Where are we in the effort to educate the world’s children?
Thanks to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and their emphasis on young children’s rights, there’s been a lot of progress around access to primary education for young children from 6 to 12. The global picture is quite encouraging.
But though there have been big strides in access, there are many questions about quality.
The extent of regular attendance to school is still contested. Also, there is evidence coming out of South Asia, among other places, that just being in school doesn’t deliver literacy, numeracy and the ability to think critically.
Primary education in this day and age is not adequate. In the global economy, you need much more. You don’t just need literacy and numeracy. The emphasis on secondary education has been quite lacking.
In India, for example, access to secondary education is grossly maldistributed. Less than 20 percent of rural girls in India make it to secondary school, and only 6 percent move on to college. Both [secondary school and college] are increasingly critical to get jobs in this skill-based global economy.
There are huge differences dictated by where you live, your caste and your gender. The picture in India is replicated for sure in Pakistan and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
It’s quite clear that secondary education remains a huge black spot in terms of social and economic rights advances.
Have any countries improved their girls’ access to education?
Bangladesh is a very interesting exception in South Asia. Bangladesh, which is poorer than India or Pakistan, has made dramatic strides in advancement of secondary education, including girls’ education.
So there is nothing about the South Asian context or political economy that justifies this big lack of access to secondary education among poor kids and girls.