Educating out of Poverty? A Synthesis Report on Ghana, India ... - DfID

Executive Summary
1. Background to the research
Executive Summary
This research project has explored the ways in which both the achievement and the
developmental impact <strong>of</strong> the goal <strong>of</strong> Universal Primary Education (UPE) rely on strengthening
<strong>of</strong> systems for post-basic education and training (PBET). Reviewing the relevant policies,
institutions, and experience in six countries (India, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, S<strong>out</strong>h Africa,
Tanzania), we have sought policy-relevant lessons concerning the ways in which the povertyreducing
benefits <strong>of</strong> basic education depend on PBET’s contributions to an enabling
environment in two broad ways:
• a delivery context in which basic education can flourish (essentially a question <strong>of</strong> the
quality and sustainability <strong>of</strong> educational provision across the whole education sector);
• a transformative context which facilitates translation from basic and post-basic education
into developmental <strong>out</strong>comes (essentially a question <strong>of</strong> the developmental value <strong>of</strong>
education for individuals and for society in general).
Obvious though these interdependencies may seem, our starting-point is the problematic lack <strong>of</strong>
reference to PBET in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the related trends
among some international donors and country strategies towards an under-emphasis on PBET
in development policy and even in budgetary provision, and towards an over-emphasis on the
importance <strong>of</strong> rapid progress towards achieving UPE regardless <strong>of</strong> its sustainability and
<strong>out</strong>comes. We also identify as a critical problem the naïve use <strong>of</strong> research knowledge to support
unwarranted assumptions ab<strong>out</strong> simple translations from primary educational inputs to
developmental <strong>out</strong>comes. Our aim is therefore to promote more sophisticated and holistic use <strong>of</strong>
research in developing and implementing policies for education and poverty reduction.
2. Linking education, skills and context
In Chapter 2 we present our framework for the analysis <strong>of</strong> the links between education, skills
training and poverty reduction. This framework highlights the indirect role that post-basic
education and training may have in ensuring that the potential benefits <strong>of</strong> basic education are
realised, through supporting the delivery context and the transformative context. We explore the
importance and the nature <strong>of</strong> the transformative context using the example <strong>of</strong> the ‘farmer
education fallacy’. The link between farmer education and productivity is widely accepted, but
less attention is given to the fact that this link only works when people can apply knowledge and
skills to improve agricultural systems in flexible ways. The slogan that ‘four years <strong>of</strong> education
increases agricultural productivity’ hides the complexity <strong>of</strong> this relationship and implicitly denies
the importance <strong>of</strong> the transformative context. In reality, education makes little difference to
agricultural productivity in contexts that are not favourable to agricultural innovation.
More broadly, we explore the multiple meanings <strong>of</strong> poverty and poverty reduction in order to
help clarify what might be understood by educational contributions to poverty reduction. Since
poverty is multidimensional, the assessment <strong>of</strong> education/training impacts on income alone will
not be satisfactory. Further, since educational impacts are achieved via complex social processes
and not just through the ‘human development’ improvements in individuals’ skills, claims that
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