Development goals

World map indicating Education Index (according to 2007/2008Human Development Report)

Russia has more academic graduates than any other country in Europe.[when?] (Chart does not include population statistics.)

Since 1909, the ratio of children in the developing world attending school has increased. Before then, a small minority of boys attended school. By the start of the 21st century, the majority of all children in most regions of the world attended school.

Universal Primary Education is one of the eight international Millennium Development Goals, towards which progress has been made in the past decade, though barriers still remain. Securing charitable funding from prospective donors is one particularly persistent problem. Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have indicated that the main obstacles to funding for education include conflicting donor priorities, an immature aid architecture, and a lack of evidence and advocacy for the issue. Additionally, Transparency International has identified corruption in the education sector as a major stumbling block to achieving Universal Primary Education in Africa. Furthermore, demand in the developing world for improved educational access is not as high as foreigners have expected. Indigenous governments are reluctant to take on the ongoing costs involved. There is also economic pressure from some parents, who prefer their children to earn money in the short term rather than work towards the long-term benefits of education.[citation needed]

A study conducted by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning indicates that stronger capacities in educational planning and management may have an important spill-over effect on the system as a whole. Sustainable capacity development requires complex interventions at the institutional, organizational and individual levels that could be based on some foundational principles:

• national leadership and ownership should be the touchstone of any intervention;
• strategies must be context relevant and context specific;[clarification needed]
• plans should employ an integrated set of complementary interventions, though implementation may need to proceed in steps;[clarification needed]
• partners should commit to a long-term investment in capacity development, while working towards some short-term achievements;
• outside intervention should be conditional on an impact assessment of national capacities at various levels;
• a certain percentage of students should be removed for improvisation of academics (usually practiced in schools, after 10th grade).

Internationalization

Nearly every country now has Universal Primary Education.

Similarities — in systems or even in ideas — that schools share internationally have led to an increase in international student exchanges. The European Socrates-Erasmus Program facilitates exchanges across European universities. The Soros Foundation provides many opportunities for students from central Asia and eastern Europe. Programs such as the International Baccalaureate have contributed to the internationalization of education. The global campus online, led by American universities, allows free access to class materials and lecture files recorded during the actual classes.

Education and technology in developing countries

The OLPC laptop being introduced to children in Haiti

Technology plays an increasingly significant role in improving access to education for people living in impoverished areas and developing countries. Charities like One Laptop per Child are dedicated to providing infrastructures through which the disadvantaged may access educational materials.

The OLPC foundation, a group out of MIT Media Lab and supported by several major corporations, has a stated mission to develop a $100 laptop for delivering educational software. The laptops were widely available as of 2008. They are sold at cost or given away based on donations.

In Africa, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has launched an "e-school program" to provide all 600,000 primary and high schools with computer equipment, learning materials andinternet access within 10 years. An International Development Agency project called nabuur.com, started with the support of former American President Bill Clinton, uses the Internet to allow co-operation by individuals on issues of social development.

India is developing technologies that will bypass land-based telephone and Internet infrastructure to deliver distance learning directly to its students. In 2004, the Indian Space Research Organization launchedEDUSAT, a communications satellite providing access to educational materials that can reach more of the country's population at a greatly reduced cost.

Private vs public funding in developing countries

Research into LCPSs (low cost private schools) found that over 5 years to July 2013, debate around LCPSs to achieving Education for All (EFA) objectives was polarised and finding growing coverage in international policy. The polarisation was due to disputes around whether the schools are affordable for the poor, reaching disadvantaged groups, provide quality education, supporting or undermining equality, and are financially sustainable. The report examined the main challenges that development organisations which support LCPSs have encountered. Surveys suggest these types of schools are expanding across Africa and Asia and is attributed to excess demand. These surveys also found concern for:

• Equity, widely found in the literature, as the growth in low-cost private schooling may be exacerbating or perpetuating already existing inequalities in developing countries, between urban and rural populations, lower- and higher-income families, and between girls and boys. The report says findings are that LCPSs see evidence girls are underrepresented and that they are reaching some low-income families, often in small numbers compared with higher-income families.
• Quality of provision and educational outcomes: You cannot generalise about the quality of private schools. While most achieve better results than government counterparts, even after their social background is taken into account, some studies find the opposite. Quality in terms of levels of teacher absence, teaching activity and pupil to teacher ratios in some countries are better in LCPSs than in government schools.
• Choice and affordability for the poor: parents can choose private schools because of perceptions of better-quality teaching and facilities, and an English language instruction preference. Nevertheless, the concept of 'choice' does not apply in all contexts, or to all groups in society, partly because of limited affordability (which excludes most of the poorest) and other forms of exclusion, related to caste or social status.
• Cost-effectiveness and financial sustainability: Evidence is that private schools operate at low cost by keeping teacher salaries low, but their financial situation may be precarious where they are reliant on fees from low-income households.

The report said there were some cases of successful voucher and subsidy programmes; evaluations of international support to the sector are not widespread. Addressing regulatory ineffectiveness is a key challenge. Emerging approaches stress the importance of understanding the political economy of the market for LCPSs, specifically how relationships of power and accountability between users, government and private providers can produce better education outcomes for the poor.