International Development: Universal Primary Education

Baroness Verma Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Lords Chamber

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[Baroness Verma]

That this House takes note of progress towards meeting the millennium development goal on universal primary education.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I am delighted to address the House on such an important issue that affects the lives of millions of young people across the world. At the dawn of the 21st century, in September 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration. In doing so, they committed their countries to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, and they set out a series of goals that have become known as the millennium development goals. The stated aim of the second of those goals was to:

“Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling”.

That goal forms the focus of today’s debate.

We who have benefited from education know of its crucial importance, not purely in our personal development but in helping us to realise our full potential. Education is not only a basic human right; it is an investment in people and in future generations. For the millions of girls living in the world’s poorest countries, that investment is particularly important.

Education provides the skills and knowledge that allow people to help themselves. It stimulates growth within communities and contributes to a better future for all. It helps create more stable and prosperous nations, which are then better able to respond to global threats such as climate change. Education encourages peace, democracy, good government and international security, as well as providing the key to unlocking the potential within each and every child.

It is therefore clear that we and others must work together towards the attainment of the critical goal of universal primary education. In doing so, we will help to achieve the other millennium development goals. The multiplier effect of education is that it leads to better health and nutrition, social stability and lower rates of fertility.

To achieve universal primary education by 2015 was always going to be a challenge. Good progress has been made globally over the past decade, with some 47 million more children enrolled in primary schools. During this period, the number of primary-aged children out of school has fallen from 103 million to 72 million, and within these figures the proportion of girls out of school has fallen from 58 per cent to 54 per cent.

However, of those out of school, seven out of 10 live in sub-Saharan Africa or in south and west Asia. In addition, the global trend shows that we are currently not on track to get every child into school by 2015. As reported by the Education for All global monitoring report earlier this year, if we continue with business as usual there will still be an estimated 56 million primary-aged children out of education by 2015.

On current predictions, it is also estimated that 105 million 15 to 24 year-olds will lack basic literacy in 2015 and that, if we are to achieve universal primary education, 10 million more teachers globally are needed by 2015. Many of the 72 million children who remain excluded from school are, by definition, some of the hardest to reach. They include children living in rural areas, children with disabilities, children from minority- ethnic groups, children who live in fragile and conflict-affected states, and, of course, girls from all walks of life. The persistence of conflict continues to keep children out of school. About 40 million out-of-school children live in fragile and conflict-affected countries. Educating children in these states can help reduce tension, promote peace and rebuild lives and communities.

To get the hardest to reach children into school, we need a renewed effort by national Governments and donors, international organisations, the private sector, civil society and faith groups. Later this year, the international community will have the chance to reinvigorate action on this goal. In September, the United Nations will host a summit on the millennium development goals in New York. The coalition Government are committed to playing their part in the international effort to achieve the MDGs and will call for an action plan to re-energise efforts towards meeting those goals. We expect the summit to include a side event on education.

Some, both in developing and developed countries, might argue that we cannot afford to invest in universal education at a time of financial constraints at home. This Government disagree. We believe an investment in education for all will help to assure our common prosperity and security. A global economy such as ours needs the knowledge and skills that can come only from a solid base of education. Evidence from past recessions clearly demonstrates that maintaining investment in education helps to ensure rapid recovery. The amount of aid that we put into education in developing countries supports roughly the same number of children going to primary school as those who go to school in Britain, yet the cost is only 2.5 per cent of what we spend here.

DfID funds have supported some 5 million children in school, trained 100,000 teachers and built 12,000 classrooms. These are strong results, but we also want to ensure that they represent the best value for money. We are determined to spend British taxpayers’ money wisely, so we will focus rigorously on results and outcomes. We are also clear that we want demonstrable evidence of the impact that DfID’s work is having on education in poor countries: clear, hard evidence of real improvements being made on the ground to help get children into school. For this purpose, we want the new independent aid watchdog, which my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development announced on 3 June, to lead to greater value for money and to ensure more transparency. Similarly, the UKaid Transparency Guarantee will ensure that information on all DfID’s spending is published on the DfID website, allowing British taxpayers the opportunity to see where our support for education is going.

