Education Landscape and Challenges in the Region
Presentation by
Ursula Schäfer-Preuss
Vice President, Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development
Asian Development Bank
At the Round Table Discussion on Educating Asian Leaders for Tomorrow
29 October 2009
The Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines
Introduction
Professor Maresca, members of the International Advisory Board of Asia Leaders Program, members of the panel, distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great honor for me to participate in this Round Table on Educating Asian Leaders for Tomorrow, and to provide an introduction to the region's education landscape. Education is, indeed, in many ways, highly important for the social and economic development of societies. And, it can significantly contribute to development of leadership and peace.
Since 1970, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided $7.5 billion to support the development of education in the Asian and Pacific region. The education sector is one of five core operational areas in our long-term strategic framework, Strategy 2020. This reflects the importance of the sector in ADB's portfolio and its potential to support the region's inclusive social and economic development.
As you kindly mentioned in the invitation, ADB published in 2008 a comprehensive study titled Education and Skills - Strategies for Accelerated Development in Asia and the Pacific. The study recommends ways to ensure that support for education continues to respond effectively to the needs of the region's evolving labor markets and economic and social development.
As you all know very well, our Asia and the Pacific region is diverse in many ways. This is also true for the landscape of education. Keeping this in mind, let me start by highlighting some of the region's key trends and challenges.
Some key trends and challenges in development of education
On average, enrollments in primary education are high, about 90%. However, this regional average masks significant variance among and within countries. Most non-income Millennium Development Goals and Education for All goals, including universal primary education, are at risk of not being met. In progress in enrollment, South-Asia and some Pacific countries are behind the rest of the region. Furthermore, enrollment trends are affected by rapid urbanization, and striking urban-rural disparities. Schools in mega cities are increasingly unable to properly accommodate and serve the rapidly swelling population of students caused by the migration of families from rural areas to cities.
Progress in enrollment is often undermined by poor quality and high drop out rates. Even in some countries that have achieved high enrollments, up to 40% of children do not properly complete primary education. While quality of education is an important goal of its own, there is also strong evidence that students are more motivated to stay in schools that provide good quality education. Parents rightfully see good education as the key for a better life for their children, and the way out of poverty. And reduced poverty contributes to stability and peace in societies.
Unfortunately, in practice, not all parents have the means to keep their children in school. Thus, equitable access to education remains a problem. Disadvantaged groups are particularly affected, including girls, children of poor families, children of ethnic minorities, and children in remote areas. The inequality starts from the primary education level and, unfortunately, tends to compound at secondary and higher levels of education. Experience in ADB projects and elsewhere highlights the strong positive impact of social protection measures, such as scholarships and stipends, in supporting education of disadvantaged students.
Historically, investment in basic education has been associated with high economic returns in developing countries. While the most recent evidence suggests an emerging change in this pattern, particularly in the context of countries moving up in the economic ladder, basic education will continue to be an important basis for further education. Basic education has valuable well-known spill-off effects, such as empowering women, increasing awareness on the importance of health issues, contributing to the improvement of health standards, and advocating for protection of the environment. These spill-off effects also contribute to improving stability and peace in societies.
There is, however, an increasing need to broaden the poverty reduction perspective beyond basic education, to secondary and post-secondary education levels. There is also a need to promote poverty reduction and economic growth through the framework of inclusive education, encompassing all subsectors of education.
Potential of inclusive education
The International development community in education subscribes to the global Education for All (EFA) development framework, launched in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. The aim of the framework is to provide basic education for all, including the poor, girls and women, and other disadvantaged students. Accordingly, developing countries have implemented national Education For All plans. Development partners, such as the ADB, provide assistance for the implementation of these plans. Several global and regional monitoring events have been held since the founding meeting in Jomtien. While progress has been made in many aspects, more needs to be done to strengthen inclusiveness in basic education in the region.
Support should be increasingly provided to help the poor, girls and women, and other disadvantaged students continue to secondary and post-secondary education levels. This will enable each individual to reach his or her full learning potential, thereby creating more inclusive and broad based human resources in a society.
In the light of increasing evidence globally, inclusiveness and equity throughout the education system are key factors in poverty reduction and inclusive social and economic development. Inclusive education contributes to the development of broad based human resources and leadership potential at all levels of society and in all walks of life. This approach is highly important for improving peace and harmony in a society.
While inclusiveness in education is important, it may not be sufficient. The performance of education systems is at stake, as poorly performing education systems undoubtedly are not conducive to improving stability and peace. Furthermore, the role of education in promoting sustainable development and good governance needs much more emphasis.
