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#07 Reactions to COVID-19 from international cooperation in education: Between continuities and unexpected changes

This article is based on the data available prior to publication. As the topic is highly evolving, we may need to update the article at a later date.

Since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic spread beyond China’s borders, many international cooperation institutions have mobilized to respond to this crisis. The closure of schools in more than 150 countries and the shift to distance learning in most countries where the epidemic is rampant was the trigger.

In this article, we will analyze the actions and orientations proposed by major organizations in the field. (Some blogs [ex. 1 or ex. 2] were only at the level of description.)

Many of the observations made in previous articles in this blog are still valid. However, a few changes, and we will see if they are pleasing, have appeared regarding this crisis.

Priority to the most fragile contexts

This crisis has highlighted the importance of acting even more in the most fragile contexts, where education systems were already experiencing difficulty before the crisis. From this point of view, there seems to be a consensus on the part of the international organizations studied, which are concerned about the difficulties of ensuring pedagogical continuity when everyone does not have the same access to quality teaching and educational resources outside school.

UN agencies, for instance, have emphasized the challenges for certain contexts or populations regarding access to these resources.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, recalled that “almost all students are now out of school. Some schools are offering distance learning, but this is not available to all. Children in countries with slow and expensive Internet services are severely disadvantaged.” Furthermore, UNESCO, the UN specialized agency in the field of education, relays the message of the parent agency.

Turning teaching materials into digital format at short notice has been a challenge as few teachers have strong digital and ICT skills. In many countries in South West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa only about 20% or often fewer households have internet connectivity at home, let alone personal computers.

Source : UNESCO

UNESCO has even launched a Global Education Coalition that brings together multilateral, private sector, and philanthropic partners to support distance education globally. Among the goals of this coalition is the need “to help countries assure the inclusive and equitable provision of distance education.”

This priority of reaching the most disadvantaged is also visible through the funds granted by cooperation institutions, which fear that this additional crisis will jeopardize their efforts. For this reason, existing or new resources will be mobilized to respond to it.

This is the case of the World Bank through funds previously allocated to countries that can be redirected in response to the education situation created by the health crisis. Among other things, the organization is funding impact evaluations to understand what the most effective solutions to promote learning for children and adults in low- and middle-income countries are and, thus, generate useful and rapidly mobilizable information. The World Bank has so far made $160 billion available to 25 countries in its first set of emergency support operations. Of the countries eligible to receive these funds, only Pakistan has indicated its intention to use them for education. This is not surprising. This corresponds to an observed trend in aid to education, as we noted in blog #01—namely, between 2000 and 2010, more than half of the funds allocated to education by the World Bank went to three countries (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) that are not among the poorest countries. It is, therefore, necessary to be vigilant in the granting of this aid, particularly for the populations most in need.

Other institutions, such as the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and funds, such as Education Cannot Wait (ECW), are also mobilized in favor of vulnerable contexts where they usually act.

GPE has released $250 million to help developing countries mitigate the immediate and long-term effects of the pandemic on education: “The funds will help sustain learning for up to 355 million children, with a focus on ensuring that girls and poor children, who will be hit the hardest by school closures, can continue their education.”

ECW has activated a “First Emergency Response” funding stream to redirect existing funds as well as raise additional funds to support education. It has raised $23 million and is requesting an additional $50 million to address COVID-related education needs. Priorities include ensuring the continuity of distance learning and COVID awareness. Most of the funds are allocated to implementing partners, including UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

Even if massive commitments are observed, the arguments by international organizations to justify interventions in disadvantaged contexts have remained relatively the same. Moreover, some organizations have taken advantage of this exceptional situation to further legitimize their actions. Beyond the fact that institutions and funds such as ECW or Save the Children can boast of having already been active for several years in crisis contexts, it is interesting to note that for the World Bank, for example, the priority remains “preserving human capital,” a key concept for the organization. Similarly, if we analyze the expertise the Bank brings to the countries through documents that can be used by staff on the ground to guide national policies, we find the organization’s classic rhetoric: pedagogical continuity must be ensured insofar as school closures will have an impact on access to employment and, therefore, on economic growth—which is the organization’s leitmotif, given that several economies are informal in the countries of intervention of the organization. Also, prior to COVID-19, the World Bank was concerned about learning poverty (“the percentage of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10”) in developing countries. This recent concept developed by the World Bank is being exploited to its full potential as the pandemic adds another barrier to learning.

Finally, with regard to taking into account populations constrained by adversity, it should be noted that this crisis has particularly highlighted the crucial role played by teachers in ensuring pedagogical continuity. Teaching is a profession affected by precariousness in several contexts. For instance, UNESCO clearly assumes this role with the slogan “Protect, support and recognize teachers.” Another example is that the GPE allows its special funds to be used to protect teachers who are suffering the negative effects of this crisis.

