Education and Skills: Strategies for Accelerated Development in Asia and the Pacific
Speech By
Ursula Schaefer-Preuss
Vice President, Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank
At the Launch of the latest ADB Publication
17 June 2008
ADB Library, Mandaluyong City
Introduction
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues – good afternoon. I am very pleased to be here to join the launch of the latest ADB publication – "Education and Skills: Strategies for Accelerated Development in Asia and the Pacific". The study was initiated in 2007 by ADB's Education Sector Committee. Let me congratulate its co-chairs, Mr Robert Wihtol and Mr Jouko Sarvi, for their hard work and the completion of this very informative publication.
Importance of Education Sector for ADB
The launch of this publication is very timely. As all of us are aware, during the last Annual Meeting in May, our Board of Governors endorsed Strategy-2020, which establishes ADB's long-term strategic direction. A key pillar of Strategy-2020 is inclusive growth - which emphasizes the poor's access to key public services in education, health, and social protection.
The emphasis on inclusive growth is based on our understanding that the recent growth path of the region has been far from inclusive. Despite recent progress, about 25 million children in our region are unable to attain primary education. Most of the children unable to attend schools are from disadvantageous groups. This indicates that we need a better targeting to ensure that all children will have access to education. Furthermore, according to the recent publication "A Future Within" – a joint publication by ADB, UNESCAP, and UNDP – which tracked the region's progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, more than one-third of the countries are off-track in achieving gender parity in tertiary education. Although progress is made, the disparity continues for the primary education as well. The shortage of skilled workforce in the Asia Pacific Region – male and even more so female - has become a major bottleneck in economic and social development. So, we have many tasks ahead of us before we can claim that our region has successfully met the Millennium Development Goals' target on education.
Recognizing the importance of education for our developing member countries (DMCs), the education sector is highlighted in Strategy-2020 as one of the core operational areas. This is based on our strong track record in supporting improvements in education and its many facets for our DMCs – including nearly $7 billion in assistance since 1970.
Evolving Needs for Education in Our DMCs
However, we can not simply celebrate achievements reached so far. We need to better organize ourselves to meet the remaining, and new, challenges in the education sector. Thus, this publication aims to guide ADB operations and ensure they continue to respond effectively to DMC development needs arising from evolving labor markets and rapid economic and social development.
As the development path in the region continues to evolve, the need for education in our DMCs also has changed. Fundamentally, progress in improving enrollments in basic education and the increasingly complex demands of globalization require that DMCs expand basic education to include secondary education – equally for both young men and women. It requires that they shift attention beyond basic education to technical and vocational education and skills training, and to higher education. The DMCs need to balance priorities among education's sub-sectors to meet growing and increasingly complex education and skills requirements, taking into account the needs to address increasing number of unskilled young people entering the labor market annually, as they move up the development ladder.
This publication provides a framework for identifying the priorities of ADB assistance in the education sector in DMCs at different levels of development. In today's fast-changing environment, ADB must carefully align its assistance in education with the DMCs' needs in human resources development. The objective being to support inclusive growth and the expansion of skills and competencies necessary in rapidly changing labor markets in a more globalized world. Sustainable development of education will increasingly need to be broad-based, incorporating innovative partnerships and financing arrangements with a wide range of stakeholders.
Conclusions and Next Steps
In sum, I believe this publication will provide the basis for an action plan to effectively implement Strategy-2020, and renew our efforts on the education sector. I support the initiative that a retreat be organized by the Education Committee to further crystallize our action on the education. This will be an important element on the way to implement Strategy-2020. Such efforts will not only be limited to the education sector . Similar initiatives focusing on specific aspects of health and social protection are on its way as well.
Once again, I want to thank all of you again for participating in this event, and we look forward to learning from this important publication and disseminating it widely to our DMCs, development partners, private sector, and other stakeholders of education in the region, and beyond. Thank you.
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