Raising the Effectiveness of Official Development Assistance in Education

Barbara Ischinger

Director for Education

OECD

Outline

• The value of education• How much aid has gone to education since

2005? • Which kinds of education have received the

support of donors in these years and how has this been provided?

• Has the aid to education been any use? • What needs to change to make aid to education

more effective in the future? • Education quality and the role of OECD

2

Value of education

Education pays off

for individuals and states, socially and economically

Human capital development

Sustained economic growth

Poverty reduction

Social integration

Political and social participation

Social rights

How Much Aid to Education?

Total Bilateral ODA vs. Expenditures on Education

4

Com

mit

men

ts,

US

D B

illi

on

s

Source: Creditor Reporting System (CRS), OECD

Which kinds of education have received the support of donors?

52005 2006 2007 2008 20090

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

ODA to education by subsector 2005-2009

Post-Secondary Education

Secondary Education

Basic Education

Education, Level Unspeci-fied

Top Ten Education Donors in 2008

Which kinds of education is aided?

Despite the international commitments: most education aid goes to MICs and to post-basic education

IDA

UK

Canada

United States

France

EC

Japan

Germany

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Proportion of Education ODA to LICs (%)

Pro

po

rtio

n o

f E

du

cati

on

OD

A t

o M

ICs

(%)

Italy

What needs to change to make aid to education more effective in the future?

• How much aid to education? – Enough to bridge the financing gap for achieving EFA.

• Which kinds of education should be aided?– Prioritise basic and secondary education, particularly

for girls …emphasise policies aimed at improving quality

• Through which channels? – Harmonised and aligned ones: Sector budget

support, combined with policy dialogue and technical co-operation

8

Education quality and economic growth

9

Wealth matters - but effective policies matter more

10

0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000300

320

340

360

380

400

420

440

460

480

500

520

540

560

314

362

370 371

385 390398

402404 412413 416

421 425 426

442 449

476495

515

470

506

429

524

Czech Rep

495501

536

496497

483494500

496

474486

520

405

484468

487

508521

500489

424

459

556

526

477483 481

497UK

500

f(x) = 0.000987390729328574 x + 435.445868351158R² = 0.243926777190706

GDP per capita (current USD)

Mea

n re

adin

g pe

rfor

man

ce in

PIS

A 20

09

Participation of ODA recipients in OECD activities

11

National capacities

• Participation will depend on national capacities and adjustment of survey techniques

International support

• International support is provided for ODA recipients to enable participation and analysis, and could be further expanded

Prospects for PISA as a global-initiative

•PISA is the largest and most rigorous survey on students’ performance

•Tool to compare the efficiency and equity of countries’ education systems in an international perspective

•Many of the countries and economies covered in PISA are non-OECD members and are at various stages of development

A map of PISA countries and economies

13

ODA recipients in PISA

14

Performance and spending in ODA countries

15

Kyrgyzs

tan

Azerbaij

anPeru

Panam

a

Albania

Kazakh

stan

Argentina

Indonesia

Tunisia

Brazil

Colombia

Trinidad

and To

bago

Thail

and

Mexico

Uruguay

Serbia

Chile

Croatia

300

320

340

360

380

400

420

440

460

480

500

0

5

10

15

20

25

PISA reading performancePublic spending on education, total (% of government expenditure)

Mea

n re

adin

g pe

rfor

man

ce in

PIS

A 20

09

Publ

ic sp

endi

ng o

n ed

ucati

on (%

of g

over

nmen

t exp

en-

ditu

re)

Source: OECD PISA 2009 Database; Education at a Glance (2011); World Bank Indicators 2011 (Data from 2008 or last year for which data is available)

OECD average

OECD average

What makes PISA attractive for ODA recipients?

• PISA participation can be supported by other international organisations or be covered by a country without direct donor involvementInternational

support

• High flexibility due to options of including additional test batteries/questionnaires, e.g. test questions aimed at assessing performance at very low levels of proficiency (e.g. Colombia 2009)

Flexibility

• International benchmarks• OECD provides additional policy support through

secondary PISA analysis (e.g. Kyrgyzstan 2010)Data analysis

Challenges of PISA for ODA recipients• Low levels of enrolment at age 15 in ODA

countries• Large share of students perform at lowest

levels of proficiencyRelevance

• Reliability of measurement is much lower at the bottom of the performance distribution

Reliability

• Background questionnaires (student, school principal, parents) would have to be adjusted to reflect different policy realities in ODA countries

Policy priorities

• Value added gained from participation: very costly and capacity intensive

Value added

New education indicators

• Enrolment rates in primary education• Completion rates in primary education • Literacy rates

The Millennium Development Goals uses three education indicators:

Use of new indicators to assess country’s progress towards development, which can be implemented in surveys already conducted by national statistical offices

New education indicators• Proportion of schools with less than 45 students per class or average classroom

size or teacher student ratio• Average teacher salary (as a percentage of GDP per capita)• Proportion of schools meeting minimum infrastructure and material resource

standards

Educational inputs

• Educational attainment (how far students go in the educational system) • Enrolment and completion rates by educational level• Tertiary enrolment in relation to the market relevance and strategic

development needs• School-to-work transition, e.g. unemployment by educational level

• Educational achievement (how much students know)• International student assessments (PISA, TIMMS, PIRLS)

Educational outcomes

• Measuring equity in the distribution of literacy and educational achievement by gender and background characteristics

• The migration of highly educated students out of ODA receiving countries (brain drain) should be monitored

Relevance and lost potential of education

• Promoting the dialogue and collaboration of school systems with similar characteristics

Structure of national school systems

Skills Strategy

20

• Misallocation and waste of resources• Need for new strategies and approaches Focus on the link

between investments in skills development, employment and productivity

Mismatch between educational supply and employment demand in many ODA receiving countries

• To create internationally comparable skills indicators• OECD, ILO, UNESCO and World Bank are collaborating on

the development of a set of internationally comparable indicators of skills for ODA recipients

• To enhance national employable skills strategies• OECD Pilot Policy Reviews of emerging economies are

planned for 2012/2013

Seoul Summit 2010, G20 Action Plan envisages

Challenges for ODA recipients(some common to all, others more country-specific)

21

•Absorption challenges of large cohort effects

•Weaknesses in basic education

•Rural-urban divides, the informal economy and entrepreneurship climate

•Weak infrastructure and institutions for bridging education and the labour market

OER (Open Educational Resources)

“OER are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. An open license is one that allows anyone to access, reuse, modify and share the OER.” (Hewlett Foundation)

22

Reviews of National Policies for Education

23

Since 1992 more than 70 OECD Reviews of National Policies for Education, some in collaboration with

the World Bank

Large geographical coverage: Southeast Europe, CIS region, Asia, Latin America and the MENA region

Principles of ownership and tailored policy analysis: methodology is set-up around a joint effort of national

authorities and the OECD

Findings and recommendations can be used for planning development aid

Integrity of Education Systems (INTES)

24

Assesses the integrity of education systems and can provide forecasts of corruption incidence

Delivers sector level policy recommendations for eliminating and preventing corruption, strengthening integrity, and linking national anti-corruption instruments to sector needs.

A first round of pilot assessments is being carried out in the framework of the OECD Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ACN)

Priorities for enhancing aid effectiveness

25

1. The importance of transparency for improving mutual accountability

2. Using comprehensive ownership and leadership

3. Building a public system

4. Human and institutional capacity development

5. Expanding agendas for ODA countries and building partnerships

6. The importance of civil society and National Assembly for improving democratic responsibility and transparency

Thank you for your attention!

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