was thelargest item in householdspending. (Read et al.,2008).This was followed by sharp increases in enrolmentin many countries, including Kenya, Uganda andthe United Republic of Tanzania (UNESCO, 2007).A study in Burundi in 2006, just after fees wereabolished, showed that over 40% of the pooresthouseholds reported some of their children wouldnot be in school had fees not been removed. Thisis consistent with research indicating that, beforefees were abolished, a third of children from thepoorest households were not in school becausetheir parents could not meet costs (World Bankand Burundi Government, 2008).Poor people often report inability to affordeducation for their children, even in countries withnominally free primary schooling. In Cambodia,cost is among the most commonly cited reasonsfor children being out of school, even though thereare no official charges (World Bank, 2006a). InMalawi and Uganda, where fees were abolishedover a decade ago, many more children from poorhouseholds have entered school. Yet in bothcountries, half the households with children whohave dropped out cite lack of money as the mainproblem (World Bank, 2006h, 2007c). In a surveycovering fifty slums in Delhi, financial constraintswere given as the main reason for school agechildren being out of school or dropping out, eventhough education is nominally free (Tsujita, 2009).Why has fee abolition failed to eliminate costbarriers? In some cases because legislationeliminating fees has been only partly implemented.In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, tuitionfees are officially proscribed but about half theschools still levy them (World Bank, 2006c).Indonesia’s free basic education policy, introducedin 2005, provides incentives for schools to eliminatefees but allows them to opt out (World Bank,2006b). Another problem is that formal fees are justone part of the cost of education. In many cases,parents must also buy uniforms and textbooks. InSierra Leone, uniforms double the cost associatedwith school fees (World Bank, 2007b). Poor parentsin Nigeria no longer face tuition charges, but booksand uniforms cost more than fees once did(Lincove, 2009). 5Lowering costs is not a stand-alone strategy. Poorparents – like all parents – also consider the qualityof the education available. In some countries, theelimination of official fees has led to deterioration inquality, with surges in enrolment increasing classsizes and straining the school infrastructure. Toavoid such problems, governments need to assumeresponsibility for maintaining education resourcesby raising public spending and sequencing reformsto increase the supply of teachers, classrooms andlearning materials (World Bank and UNICEF, 2009).Social attitudes strongly condition the effectsof poverty. The degree to which parents valuechildren’s education inevitably influencesprospects of participation in school. For Hausagirls in northern Nigeria, the low value manyadults ascribe to their education is a powerfulsource of exclusion (Box 3.4).Economic shocks can undermine educationWhile poverty is widely recognized as a barrierto educational opportunity, less attention has beenpaid to vulnerability. One characteristic of beingpoor is that precarious livelihoods carry aheightened risk of insecurity. The pooresthouseholds often find it impossible to shield theirchildren’s schooling from external shocks such asdroughts, floods or economic downturns. They oftenlive in hostile environments and have little accessto assets such as land, livestock, credit or savingsto see them through difficult times. In urban areas,the very poor often work in informal sectors withlow wages and limited security.Cross-country research on past economic crisesand climate events shows that the effects of shockson schooling tend to be more pronounced in lowincomecountries than in middle-income countries(Ferreira and Schady, 2008). The children of thepoorest households are most likely to sufferadverse consequences as regards education, healthand nutrition. This risk adds to the threat of povertypersisting across generations.External shocks can have direct and long-lastingconsequences for education. Droughts in sub-Saharan Africa have had significant effects onenrolment and years in school (Alderman et al.,2006; Ferreira and Schady, 2008). In Zambia,over one-third of those aged 7 to 14 belongedto households that experienced some form ofeconomic shock during 2005. Shocks involvingloss and destruction of property were particularlydamaging for education, raising the probability ofchildren being involved in full-time work by 14% inlow-income households (Understanding Children’sWork, 2009). In Indonesia, the 1997 financial crisisled to significant declines in enrolment amongprimary school age children, especially in thepoorest households (Thomas et al., 2004).166