Education is Essential for Development

This post by Pauline Rose of EFA Global Monitoring Report is part of Wikiprogress series  on 'Education and Skills'.

New analysis by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report highlights importance of equitable education

With just a few days until world leaders meet to make progress in defining the next set of development goals, theEFA Global Monitoring Report has just released new evidence showing that education transforms lives. Join us as we campaign for education to be a central part of any post-2015 global development framework that will be actively debated at this UN General Assembly.

There are few more dramatic illustrations of the power of education than the estimate that the lives of 2.1 million children under five were saved between 1990 and 2009 because of improvements in girls’ education. Education is one of the most powerful ways of improving children’s health. Educated mothers are better informed about specific diseases, so they can take measures to prevent them. They can recognize signs of illness early, seek advice and act on it. If all women had primary education, needless child deaths would be cut by a sixth. If all women had a secondary education, child deaths would be halved.

Education has to be equitable

The link between education and economic growth is commonly recognized.  Our new analysis shows, however, that the power of education as a catalyst for this growth can only be fully realized if it is equitable. If education inequality in sub-Saharan Africa had been halved to the level of Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, the annual per capita growth rate over 2005-2010 would have been 47% higher.

Next week, there are two key meetings during the United Nations General Assembly campaigning for education to be supported in conflict-affected countries. Many organizations are joining together to support children who are still battling to go to school.  We have a moral imperative to support children like those in Syria by ensuring their education is not interrupted. Today our new analysis also confirms how indispensable an education is to strengthen the bonds that hold communities and societies together. In Latin America, the difference between a primary and a secondary education can increase tolerance towards people of a different race by 47%; in the Arab States, it can increase tolerance towards people of a different religion by 14%.

Education is key in addressing many development challenges

Education is also part of the solution to global environmental problems. By improving knowledge, instilling values, fostering beliefs and shifting attitudes, education has considerable power to change environmentally harmful lifestyles and behaviours. Education can encourage people to use energy and water more efficiently and recycle household waste. In poor countries affected by climate

change, education helps people adapt to its effects. Across 29 countries, our new analysis showed that 25% of people with less than secondary education expressed concern for the environment compared to 37% of people with secondary education and 46% of people with tertiary education.

This blog contains only a snapshot of some of the compelling new evidence our EFA Global Monitoring Report has published in time for this year’s United Nations General Assembly. I hope it will give us all renewed energy to complete what we set out to do with the goals set in Dakar in 2000, and reiterated in the Millennium Development Goals. It also gives us the arguments needed to fight for the central place of quality education for all in goals that are set after 2015.

This article originally appeared on the Education for All blog (here).