The goal of universal primary education applies to girls and boys alike. Additionally, the third millennium development goal is specifically focused on gender equality and includes the target of eliminating gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015. For girls in particular, education beyond the primary level is extremely important in improving their life chances, in delaying early motherhood, in avoiding HIV/AIDS and in ensuring that in motherhood their own children are healthier and better nourished.

In discussing universal primary education, we must recognise that its achievement is supported by investment in the whole education sector. While our main focus is on supporting Governments in their efforts to provide all children with a good-quality basic education, we are also supporting and working with them and other partners to support the whole education sector. However, we want to be ambitious. Primary education itself is not enough. We need to raise our aspirations and to work towards the delivery of basic education, including junior secondary education for young adolescents. This is where the real benefits, such as to reproductive health, accrue. Just as the MDGs cannot be reached without adequate investment in higher-level knowledge and skills, neither can universal primary education be achieved without well trained teachers. Higher education is vital to train skilled professionals such as public sector managers, business leaders and health and education workers.

I am keen to hear noble Lords’ learned views on this subject. The coalition Government recognise the great depth and breadth of knowledge and experience of those in this House and want to listen carefully to noble Lords who can offer advice on this subject. Ultimately, it is the quality of learning, more so than the number of years a child spends in school, that matters. Good-quality learning will reduce drop-out rates and enable more children to complete their education—an important aspect of the education goal.

While we seek to ensure that the disadvantaged are given the opportunity to go to school, we must not lose sight of the need to see them receive an education that provides them with the skills to take them through to secondary level and beyond. Currently, many children who attend are failing to master basic literacy and numeracy skills, even when they complete a full cycle of primary education. That is not good enough. We are working with development partners to raise the quality of teaching and learning, particularly for basic literacy and basic numeracy. We will look to the UN summit in September not only to re-energise international efforts towards ensuring that all children complete their primary education but to ensure that schools and teachers improve the quality of learning.

This debate is timely and relevant and I look forward to noble Lords’ valuable contributions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Verma]

I thank noble Lords for all their thoughtful and helpful contributions to the debate, and for their warm welcome and kind words. As I set out in my opening remarks, the new coalition Government recognise their responsibility to ensure that every aspect of our UK aid budget both delivers and demonstrates value for money. Programmes supporting access to education, among other key services in developing countries, will be prioritised in aid spending. We will do so in ways that are appropriate to the country context and in ways that will deliver results, whether it is through state or non-state providers, or, indeed, through a combination of both. Our approach to supporting education will be based on what is best for the children in developing countries and one which ensures that the British taxpayers’ money is well spent.

Before responding to points raised in the debate, I want to make some additional points about access and quality. A good school is one that is accessible to every child in the locality; distance and cost should not prevent children from attending regularly year on year. Classrooms should be well equipped places, safe and free from harassment or discrimination.

Girls and boys should have equal rights. The same goes for those children living with disability or HIV/AIDS. Each classroom should have a well trained and committed teacher. Learning materials should be made available. The school should be well led, managed and governed, supported by an efficient education system that strives for education excellence at all levels, assures standards and is responsive and accountable to the public. Children should be supported to reach their full potential. We expect this for our children here in the UK. We should expect no less for children everywhere.

The National Audit Office’s report on DfID’s bilateral support to primary education, published on 18 June 2010, showed that in DfID’s 22 priority countries for education, there has been significant progress on enrolment, improving the balance between boys and girls. The same report also acknowledged that DfID policy advice and financial support has been instrumental in helping partner Governments to boost enrolment. The report states that 14 of those 22 priority countries are on track to achieve the enrolment goal by 2015. It also records that progress on gender parity has been good, with eight of the 22 having already achieved the goal.

