Development and Education
In an article entitled, CONFINTEA: Education in a context of multiple crises, David Archer outlines the impact of the current global financial crisis on education in general and on adult education specifically. He points out the critical fact that “few governments have prioritized funding for adult learning and almost no donors.” This is of significant concern in light of the goals of the EFA Fast Track Initiative which depend heavily on the donor nations for success. In an overview of FTI published by the World Bank the operation of FTI is described. “Through the FTI compact, developing countries commit to design and implement sound education plans while donor partners commit to align and harmonize additional support around these plans.” Additionally, the FTI process is designed to provide, “endorsement of the plan by the country’s local donor group, to signal to bilateral and multilateral financiers that the plan is investment ready” and ultimately, “alignment and harmonization of donor support around this country owned, investment ready plan” To illustrate that the issue does not solely exist on the part of the FTI, the World bank article points out that the FTI’s design, “recognizes that progress must be country-driven; more money at the global level alone is not enough.”
If these issues are closely examined, their potential impact on adult education becomes clear. In the developing countries, which would stand to benefit the most from an initiative such as FTI, demand side issues may be impeding the process. As archer additionally points out, “domestic funding is even more important and many of the rich G6 countries have responded to the global financial crisis by investing in fiscal stimulus policies – keeping up spending in areas such as education.” This is not the case however in developing countries whom have historically been told to follow so-called “pro cyclical spending rather than the counter cyclical spending used by the richer countries” with the inevitable result of education budgets having been particularly affected. It is easy to see how critical an initiative such as FTI is of critical importance particularly with respect to developing countries. Archer offers an insightful view with respect to the effectiveness of FTI, “Until now, FTI has been a big part of the problem because it occupies the space of EFA (therefore supposedly including adults) but it is only set up to support investments in primary schooling.” “The board has already agreed in principle to extend the scope of FTI and the active discussion now is whether to extend it to cover full education sector plans or Education For All.” Archer’s concern with respect to the intentions of the FTI center around which direction will intimately be taken. “If they opt for the first then the ministry of education in each country will be encouraged to present heir plans for the full formal education sector – from primary to secondary to higher education – but adult education and even early childhood education will probably not be included.” “Support for this is likely to come from the comprehensive evaluation of FTI that is currently underway – which is likely to show that the reductive focus on primary schooling has undermined adult education.”
Archer believes that there are “immense opportunities in the coming year and that CONFINTEA VI could make a real difference if we use it as a starting point, not an end point.” According to a public paper released by the International Council for Adult Education (ICAE), one of the four key issues related to adult learning, which should be addressed at CONFINTEA VI, is that of adult education. Specifically, “The priority of adult education, including literacy, as both part of the Education For All – EFA goals and as a critical tool for reaching them. Equally, adult education is a central but invisible component of the MDG goals and is indispensable to all strategies for achieving them.
© 2010, Steven_Jeffries. All rights reserved.