Teachers may have been on other duties or forced to leave their jobs. Crisis and postcrisis education budgets will be under pressure but for rapid and effective recovery national systems must keep their teachers. It is essential to support them through the crisis, enable them to support continuity of learning and prepare them for recovery and reopening as well as addressing recruitment gaps if these emerge.

Source : Global Partnership for Education

Some novelties, sometimes surprising

Despite having relatively similar agendas before and during the COVID-19 crisis, we can point to some new developments—some encouraging but some worrisome.

This crisis has highlighted the importance of education (in particular, schooling) and, therefore, the need to protect it everywhere in the world, both in the Global North and in the Global South. Moreover, the World Bank, whose areas of intervention are usually located in “developing” countries, is interested in the contexts of the “developed” countries, as it was when it was created in 1945. We even find the idea of a “gigantic educational crisis,” which goes beyond the “learning crisis” that we have known until now, insofar as the influential states within the World Bank are themselves affected. Another interesting fact from this point of view is that even organizations working in normal times in crisis contexts (conflicts, natural disasters, etc.) find themselves supporting all education systems, being accustomed to acting in emergencies. This is the case with the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies, which brings together a range of cooperation actors and offers technical support to governments, with UNICEF and Save the Children making a substantial contribution during the COVID-19 period. In any case, perhaps this crisis will make it possible to advance the sense of global citizenship and solidarity that had already taken shape with youth movements on climate challenges, even though we have witnessed the closure of borders for health reasons.

Another novelty in the discourse of cooperation—this time, less favorable if we believe in the principle of everyone’s right to quality education everywhere in the world—is the excessive promotion of private sector actors, especially by UNESCO, which is often seen as having a humanist vision. Indeed, the organization wants to find equitable solutions in this period of crisis, as mentioned above, and, at the same time, bring to the forefront, through its Global Education Coalition, private for-profit institutions, particularly from the field of new technologies. Several reasons, not exhaustive, should alert us to the growing involvement of these companies in the education sector:

• Their products may be available at high costs.
• They did not necessarily demonstrate a willingness to contextualize their products (through languages of instruction, contents etc.) before the COVID-19 crisis.
• They may contribute to a deterioration of the public system by placing their revenues in tax havens.
• The data they collect from consumers can be used for commercial purposes.

Partly aware of this concern, which was echoed by civil society, UNESCO removed certain institutions whose ethics were clearly incompatible with the organization’s declared values, such as Bridge International Academies, from the initial list of institutions. Another alarming implicit message: beyond the Global Education Coalition, UNESCO, in response to the crisis, is proposing a list of available tools that promotes here again private companies.

But where we see all the complexities of the discourse of international organizations, as we showed earlier in an article in this blog, other voices are being heard within UNESCO including the International Commission on the Futures of Education—a recent initiative of the organization that made the following statement, giving a little more hope).

In the same spirit, UNESCO, through the Global Education Monitoring Report team, publishes texts that warn against the possible excesses of the COVID-19 crisis—such as the blog article by Francine Menashy, which highlights the commercial interests of private actors for education (particularly in crisis contexts).

Since we are on the discourse contradictions, or at least on fuzzy positions amplified by the global crisis, we are also observing a shift at the level of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which provides support in terms of expertise by disclosing good practices. In particular, the institution has coproduced a report with HundrEd, a nonprofit organization that seeks and shares inspiring innovations for primary and secondary education “for free.” The report contains some unusual rhetoric by the OECD: for once, economics (which is the organization’s Trojan horse, as its name suggests) is not at the heart of the discourse.

But in the meantime, the OECD, making explicit its concern to note the effects of the crisis on, in particular, the “diminished economic supply and demand, severely impacting businesses and jobs,” has produced A Framework to Guide an Education Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 written by Fernando Reimers, a professor at Harvard and a member of UNESCO’s Futures of Education Commission, and Andreas Schleicher, head of the education sector at the OECD. Using the responses to an online questionnaire and PISA data for its analysis, this report highlights the challenges faced by different education systems in dealing with the reliance on e-learning as an alternative modality. The guidelines are general: the report is concerned, in particular, with the development of public–private partnerships or consideration of the most vulnerable populations but without specifying the exact modalities. This leaves the door open to any kind of strategy, as the authors did not particularly position themselves on principles related to the right to education.

