Cultivating Minds

A report of the Project on Universal Basic and Secondary Education
Joel E. Cohen and David E. Bloom

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Educating all children well is not only urgent but also feasible within the next few decades. Universal, high-quality primary and secondary education is achievable - and well within the ability of wealthy nations to fund - by the middle of the 21st century. But at the current rate of progress, the international commitment to universal primary education by 2015 will not be met, according the Joel E. Cohen and David E. Bloom, co-directors of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' project on Universal Basic and Secondary Education (UBASE). By 2015, roughly 118 million children - most in the world's poorest countries - will still not be enrolled in primary school and almost twice that number will still not receive a secondary education. An essay by Cohen and Bloom based on their Academy-sponsored work was the lead article in the June 2005 issue of the quarterly Finance & Development published by the International Monetary Fund (http://www.imf.org/fandd).

The cost of primary and secondary school education for all children by 2015 will range from $23 billion to $69 billion - "a huge amount of money, but certainly not beyond the ability of the world to fund," according to the authors. "Asking for more money may not succeed without evidence of greatly improved educational effectiveness of school systems," Cohen and Bloom write. "Educational reform and funding may go together."

Universal primary education has long been advocated in international forums, but Cohen and Bloom contend that secondary education must also be universally available. They note that many benefits of education do not accrue until students have had 10 years or more of schooling and that "primary education is more attractive if high-quality secondary education beckons." According to the authors, five changes are essential to achieve universal primary and secondary education by mid-century:

Open discussions, nationally, regionally and internationally, on what people want primary and secondary education to achieve - that is, the goals of education;

 A commitment to improving the effectiveness and economic efficiency of education;

A commitment to extending high-quality secondary education to all children;

Recognition of the diverse character of educational systems in different countries, and adaptation of aid policies and educational assessment requirements to local contexts;

More funding from rich countries for education in poor countries.

Joel E. Cohen is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations at the Rockefeller University and Professor of Populations in the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He heads the Laboratory of Populations at the Rockefeller and Columbia Universities. His research deals with the demography, ecology, epidemiology, and social organization of human and non-human populations and with mathematical concepts useful in these fields. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-directs the Academy's project on Universal Basic and Secondary Education. David E. Bloom is Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography and chairman of the Department of Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. His recent work has focused on primary, secondary, and higher education in developing countries and on the links among population health, demographic change, and economic growth. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he co-directs the project on Universal Basic and Secondary Education.

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