The Oxfam Education Report,Used

Review "...the single most important blueprint for change that Oxfam has produced, going to the heart of a critical development issue. It's constructive, evenhanded, imaginative, and thoroughly researchedan excellent piece of work." (The Financial Times, London) Product Description This comprehensive report focuses on the fact that millions of people in poor countries remain uneducated and illiterate which prevents them from developing the skills they need to escape poverty. The book looks at the underlying causes of the problem and sets out a clear agenda for reform. It demonstrates that universal free goodquality primary education is affordable and possible if governments all over the world change their priorities. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in education as a development issue, it is clear and accessible with many diagrams and statistics. About the Author Kevin Watkins is Senior Policy Advisor in Oxfam. Previous books include The Oxfam Poverty Report (1995), and Economic Growth with Equity (1998). Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Oxfam Education ReportBy Kevin WatkinsOxfam PublishingCopyright 2000 Oxfam GBAll rights reserved.ISBN: 9780855984281ContentsAcknowledgements, vii, Introduction, 1, 1 Education and human development, 15, 2 Education for all: promises and progress, 71, 3 Inequalities in education, 122, 4 National barriers to basic education, 171, 5 International cooperation: the record since Jomtien, 233, 6 Partnerships for change, 295, 7 An agenda for action, 331, Appendix 1 The Education Performance Index (EPI), 347, Appendix 2 List of background papers, 351, Notes, 353, Index, 386, CHAPTER 1Education and human development: the 2015 targets and the challenge of globalisationWriting two and a half thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared the central purpose of education to be the attainment of 'the good life', or the enrichment of the quality of life. Since Aristotle believed that States existed only for the sake of promoting 'the good life', it went without saying that they should educate all of their citizens. Society and the individual alike would suffer from the absence of education. In fact, few States have provided universal education on the basis of its intrinsic value. For much of human history, education has been viewed as a means to other ends, rather than as an end in itself. Nationbuilding, national security, political imperatives, economic growth, and the socialisation of children have all been advanced as justifications for the provision of education, sometimes to the frustration of reformers. Writing during the course of a debate on primary education in Britain during the 1870s, T.H Huxley famously lamented the failure of the various protagonists to consider the intrinsic value of education:The politicians tell us, 'you must educate the masses because they are going to be masters'. The clergy join in the cry, for they affirm that the people are drifting away from the church ... The manufacturers and capitalists swell the chorus. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen; that England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods or steam engines cheaper than other people ... And a few voices are lifted up in favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they are men and women with unlimited capacities.Until quite recently, much the same might have been said about debates on human development. It is true that education was 'rediscovered' as a development theme in the 1970s; but this owed less to the view that education was intrinsically important than to a recognition that it was essential for economic growth, which was seen as the real measure of development. In the terminology adopted and popularised by the World Bank, education was a form of 'human capital' capable of generating high returns for economic growth.It was not until the early 1990s that the idea of educa