Page 67 - Education for Development:George Psacharopoulos University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Education for Development: What Policies?c3

Secondary education

With progress made in primary education coverage, many countries shifted

attention to secondary education. Yet, there are about 70 million children
without access to it, most of whom in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (World
Bank, 2014).

Early school leaving

Setting never-fulfilled education targets is not only a phenomenon in
developing countries. In 2000, the European Union set a goal to reduce

secondary education dropouts to no more than 10% by 2010 (European
Commission, 2006. Yet, by the stipulated 2010 target year, 16% of males were
leaving school early in the European Union. So the target was shifted to 2020.
Given the latest data on secondary school dropouts, this target is likely

to be missed again. The highest incidence of secondary school dropouts are
recorded in Malta (19.6%), Spain (19.0%) and Romania (18.5%).

Learning

Beyond enrollment and graduation, another objective of education policy is
to ensure students actually learn the subject matter.
The World Bank (2011) issued its education strategy for 2020 pledging

learning for all, meaning that “all students nacquire the knowledge and skills
they need to live happy, productive lives”. Although the target year of this noble
goal is two years away, one wonders how it would be achieved given the huge

gaps in educational achievement documented in the most recent PISA data
(OECD, 2018).