The World Bank argues that African countries should take advantage of lower interest rates to invest in education, the problem of which “is not access, but results.”
The World Bank’s chief economist argues that African countries should increase spending on education despite high public debt, which can be bought back by later investing savings in this sector.
“Countries can experiment with debt buybacks, taking advantage of lower interest rates, and invest savings in education.“, stated Andrew Dabalen in an interview with the Lusa agency at the end of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which took place in Washington.
Countries, he argued, “can save by spending more, ensuring controlled and disciplined spending, and can move funds from one side of their budgets to the other, for example by redirecting the money they give to polluting subsidies, such as fuel or kerosene, which in any case they also benefit the richest more.”
Dabalen defended, in an interview with Lusa, the importance of investing in education to guarantee a solid foundation for broader economic growth, and highlighted that “the repurchase of debt through ‘buybacks’ or ‘debt swaps’ for investments in education can compensate in the long term”, referring to the buyback of debt benefiting from cheaper interest rates and debt issues that are directed solely at investments in Education.
The World Bank’s chief economist also stated that the main problem of African countries in terms of educational systems is no longer the difficulty of access, but the lack of results.
“There has been notable progress on the issue of access; A few years ago the most worrying thing was the tens of millions of children who were not in school, but since then many have entered the system and access is no longer the main problem,” he stated, admitting that, even so, that in remote areas or in conflict this situation is still a reality.
But he The biggest education crisis in Africa, he noted, is the learning crisis.: “Learning outcomes are critical because they are the basis of the productivity that will allow the region to grow,” Dabalen said at the end of the meetings that took place the last week of October in Washington.
A child born now, he argued, upon turning 18, will only have 40% of the productivity of a child who has had access to health, education and nutrition.
Asked about the main measures that governments should implement to ensure better results in education, Dabalen listed training, accountability and financing.
“It is possible to change the situation in education, teachers can learn more, and in some countries teachers are already being trained to improve their quality and guarantee better results; Therefore, it is necessary to invest in controllable systems, political decision makers must hold actors accountable through a monitoring and evaluation system,” said the World Bank chief economist.
Finally, he said, there is the issue of financing: “Countries need to spend more on Education, because it is impossible to have the results we want when there are more students entering the system than leaving, so per capita spending must increase.” . stated, concluding that One of the ways to channel more funds is to involve the private sector “expose graduates to the need to apply their knowledge in practice.”
Source: Observadora