Importance of education system performance
The region's resource and development needs for education will increase significantly over the next decade. The focus has shifted to post-secondary education levels due to the expansion and development pressure arising from labor market needs and high enrollments at lower levels of education. It will be important to ensure that rapid quantitative expansion does not undermine efforts to improve quality and equity. These challenges do already have an impact on ADB's operations in the sector.
The current economic downturn has highlighted the importance of flexible delivery systems for technical education and vocational skills training to effectively respond to the needs of evolving labor markets. The longer term challenge will be to strengthen the inclusiveness and flexibility of these systems and redirect them to support rebalancing of the region's economic growth.
The stagnation in skills development systems is further exacerbating youth unemployment; thus, improving skills for informal labor markets is also critically important. Rapidly increasing youth unemployment poses a serious challenge and vulnerability risk in the region. I am sure we all are aware that this can be also a serious risk for peace and stability. Skills development systems will need to adjust. They must become more flexible and responsive. Partnerships must be pursued more proactively with industry and private sector to maximize resources and efforts to alleviate the pressure from increasing youth unemployment.
As countries develop and prosper, higher education will play an increasingly important role in developing human resources and contributing to the movement of people, students, workforces, and economic development. Demand for higher education many developing Asian and Pacific countries is expected to double in the next five years and triple in the next ten. It is important to ensure that higher education is relevant, inclusive, and based on equitable access, including for the lower income groups. It must also be financially sustainable based on cost-sharing arrangements and partnerships with stakeholders, including the private sector.
In this context, higher education priorities require careful review. Resources are often allocated for establishing costly centers of excellence in higher education with highly ambitious agendas. To move toward a more comprehensive and inclusive approach, more support should be given to improving 2nd and 3rd tier higher education institutions. This will also support long term, broad based human capital investment, promote lifetime earnings, and strengthen the potential role of higher education in inclusive social and economic development.
Given the regional and global linkages of economies, it is not a surprise that countries in the region proactively seek collaboration in postsecondary education and labor markets. There is significant scope and need to develop governments' capacity to focus on their role in setting policies, providing quality assurance, and creating a supportive regulatory environment for cost-sharing and financing partnerships, including with the private sector. To support these efforts, ADB is financing regional studies and capacity development projects to help share timely and evidence-based lessons from reform and innovation in these evolving subsectors, and to help incorporate such lessons in education sector policies and strategies.
Education and training supporting sustainable development and good governance
Education and training are of utmost importance for increasing awareness and developing capacity in sustainable development, including the enhancement of leadership. ADB has contributed as a member of a steering committee to the Regional Interagency Program for Education for Sustainable Development. The program is part of the global framework of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, coordinated by UNESCO. It provides training and capacity development support in sustainable development issues for education sector leaders.
We all know how important it is to develop the capacity of leaders and senior civil servants in a multi-sectoral and subregional framework of sustainable development. This approach is built-in, for example, in many programs financed by ADB. Examples include the Human Resources Development Program in Greater Mekong Subregion, the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Program, the Development Partnership Program for South Asia, and the Central Asia Regional Cooperation Program. These programs facilitate knowledge sharing and learning, and strengthen leadership for sustainable development and regional cooperation.
Development effectiveness can be undermined by weak governance and corruption. Thus, together with many other development agencies, ADB provides support for governance and institutional development programs. These programs strengthen the capacity of leaders and civil servants in line ministries and institutions to assess and manage risks that may undermine or even prevent development, and to fulfill their statutory mandates.
Conclusions
In conclusion, reforms in education must be more anchored in the Education for All framework and the Millennium Development Goals, which stress inclusiveness, particularly in basic education. However, inclusiveness must be incorporated in reforms beyond basic education, throughout the whole education sector. This is critical to ensure an adequately broad human resource base for inclusive social development and economic growth in societies. It is important for broad based leadership development as well.
Increasing international evidence indicates that simply providing more funds to education does not improve education outcomes. Investments in education must be accompanied by comprehensive reforms in education policies, resource allocation, teacher training, and curricula development. Neglecting such measures may have a considerable negative impact on our partner countries' potential in social and economic development. In fact, poorly performing education systems can have a much more negative impact on development, stability, and peace, than the global economic crisis has had. Implementing such reforms will require significant political leadership.
Many challenges lie ahead for the development of education in the Asia and Pacific region. The Education sector remains high on ADB's strategic agenda. We look forward to further increasing our assistance and partnerships in our developing member countries to strengthen inclusive education. This will undoubtedly contribute to further poverty reduction, increased equality, and social and economic stability and growth. And these are essential ingredients for peace.
Thank you.
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