Download Aid to education in Asia

Issues in financing EFA,
governance,
decentralisation
& accountability
Education financing: improving but still
generally insufficient
• Education spending as percentage of total
Government expenditure in South Asia in 19942004 was only 4% compared to 14% for defense.
• Latest data from UIS show a much better range of
spending from 11% in India and Pakistan to 15%
in Maldives and Bangladesh (but still below 20%
benchmark being advocated)
• Public education expenditures as percentage of
GDP ranges from 2.25% in Pakistan to 7.72% in
Maldives (also still below international
recommendation)
Some notable financing incentives for the
disadvantaged
India – Cess
– mid-day meals (120 million children)
Nepal – school uniforms for the needy
– scholarships for girls and for socially
disadvantaged groups
Bangladesh – Food for Education (40% of primary)
– cash stipends for children of poor families
– stipend schemes to retain girls in rural
secondary schools
Pakistan – scholarships for girls in poor geographic regions
– professional qualifications for girls to become teachers
The low spending level …
• Exacerbates disparities and inequity in education. It creates
gaps in the education system that affects most especially the
poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable
• Become excuse for school fees and non-formal contribution,
which force poor children to drop out of school
e.g. An Education Watch study of the Campaign for Popular
Education in Bangladesh has found that meagerness of resources
has partially been mitigated by household spending on education.
For example, 59% of spending per primary schoolchild come from
household sources. Most reported item of cost parents incur is
coaching by private tutors (43%)
• Encourages increasing privatization of the school system
and discriminates against those who cannot afford,thus,
perpetuates elitism in education system.
The low spending level impacts on quality of
education delivered to schoolchildren…
• Low spending level translates into inadequate and poor
infrastructure, lack of textbook and teaching materials, and
massive teacher vacancies.
• To cut on cost, teachers remain poorly paid with little or no
benefits and incentives for self-development.
• Para-teachers are hired with much lower compensation; and
teachers are forced to overload with more and bigger classes
to handle.
• There is no option but to put in most of the available budget
into recurrent expenditures (salaries) with almost nothing left
for development of programmes to address quality of
mainstream education and alternative and innovative
education.
• In turn, one of the major reasons for low completion rates is
poor quality of education.
Needed for Adult
Illiterates/year at
$100/learner
benchmark
Needed for Youth
Illiterates/year at
$100/learner
benchmark
Bangladesh
$4.3 billion
$966 million
India
$26.8 billion
$4.6 billion
Maldives
$0.6 million
$0.1 million
Nepal
$766 million
$142.7 million
Pakistan
$4.8 billion
$1.2 billion
Sri Lanka
$138 million
$16.8 million
GMR 2008 data for illiterates 1999-2004
Policy challenges :
•
Progressive increase the budget for basic education consistent with
international benchmarks of 20% of national budgets and 6% of GDP
•
Research on “How Much Does EFA Cost? Estimate and provide
sufficient funds to achieve full EFA goals and address the needs of
special groups of learners
•
Link ups among policies, plans and budgets and reduction of lag time
between policy pronouncements and fund flows
•
Adequate funding for greater coverage of subsidies specifically for the
poor – such as mid-day meals and scholarship programs for the dalits
and other excluded groups.
•
More funds are allocated to non-salary components, including quality
enhancing programs.
•
Filling the huge gap of teacher vacancies especially to ensure parity in
recruitment of female teachers and their professional development
•
Elimination of all direct and indirect user fees to basic education to make
it really a universal right
•
Innovative financing schemes  special taxes
•
Efficiency of fund flows  timely release of allocations in sync
with the school calendar
• E.g. textbooks becoming available only in mid-year
•
Monitoring and accounting for resource generated at local
levels, especially with the push towards decentralisation
•
Clarifying the notion of ‘constituencies’ of local government units
that it does not translate to marginalisation of internal migrant
families
•
Fully resourced M & E system in place with institutionalised
funds for info dissemination at all tiers and not just databases
that remain in computers in central offices
•
Improving the financial accountability processes to clearly
delineate responsibilities
• E.g. District level officers in one country would rather spend only 35% of
planned budgets to avoid having to account to the Auditors
External aid was committed at Dakar from the North to
fill the financing gaps of the South. The increases in
external aid flows increasingly benefited lowerincome countries.
• Regional distribution of aid for education changed with
more shares of total going to South & West Asia (from
12% to 20%)
e.g. Bangladesh & India got 75% of UK aid to basic
education and 50% of IDA’s in 2004
• Basic education got more attention with 90% increase
from 2000 to 2004
Issues around new trends in education aid:
1. Swaps (sector-wide approach) & Budgetary
support
•Harmonization and alignment objectives both between donors
and govt and also among donors themselves:
Bangladesh
14 donors
Pakistan, India
12
Nepal
9
•However, issues of risk avoidance and complicated
fund flows due to governance and public financial
management issues
•Issues of effective policy dialogue (e.g. on quality),
coordination (monitoring of donors) and ownership,
as well as civil society involvement
2. While aid to education was targeted to the poorest countries as a
group, it did not necessarily go to the neediest among them. Donors
also starting to focus on fewer countries.
