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

Renewed emphasis on the importance <strong>of</strong> primary education, its high returns relative to
secondary and higher education, should not start the pendulum swinging too far in the other
direction. High levels <strong>of</strong> knowledge are necessary for many people who serve the poor, both
directly as teachers, health workers and agricultural extension workers, and indirectly as
researchers, technicians, managers and administrators….[t]here is for some purposes no
better or cheaper substitute for the formal disciplines <strong>of</strong> conventional schooling (World
Bank, 1980a: 49).
Arguably, this warning – at a point when the Bank was for the first time strengthening the
research base for its policies in education – was very timely, because there would be a tendency in
later years for primary education to be prioritised, largely due to its superior rate <strong>of</strong> return. But,
whilst primary education may have given the highest rate <strong>of</strong> return at one particular point in
time, expansion <strong>of</strong> this sub-sector has lowered the returns relative to other sub-sectors (see
Chapter 4). The quality <strong>of</strong> primary education may be limited by the pool <strong>of</strong> post-primary
graduates from which teachers can be drawn (e.g. Wedgwood, 2005). Lack <strong>of</strong> post-primary
education and training opportunities can have a negative impact on the demand and retention
rates at the primary level (Lewin, 2005). A sense <strong>of</strong> the crucial interdependency <strong>of</strong> education
levels has sometimes been absent in Bank policies for education as well as with other donors.
But it is precisely this dynamic inter-level influence between primary and secondary, or secondary
and higher that we are pointing to in our analysis <strong>of</strong> the role <strong>of</strong> post-basic education in
developing an enabling environment.
Interestingly, the World Bank, after many years <strong>of</strong> being identified with the promotion <strong>of</strong>
particular sub-sectors <strong>of</strong> education in isolation, is increasingly being seen as urging that
secondary education and tertiary education are part <strong>of</strong> what we are calling a ‘post-basic system’
that is essential for primary education to have positive <strong>out</strong>comes (World Bank, 2001, 2002,
2005b). 20
It is important, therefore, for governments and agencies to view education and training systems
in a holistic manner and recognise the need for a balanced education and skills mix in developing
countries – while noting that this balance will be different according to a particular country’s
social, economic and historical context.
2.5 Education, skills, poverty reduction, growth and equity – some
key issues
2.5.1 Skills and the developmental state
Chapter 2: Linking Education, Skills and Context
While many developing countries have poverty reduction strategies, it may well be the case
that their primary concern is for growth – and that the poverty reduction discourse is largely
expounded as a means to access international development assistance that is so tied to poverty
reduction targets. It has been argued (King and Palmer, 2006b) that none <strong>of</strong> the most successful
cases <strong>of</strong> late industrialising countries, which have so dramatically succeeded in reducing poverty
have done so by targeting poverty reduction exclusively. Rather they were focused on an overall
20 Other donors, and notably Japan (MOFA, 2006), have also regarded secondary, technical and tertiary education as vitally
important to the health <strong>of</strong> the whole education sector.
DFID 23