people and planet

5
adequate knowledge of the local language (International
Organization for Migration, 2013).
Education for slum dwellers is a challenge
More than one-third of all urban residents in many
developing countries live in slums or shanty towns in
city centres or urban peripheries. Slums’ conditions
vary greatly within and
between countries, but
many are characterized by
There is a distinct
poor and crowded housing
lack of access to conditions, insecurity of
public education land and housing, and poor
access to basic services,
in urban slums and
including education (UN
peri-urban areas Habitat, 2009a). There has
been increased recognition
of the need to improve
their liveability since the Millennium Development Goals,
culminating in a strong focus on the issue in SDG 11.
Major collective efforts, such as by the Shack/Slum
Dwellers International (SDI) network, have involved
documenting inequality in services and advocating
for change in government policy by empowering
communities to participate in data collection and
decision-making processes (Patel et al., 2012).
However, the focus is on basic services, such as
housing, water and sanitation, with the situation of
education often unclear (Kielland, 2015). Yet, education
remains a priority for communities. For instance, new
data compiled for the GEM Report 2016 collected from
130 slum settlement profiles in 12 cities and towns
of Uganda to identify community needs indicated
that, while most settlement respondents agreed that
students had access to pre-primary, primary and
secondary schooling, in their qualitative responses they
still highlighted the need to increase the number of
schools, especially public schools (Shack/Slum Dwellers
International et al., 2016).
Private school growth is an urban planning issue
The prevalence of private schools, especially in major
cities, is often underestimated or disregarded in
discussions of public education systems. In India,
studies of two major cities, Mumbai and Patna,
suggest that private schools serve over 75% of the
children there (Ernst and Young LLP, 2014). The 2010/11
private school census of Lagos state, Nigeria revealed
that over 85% of pre-primary and 60% of primary
students were enrolled in private schools. Overall, the
survey identified 12,098 private schools while there were
only 1,606 government schools (Härmä, 2011, 2013).
Private schools play a crucial role in education in
peri-urban areas (on the periphery of cities). Growth in
such areas is mostly informal, often not captured in official
statistics, and critically neglected (Ellis and Roberts, 2016).
For example, satellite imagery shows that for many of
the 12 largest Indian cities, the proportion of population
outside the official boundaries exceeds that within (Ellis
and Roberts, 2016). Evidence on peri-urban schooling
suggests that private schools dominate provision, as in
informal urban settlements and slums. A study of periurban
areas in four sub-Saharan African countries found
the majority of pre-primary schools were private. Given
the strong demand for pre-primary education, the growth
of private schools is likely the result of a lack of good
quality public schools (Bidwell and Watine, 2014).
EDUCATION HAS A POSITIVE
INFLUENCE ON CITIES
Education and lifelong learning need to be integrated
in urban planning to take advantage of their positive
effects on cities in economic and social terms. Education
encourages productivity and innovation in cities, and
can transform them into knowledge economies. It can
also support a more prosperous city that accurately
reflects its economic activities, for example by including
the dynamic informal economy. Education can have
positive social effects, such as crime reduction. It can
be a primary tool for environmental initiatives, such as
sustainable transport.
HIGHLY SKILLED WORKERS ARE CRITICAL FOR
INNOVATION AND GROWTH
Economic growth is highly concentrated in urban areas
– half of the world’s population lives in cities, which
generate more than 80% of global gross domestic
product (GDP). Only 600 urban centres, with one-fifth
of the world’s population, generate 60% of global gross
domestic product (GDP). By 2025, new smaller cities,
mostly in China and India, are expected to replace many
developed country cities in the list of top 600 cities
(Dobbs et al., 2011). Urban economic growth is strongly
linked to the extent of agglomeration, where firms and
people are located closer together in cities and clusters,
attracting higher investment, skilled workers and
talented graduates.
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CHAPTER 5 | PLACE: INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES