BUFFALO, New York — The correlation between education and wealth has been widely established across even the most basic levels of schooling. For example, UNESCO estimates that if every human had basic reading skills and nothing else, the number of people in extreme poverty would decrease by 171 million. Although the “solution” to extreme poverty might seem straightforward, gender inequality, poor health care, family issues and neighborhood violence often hampers efforts to increase access to education in developing nations. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a nonprofit aimed at increasing access to education in developing nations through the multi-lateral efforts of NGOs, IGOs, private sector corporations and government agencies from around the world.
COVID-19, Child Labor and School Dropouts
Just as rates of education in developing nations have gone down over the past century, child labor rates have been on the decline. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in child labor rates due to the fact that many out-of-school children in developing nations turned to work after the closure of many schools. Although many learners were able to transition to remote learning, 463 million children did not have access to remote learning, and this lack of technology disproportionately affected children in developing nations.
According to the International Labor Organization, one in 10 children worldwide was performing child labor in June 2020. Almost a third of the children in child labor do not attend school, which statistically jeopardizes future earning opportunities if they reach adulthood without a basic education.
In an interview with The Borgen Project, GPE representatives said, “The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to turn this learning crisis into a generational catastrophe. At the height of the pandemic, 1.6 billion students were out of school. The combined impacts of school closures and economic hardship mean millions of children may never return to their classrooms.” GPE also helped mitigate learning loss by mobilizing “more than $500 million to support partner countries with planning and implementing their response to the pandemic.” As a result of this quick response, GPE helped sustain learning for 355 million children in 66 different nations.
The Gender Gap in Education
The World Bank estimates that the education gap between men and women has cost up to $30 trillion in lost economic activity that would have occurred if education levels were equal. Nations such as Afghanistan have also seen large setbacks in women’s rights as a whole and specifically the ability for young girls to access education.
According to the U.N., two-thirds of the 796 million illiterate people are women, which also causes a disparity in job prospects. Since many women with less education are more likely to receive lower-paying jobs, the education gap also leads to disparities in wages. However, GPE’s programs aimed at keeping girls in school have caused unprecedented progress in female education. When asked for a statement on GPE’s progress, their representatives cited recent strategy shifts, “GPE is moving from a stand-alone strategy on gender equality to a strategy where gender equality will be integrated into every aspect of our programming with the aim of helping partner countries increase their focus on gender equality.” For example, GPE’s “Girls’ Education Accelerator” provided $1.5 billion in 33 grants that went towards community training on girls’ education and hiring female teachers in developing nations.
GPE also focuses on improving female education rates by promoting accessibility. For example, Pakistan’s Sindh province now requires all school buildings to “include toilet and sanitation facilities that are gender-sensitive and accessible to girls.”
Programs such as this led to a two-fold increase in girls educated in GPE partner countries from 2002 to the present. GPE partner countries’ female primary and secondary school completion rates are four and five percent higher than other developing nations.
Learning Disabilities in Developing Nations
Although global education rates have steadily increased, that is not the case for children in developing nations with disabilities. According to a 2017 World Bank study, less than half of learning-disabled children in developing nations successfully completed primary school, and they also lag behind in literacy rates. The gap between learning-disabled children and those without disabilities has increased over the past three to four decades. Much of this increasing gap in education rates is due to the fact that the needs of learning-disabled children have often been excluded in global efforts to increase education rates.
Since learning-disabled students tend to need more one-on-one attention with their instructors and more in-class resources, shortages of teachers and classroom resources increase the education gap between the learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled. Since 2012, GPE-sponsored projects have subsidized $440 million to “support inclusive education based on education sector plans developed by governments.” This funding goes towards teacher training on inclusive education, advocacy for national disability laws, and the creation of accessible buildings for physically handicapped learners.
GPE grants in Cambodia have benefitted over 33,000 children and faculty members, and grants in Zanzibar allowed for the disbursement of over 250,000 inclusive education resources. In Gambia, another GPE-partnered nation, learners with disabilities “receive specialized support through phone check-ins, remote psychosocial support, and relevant learning materials (braille).”
Education: A Tool Against Terror
Across the world, the prevalence of extremist groups and crime has a strong correlation with low education levels and poverty. For example, terrorist groups such as Boko Haram have survived by indoctrinating Nigerian citizens in low-income areas with less access to education. Therefore, military intervention is not the only way to fight extremism. The fight also includes efforts to increase education and job outlooks in order to tackle extremism at its root.
The GPE’s “Learning to Live Together” is an international framework in which member nations within West and Central Africa create solutions to educate citizens on peaceful dialogue and conflict resolution in order to prevent the growth of extremism. By preventing extremism with education, GPE has also begun to foster a culture of religious and ethnic tolerance within portions of Africa that have recently suffered from extremism.
In their interview with the Borgen Project, GPE’s spokesperson in media outreach stated, “the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is the world’s only partnership and fund focused exclusively on bringing quality education to children in lower-income countries.” Higher levels of education are associated with higher income, and reduced crime. GPE “supports partner countries to drive transformation at scale to get the most vulnerable girls and boys in school,” which results in long-term success of education systems. GPE’s multi-faceted approach to making education more accessible has allowed for its member nations to reap the rewards of higher female education rates, inclusive learning for those with disabilities, and learning loss mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
-Salvatore Brancato
Photo: Flickr