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

Executive Summary
In light <strong>of</strong> this evidence on access and quality, and in light <strong>of</strong> analysis <strong>of</strong> economic development
at national and sub-national levels, it becomes clear that the findings <strong>of</strong> the global and regional
‘economic rates <strong>of</strong> return’ literature must be interpreted with great caution. The underlying
assumption that the economic benefits to education can be estimated from wages overlooks a
vast range <strong>of</strong> indirect economic benefits to the wider society, which may far <strong>out</strong>weigh wages.
Changes and complexities in the labour market, especially in contexts where regular waged jobs
are an exception rather than the rule, make the validity <strong>of</strong> data sets used to estimate rates <strong>of</strong>
return highly dubious. This may partly help to explain the lack <strong>of</strong> consistency between the
findings <strong>of</strong> different studies.
There is some evidence that secondary education is associated with the capacity to establish
enterprises that create new employment opportunities. In several <strong>of</strong> the countries studied there
are shortages <strong>of</strong> high-level skills at the same time as saturation <strong>of</strong> the labour market at other
levels. This may be indicative <strong>of</strong> problems with the quality and relevance <strong>of</strong> the education
currently being delivered and poor links with the labour market. The influence that education
levels have on agriculture is highly context-dependent, and in general more educated individuals
tend to be less likely to farm.
Evidence <strong>of</strong> links between education and biophysical data (fertility, mortality rates etc) implies
that the relationship tends to be more pronounced after primary level. International and
interstate studies show correlations between post-basic education levels and economic growth,
poverty levels (negative) and equality.
5. Education, training and enabling environments
Chapter 5 explores the concept <strong>of</strong> the enabling environment in light <strong>of</strong> the research findings
from the country studies, as discussed in Chapter 4, and the international studies discussed in
Chapter 2. We argue that the politically attractive claims that schooling directly ‘makes a
difference’ to productivity need to be qualified in two ways. First, these allegedly developmental
effects <strong>of</strong> schooling are almost certainly dependent on other facilitating conditions being present
– in the social, cultural, economic and political environments. And, second, these powerful
impacts claimed <strong>of</strong> education are unlikely to be present – even in environmentally promising
conditions – if the quality <strong>of</strong> the schooling or <strong>of</strong> the skills training is <strong>of</strong> a very low quality.
Commonsense would suggest that a school affected by massive teacher absenteeism and low
morale can have little impact on other developmental <strong>out</strong>comes. Furthermore, this chapter notes
that it is essential to question the capacity <strong>of</strong> developing economies, and especially their informal
economies, straightforwardly to realise the positive <strong>out</strong>comes which are <strong>of</strong>ten claimed to be
associated with skills development through education and training. Education and training
<strong>out</strong>comes are obviously determined by many other things such as the quality <strong>of</strong> the education
and training and the state <strong>of</strong> the enabling environment surrounding schools and
skill centres.
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