Although such progress is not exclusively due to DfID, the report recognised the importance of the role that the Government have played in facilitating change. It has done that by giving prominent advisory support to Governments, by linking its budget support to those aims and by soliciting further support from other donors, typically leveraging funding at levels of two to three times that of the department’s investment.

Governments have also responded with increased national funding. It is this partnership with developing country Governments, together with other donors, civil society, faith groups, the private sector and foundations, that will meet the challenge of delivering universal primary education. The NAO report shows that progress is being made, but it also shows why the Government are right to focus on results: concentrating on outputs and outcomes, not just inputs.

The high cost of education is the biggest deterrent to poor families educating their children, particularly girls. Support to poor and marginalised children to have access to basic services needs to be part of a comprehensive programme, combining system reform and quality improvement. However, we must recognise that in some countries, managing and sustaining increased enrolment can be difficult. That is particularly true where schools have been ill prepared for sudden class size rises and have found themselves without enough teachers, infrastructure or learning materials. There is also an issue of affordability of expanding access to secondary education. The response may involve partnerships with the private sector and targeted subsidies for girls and poor families.

Poor health and nutrition can also seriously undermine school attendance and achievement. Evidence from India and Vietnam indicates that children who are stunted at the age of one will have a lower cognitive ability at the age of five than that of their peers, regardless of their socio-economic background or their parents’ levels of education. While education outcomes support other development outcomes, investments in nutrition and health likewise improve education outcomes. The work that DfID is doing in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria and Zimbabwe to improve the nutrition of at least 12 million children over the next five years amounts to 10 per cent of all undernourished children around the world. That is vital. It will help to ensure that when they start their primary education, their cognitive ability is not already impaired.

The millennium development goals cannot be reached without adequate investment in higher education and skills. Good quality universities and further education colleges are needed to train skilled professionals, the public sector managers, business leaders, and health and education workers of tomorrow. Investment in higher education also drives the science and innovation necessary for economic growth. In sub-Saharan Africa, a student who spends one extra year in higher education has been found on average to increase average annual growth by 0.39 per cent. Through the Development Partnerships in Higher Education programme, we are working with the British Council to support up to 200 partnerships between higher education institutions, and we are supporting education research through three consortia looking at education access, quality and outcomes.

The new Government are reviewing the aid programme to ensure that we target UK aid where it is needed most and where it will make the most significant impact on poverty reduction. We are determined to ensure that the aid budget is used effectively and delivers value for money for the world’s poorest people.

I now turn to questions raised by noble Lords. I will endeavour to answer as many of them as I can, and where I cannot I will provide a written answer. My noble friend Lady Falkner talked about gender inequality. While we all agree with her desire to see the disparity in access to education between boys and girls removed, it is crucial that we work in ways that encourage states to engage with achieving the MDGs. That is why we are carrying out these reviews to see what works and what does not. We owe it to the poorest and to those who give funds that we can guarantee the best value and best outcomes for all those whom we try to reach. The noble Baroness asked about the impact of food prices on education. DfID has provision for contingency funds to meet unexpected needs and has specific provision for humanitarian support.

I agreed with almost everything that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Liverpool said. The empowerment of women is key. That is why maternal and child health will be one of our key priorities and why we want to ensure that we look not just at the outcomes for those who are enrolled in the programmes for education but at the quality of the education. I completely agree that the big society should not be constrained to these shores and that we should see ourselves as part of a global big society. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State spoke eloquently in a speech to Oxfam on 3 June when he said that we are part of a much bigger picture. That is why I agree that our duty is not just to young children here but to all children across the globe.

The noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, raised a number of important points about China. In developing global partnerships with China, we can make progress in achieving positive outcomes. Noble Lords all agree that we need to have better audit trails, so that is why we are carrying out reviews of all programmes funded or supported by DfID. We will bring the China aid programme to a conclusion as soon as practicable, but in the mean time we will look at other ways in which we can work more closely with China in the work that China is doing in Africa.