Aid to Basic Educ per Aid to Basic Educ per
primary-age child
primary-age child
2004, in US $
2005, in US $
Countries
Out-of-school
children
Bangladesh
399,000
42
6
6,395,000
8
0
702,000
54
3
Maldives
13,000
20
19
Pakistan
6,303,000
7
10
47,000
3
26
-
-
-
India
Nepal
Sri Lanka
Bhutan
Source: GMR 2008
Annual growth rate of domestic expenditure and aid for
education 1999-2005 (from GMR 2008)
PUBLIC
EDUC
EXPEND.
EDUC
AID
0-5%
0-10%
10-20%
20-30%
India
5-10%
30-40%
40-50%
Pakistan
Nepal
Bangladesh
10-15%
15-20%
Cambodia
Source: GMR 2008,
1999-2004 data
3. Issues around real impact of aid to education
• Studies suggest that on average increasing aid to
education by 1% of recipient county’s GDP increases
net primary enrolment ratios by 2.5 to 5% and
completion rates by 2.5%
• But with poor governance, impact of aid to education
may even be negative (e.g. misallocation; systemic
wastage
Main Policy Challenges:
• Improving the governance structures (flatter & broader)
• Capacity-building in technical and fiscal areas
Policy challenges around governance
and decentralisation
• Where is the EFA unit located and what is its clout in current
structure?
• What government body spearheads the efforts around EFA
to bring in all inter-Ministerial coordination and the
involvement of civil society and other stakeholders?
• Popularization of EFA goals and targets even within all levels
of the Ministry of Education and among school managers
and rank-and-file teachers
• Strengthened capacity in multi-year planning and budgeting,
arguing out the case for EFA with Parliamentarians and
Minsistry of Planning and Finance
Decentralization Challenges in South Asia
• Decentralization of education governance has become a
clear trend in South Asia in recent years. The shift away from
a strong centralized system entails devolution of powers and
service delivery to local authorities (specifically to province
and districts); fiscal autonomy/increase roles in revenue
generation, budgeting and disbursement; and increase
participation of local stakeholders in education governance –
empowering citizens and strengthening school councils.
• Devolution is transfer management and operations of basic
education to the local bodies -- vested with powers to identify
the educational needs of the community, formulate
educational plans, implement and monitor them.
• Decentralised budgeting allows participation of schools
and local bodies in preparing, authorizing and implementing
the budget; provides local authorities with powers to make
substantial changes in the school system.
School Management Committees:
• In most countries of South Asia, school-base management
system exist:
• School Management Committees (SMC) in Nepal and Pakistan
• Village Education Committee (VEC) in India
• Composition: varies but usually includes representatives
from parents, school officials, teachers and local councils
and students
• Functions (again these vary):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Day-to-day management of school
Serve as link between school and community
Rapport building between the district office and the community.
Administer specific projects, such as school meals, etc.
Formulate school improvement plans
Evaluate teacher performance
Mobilizing resources to meet school needs
Locating and supervising construction of new schools/facilites
Local procurement
Issues related to decentralization
• Lack of political will to shift to decentralized mode
• Reluctance of central office to yield powers (In practice,
local bodies have only limited authority and control, esp. in
fund management )
• Functions off-loaded without the requisite administrative
and financial support
• Lack of local participation/consultation in design and
planning for decentralization
• Lack appreciation of EFA and MDG commitments
• Decentralized system still inefficiency in budget and funding
processes
• Political interference/meddling at the local level
• Need to strengthen districts
e.g. Study by Pakistan Coalition for Education showed need for:
• Development of necessary rules, regulations and working
mechanisms to work as a team, ensure transparency and
prevent abuse of powers.
• Clear operating procedures at the district level, which will
have the added advantage of deterring provincial and
political interference
• Activation of Accountability Committees
• Bridging of coordination gap between the education
department and the district government
• Reducing federal and provincial governments’ operational
involvement in education at District level
Issues related to school management
committees
•
Committees do not exist in many places; many are just ‘paper’
committees
•
Committees not properly organized; members not aware about
roles and responsibilities
•
Lack of school autonomy
•
School committees too politicized
•
Not properly trained to assume greater roles in school governance
•
Lack of participation and time of local stakeholders
•
Poor info system; lack of access to information
•
Poor coordination between school officials and parents
•
Strong external pressures (from donors and banks) without regard
to local situation, circumstances and processes
Requirements for more successful
Decentralization:
• Strong political will to shift to decentralized mode
• Familiarization of local bodies on education issues
and international commitments
• Adequate time and proper phasing
• Genuine involvement of local community
• Upgraded local capacity
• Resources for effective transition
• A shift in the ‘internal culture’ that rewards
responsibility and accountability
Thank you!
For the South Asia Mid-Term Policy Conference
Kathmandu, Nepal
16-19 June 2008
The ASPBAE POLICY ADVOCACY TEAM
& Education Watch Asia-Pacific Network of
National Education Coalitions
Real World Strategies for Education for All
ASPBAE / Global Campaign for Education