Page 68 - Education for Development:George Psacharopoulos University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
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                       World-wide, 123 million youth aged 15 to 24 lack basic reading and

                  writing skills, over 60 per cent of which are women (United Nations, 2013b). In
                  OECD countries, about 20% of students perform below Level 2, considered the
                  baseline level of proficiency in science that all students are supposed to attain by

                  the time they leave compulsory education (OECD, 2018).

                  Financing


                       A common complain of education Ministers, is that they are short-
                  changed in the country’s budgetary allocations. International comparisons of

                  public spending on education are used as an argument for requesting additional
                  funds for education. Lack of finance is the most cited reason for failing to
                  meet education targets, calling for increased foreign aid (Oxfam, 2002; Global

                  Campaign for Education, 2003).
                       There is a large variation between countries on what is spent on education
                  ranging between 2% and 7% of their GDP. Education expenditure seems to

                  be a very sensitive matter, many countries appearing with “m”, i.e., missing,
                  in international data bases (e.g., OECD, 2017). Yet there is no relationship
                  between education expenditure and school performance. Figure plots education

                  expenditure per secondary student in US$ PPP against students’ score in PISA.

                  Employment


                       Every country faces labor market imbalances resulting to unemployment.

                  Several policies have been devised and applied to fix the problem, none really
                  succeeding. Typical policies amount to introducing a technical/vocational
                  element in the school curriculum and providing out of school training. Education
                  policy aimed at improving the employment prospects of graduates seem to have
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