I thank my noble friend Lord Freeman for his kind, warm words. The coalition programme states that we will use the aid budget to support the development of local democratic institutions, civil society groups, the media and enterprise. We must support efforts to tackle corruption. My noble friend highlighted the document to which the noble Lord, Lord Brett, referred. I agree with my noble friend—I do not think that it is a political document. It highlights some of the excellent work being done, and some of the work that needs to be looked at again and, perhaps, be done better. Where there have been problems, we sometimes need to be big enough to say that mistakes were made so that we can reconcile that with improvements and better outcomes.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Brett, for his kind welcoming words. However, I was waiting for the but, and I got it. I know he agrees that this debate unites the House. I do not agree with him that the narrowness of the debate is the reason why there are so few speakers today. As he will be fully aware, the reason for the number speaking in this debate is the short notice for it rather than the narrowness of its focus.

[Lord Brett]

I recognise the short notice of the debate. One of my sub-questions was whether we will have an opportunity for that wider debate at a later stage.

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, as the noble Lord is aware, I do not schedule debates. That will be for the usual channels and I am sure that the noble Lord will have his influences there.

As regards the questions raised by the noble Lord, Lord Brett, we routinely meet EU partner Governments in a variety of fora to discuss development issues and we use these discussions to raise the multilateral aid review. We are committed to being open and transparent about how British taxpayers’ money is spent in the developing world. DfID is considering how best to most effectively engage the public in this process.

On interacting with the UN and other agencies, we have already informed our counterparts in other government departments of the purpose of the review. When we make our assessments of the relevant agencies we will do so in close co-operation with those departments with which we are working on funding and policy. We will of course consult widely with other government departments as we take the bilateral aid review forward.

The Government want to engage and involve the whole country in the difficult decisions ahead. The spending review framework published by the Treasury sets out how we will do this across government. This includes a series of events over the summer where a range of groups will discuss various aspects of public spending. DfID is considering how to most effectively engage the public in this process.

The Government are committed to honouring the 0.7 per cent commitment on overseas aid from 2013. We will enshrine this commitment in law. We are committed to keeping both Houses informed and to consulting fully with both Houses. The views of your Lordships’ House are of great interest to the consultation and it is crucial that noble Lords take the opportunity to be part of the consultation process.

The UK’s £1.5 billion commitment to fast-start funding for climate change between 2010 and 2012 is drawn from the UK’s aid budget. We have reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to giving 0.7 per cent of GNI as ODA and are on track to get to 0.7 per cent by 2013. I will have to write to the noble Lord on a number of his questions because I do not have the answers at hand.

I should like to return to what children learn. Improving the quality of education is complex and multidimensional, but we have a good idea of what works. Key strategies associated with success include more and better trained teachers; increasing time on tasks for teachers and children in school; effective leadership in schools; establishing and measuring standards; having structures that empower people and hold them to account; challenging inequity in access; and rigorously monitoring outcomes.

To achieve the goal of universal primary education, the international community needs to address equity, put teaching and learning at the heart of policy and practice, invest in good quality education, and inspire collective action. The United Nations millennium development goals summit in September is the moment for the international community to show that universal primary education by 2015 is a challenge that it will not abandon and to make clear that to achieve that goal we need even greater collective action.

I can assure the House that this Government will give their support to more concentrated action by developed and developing countries, so that those children who are missing out on education—both today’s generation and tomorrow’s—finally get the education that is their right.

I conclude by repeating the five key points made in a speech at the Royal Society on 3 June by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development: first, that global poverty both affronts our moral conscience and is a direct threat to Britain’s vital national interests; secondly, that well spent UK aid is among the most effective of the instruments we can use, but that radical steps must be taken to ensure that our aid achieves all it can; thirdly, that transparency, accountability, responsibility, fairness and empowerment will be our watchwords; fourthly, that two new concrete steps have been announced to achieve this—the creation of the independent aid watchdog and our commitment to a UK aid transparency guarantee; and, fifthly and finally, although aid is important for development, we must use the whole of the British Government’s policy spectrum to tackle global poverty.

Motion agreed.