Research Notes

Ryan Billard
MDG Assignment
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary
Education
Everything written in italics is my analysis

Goals:

• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling

o Net enrolment ratio in primary education

o Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary

o Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men

There seems to be a focus not only on enrolling students but keeping
them from dropping out.

• Give them a quality education

o Teach basic numeracy and literacy skills

• Ensure that they complete school on time

o In sub-Saharan Africa, more children of secondary school age attend

primary school instead of secondary school
Once they’ve reached universal enrolment, they want the students to
pass primary school and don’t want them stuck repeating it for years.
If they only complete primary school when they become young adults,
they will most likely have to get a job to support their families instead
of continuing their education in secondary school.

What is needed to achieve this:

• Estimated $11 billion in aid each year

o 1995: aid was $1.6 billion

o 2005: aid was $5 billion

o Used to provide sufficient teachers, buildings and supplies

From 1990 to 2000, bilateral funding for basic education in developing
countries shrunk by 30%. As we can see here, this has been reversed
and global aid is increasing once again. Organizations such as Oxfam

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 and UNICEF can be credited with spreading the awareness of the lack
of universal education and can therefore be deemed responsible for
this increase in donations.

• Raising domestic spending to 15-20% of national budget

• Offer transportation, meals and basic health services at school

Many children don’t have access to this and if it is offered at school they are
even more likely to attend.

• 18 million new primary school teachers

Due to the increases in enrolment there is a huge demand for qualified
teachers

• Abolish school fees everywhere

• Supply scholarships and other sorts of financial aid to children of poorer

households

• Establish media and publishing policies that support reading

• address gender disparities by increasing the numbers of female teachers in

countries with low enrolment of girls and by building schools close to home
and with proper sanitation

• Raise the amount of money from bilateral aid going to education to at least
10%

• In most of the African countries where school fees were removed,

governments still need at least five times as much aid to basic education to
achieve universal primary education by 2015, a goal established by the
international community
I think that aid towards basic education decreases when school fees become
abolished, but they really need to increase to help the government provide
school supplies, buildings and teachers to the students without making the
students pay for it.

Facts:

• 86 countries have not achieved universal education

• 570 million children enrolled in school

• In developing countries, 25% of children from rural areas are out of school
compared to 16% of children living in cities
In developing countries, it is very difficult to find work in the crowded cities
so education could give an advantage to young adults looking for work. Also,
Research Notes
Ryan Billard
the location of the schools is most likely more practical in cities whereas in
rural areas, schools are probably spread out over a greater area.

• As of 2008, 55% of people of appropriate age attend secondary school in

developing countries

• One in 5 adults are illiterate

• Aid to basic education in low-income countries more than doubled between

2000 and 2004 but decreased significantly in 2005
The goal of universal primary education is still far from being met and aid is
still needed to meet this goal.

• HIV/AIDS infection rates double among young people who do not finish
primary school. If every girl and boy received a complete primary education,
at least seven million new cases of HIV could be prevented in a decade.

• “We have ample evidence that education improves individual incomes,

economic growth, child and maternal health, resistance to disease and
environmental practices,” Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of UN
Achieving this MDG would help achieve other goals such as the goal to
eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases

• Fees consume nearly a quarter of a poor family's income in sub-Saharan

Africa and pay not only for tuition but also indirect costs such as parent-
teacher association contributions, textbooks, compulsory uniforms and other
expenses
If these fees were taken care of by the government, the living conditions of
many families would be drastically changed.

• An estimated 77 out of 94 poor countries, mostly in Africa, still charge some

type of fee for basic education
These countries need to abolish these fees if the goal is to be met. .

What we have achieved so far:

• The number of primary school age children out of school fell from 103 million
in 1999 to 73 million in 2006

• In 2006 primary school enrolment in developing countries rose to 88% from

83% in 2000

• Enrolment in sub-Saharan Africa has only reached 71% as of 2008.

o This means about 38 million children of primary school age are still out

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 of school

• Enrolment in Southern Asia has passed 90% but 18 million children are still
out of school in this region as of 2008
Although these percentages are very high, there are still millions of children
not enrolled in school.

• Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi,

Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda have abolished school fees
Many countries have abolished school fees and the results have been
amazing. Enrolment has increased very much in these countries since they
abolished fees and they have definitely affected the number of children out
of school worldwide shown in the first bullet of this section.
Research Notes
Ryan Billard

Citations:

1. (n.d.). Call for abolition of school fees . Retrieved April 25, 2010, from
The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative:
http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/247_885.html

2. (n.d.). Education. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from Oxfam:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/issues/education/introduction.html

3. (2007). Education For All by 2015 Will We Make It?. Retrieved April 25,
2010, from UNESCO:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001548/154820e.pdf

4. (n.d.). Education: Key Facts and Figures. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from
Oxfam:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/issues/education/key_facts.html

5. (2008, September 25). Education vital for achieving other anti-poverty

targets, Ban stresses. www.un.org/news/, Retrieved April 25, 2010,
from http://endpoverty2015.org/en/universal-
education/news/education-vital-achieving-other-anti-poverty-targets-
ban-stresses/25/sep/08

6. (2008, September). End Poverty 2015 Millenium Development Goals.

Retrieved April 25, 2010, from United Nations:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/newsroom/Goal
%202%20FINAL.pdf

7. (n.d.). Goal: Achieve universal primary education. Retrieved April 25,

2010, from UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/mdg/education.html

8. (n.d.). Millenium Development Goals. Retrieved April 20, 2010, from

United Nations Development Programme:
http://www.undp.org/mdg/goal2.shtml

9. (2004, February 18). Press release Harry Belafonte urges all countries
to end school fees. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from UNICEF:
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_19262.html

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