Universal Education Achievable and Affordable
American Academy Study Finds
Cambridge, MA, January 17, 2007 –
Educating All Children: A Global Agenda, a new book from the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, examines the impact of providing high-quality education to every
child in the world between the ages of 6 and 16. According to the authors, achieving
universal basic and secondary education, by the middle of the 21st century, is both
possible and affordable. The volume presents a cohesive picture of past, present, and
future steps necessary to achieve this goal.
The Academy study concludes that achieving universal primary and secondary education
is both urgently needed and well within the ability of wealthy nations to fund. Five
changes are essential to achieve universal primary and secondary education by mid-
century:
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Open discussions, nationally, regionally, and internationally, on what people want
primary and secondary education to achieve — that is, the goals of education;
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A commitment to improving the effectiveness and economic efficiency of
education;
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A commitment to extending high-quality secondary education to all children;
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Recognition of the diverse character of educational systems in different countries,
and adaptation of aid policies and educational assessment requirements to local
contexts;
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More funding from rich countries for education in poor countries.
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Although greater numbers of people are completing primary, secondary, and tertiary
education than ever before, ensuring universally available high-quality schooling still
faces major obstacles. In Educating All Children, leading experts discuss the current
state of education and how to measure global educational progress, the history of
compulsory education, political and financial obstacles to expanding education, the role
of educational assessment and evaluation in developing countries, cost estimates for
providing universal education (and why they differ so widely), the potential
consequences of expanded global education, and the relationship between education and
health.
Universal primary education has long been advocated in international forums, but the
editors contend that secondary education must also be universally available. They note
that many benefits of education do not accrue until students have had ten years or more of
schooling and that “primary education is more attractive if high-quality secondary
education beckons.”
At the current rate of progress, the international commitment to universal primary
education by 2015, as expressed in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals,
will not be met. According to the study, by 2015, roughly 114 million children – most in
the world’s poorest countries — will still not be enrolled in primary school and almost
twice that number will not be receiving a secondary education.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown commented "Educating All
Children: A Global Agenda is a timely reminder of the importance of universal access to
education in the fight against poverty.” Stephen P. Heyneman, Professor of
International Education Policy at Vanderbilt University said, “This is among the most
interesting books on education and development I have read in a decade.”
The volume is edited by Academy Fellows Joel E. Cohen (Rockefeller and Columbia
Universities) and David E. Bloom (Harvard University School of Public Health), and
Academy Program Director Martin B. Malin.
Contributors include: Aaron Benavot (UNESCO, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Eric
Bettinger (Case Western Reserve University), Melissa Binder (University of New
Mexico), Henry Braun (Educational Testing Service), Claudia Buchmann (Ohio State
University), Javier Corrales (Amherst College), Helen Anne Curry (Yale University),
Paul Glewwe (University of Minnesota), Emily Hannum (University of Pennsylvania),
Anil Kanjee (Human Sciences Research Council), Michael Kremer (Harvard
University), Julia Resnik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Gene Sperling (Council on
Foreign Relations), and Meng Zhao (University of Minnesota).
Educating All Children: A Global Agenda is published by the MIT Press. The volume
grew out of a multidisciplinary project undertaken by the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. Future research will concern the goals and rationales for universal primary and
secondary education. The project is supported by a major grant from the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation and by a small number of individual donors. More information
about the project is available online at http://www.amacad.org/projects/ubase.aspx.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research
center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. Current
Academy research focuses on: science and global security; social policy; the humanities and
culture; and education. With headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Academy’s work is
advanced by its 4,600 elected members, who are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts,
business and public affairs from around the world.
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