Finally, still on surprising developments, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation has pledged to freeze investments in private for-profit preprimary, primary, and secondary (also called “K-12”) schools. Although the request was made by several civil society organizations for months, the COVID-19 crisis accelerated this decision. The decision is in response to concerns about the effects of segregation and exclusion, the insufficient quality of education, noncompliance with standards and regulations, working conditions, and profit seeking commercial schools. Such actions, accompanied by statements such as “we expect a lot from our education systems, but tend to underestimate the complexity of the task and do not always provide the resources that the sector would need to meet our expectations” suggest an almost 180° turnaround by the World Bank, if we bear in mind the structural adjustment programs and their devastating effects on education systems in fragile countries.

IN CONCLUSION, WE CAN OBSERVE THAT INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN EDUCATION IS TAKING SERIOUSLY THE CHALLENGES THE COVID-19 CRISIS IS CREATING FOR EDUCATION SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE, ESPECIALLY IN DISADVANTAGED CONTEXTS. ALTHOUGH SEVERAL ACTIONS ARE IN LINE WITH WHAT INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS WERE DOING BEFORE, WE HAVE SHOWN THAT SOME NEW DEVELOPMENTS, ENCOURAGING OR WORRYING, HAVE APPEARED RECENTLY—WHICH ONLY INCREASES THE FEELING OF CONTRADICTIONS, EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD BE MORE USEFUL THAN EVER TO HAVE A CLEAR DISCOURSE TO PROVIDE A GLIMPSE OF A MORE RADIANT FUTURE. FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW, WE AGREE WITH ELIN MARTINEZ OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, WHO IN HER ARTICLE WROTE THAT “ALL GOVERNMENTS SHOULD LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE, AND STRENGTHEN THEIR EDUCATION SYSTEMS TO WITHSTAND FUTURE CRISES, WHETHER FROM DISEASE, ARMED CONFLICT, OR CLIMATE CHANGE.” SOLUTIONS SUCH AS HAVING A FAIRER TAXATION SYSTEM HAVE ALREADY BEEN HIGHLIGHTED BY ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS ACTIONAID. FURTHERMORE, RESEARCH MUST BE ABLE TO ANALYZE, IN DEPTH, THE CURRENT AND FUTURE ACTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS CRISIS AND, IN PARTICULAR, WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE FIELD BEYOND THE DECLARATIONS.

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#06 Global Partnership for Education: An alternative to the isolated actions of international cooperation agencies?

We wanted to dedicate our second blog article on international cooperation in education to the Global Partnership for Education, an institution that has grown considerably in recent years, actively mobilizing heads of state such as E. Macron and M. Sall in Dakar in 2018 or successful singers such as Rihanna who is its ambassador. Let us see who is behind this organization.

Some general characteristics

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) was established in 2002, first under the name of the “Fast Track Initiative”. It was an institution led by the World Bank and brought together various cooperation agencies to boost international financial commitment to accelerate progress towards universal primary education in developing countries. However, the implementation of the planning and financing processes of this initiative have been detrimental to donor coordination, resulting in increased transaction costs and reduced aid effectiveness in some countries. On the basis of this observation, the GPE was created in 2011 in order to take into consideration — at least theoretically — the shortcomings of the past1. The organization is currently defined as “a multi-stakeholder partnership and funding platform that aims to strengthen education systems in developing countries in order to dramatically increase the number of children who are in school and learning”2.

GovernanceBOARD OF DIRECTORS: it is the supreme governing body of the partnership and sets its policies and strategies
Includes members from developing country governments and all development partners: donor countries, multilateral agencies (mainly the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO), regional banks, civil society organizations (including the Global Campaign for Education), private sector and foundations
Role: Reviewing annual objectives of the Partnership, mobilizing resources, monitoring financial resources and funding, advocating for the partnership, and overseeing the secretariat budget and work plan
SECRETARIAT: provides administrative and operational support to the partnership and facilitates collaboration with all partners
Areas of interventionDeveloping countries (in particular countries that are characterized by extreme poverty and/or conflict)
Fields of interventionBasic education

Policy guidelines

The GPE’s orientations are visible in its strategic reports. The first strategy had been established for the period 2012-2015. Currently, it is the 2016-2020 strategy that guides GPE’s actions. We will focus on this document. .

The GPE sees education as a public good and as a human right, a facilitator of other rights. This a priori humanistic vision of education is not so clear since a recent report by the NGO Oxfam recommends that the organization should focus their support on improving the provision of public schooling in developing countries, and should not fund market-oriented education public-private partnerships (PPPs), especially those that support low-fee and commercial private schools3.

Moreover, according to the GPE, education is “essential for peace, tolerance, human fulfillment, and sustainable development”. Once again, the organization defends a humanistic vision of education. But on closer examination, the GPE’s discourse is similar to that of the World Bank (which is not by chance as we will show below).

We showed in blog #03 that the World Bank defended a capitalist-liberal vision in which education must be able to promote economic growth in the context of globalization (modernizing economic institutions and activities; changing attitudes, and improving workers’ skills and productivity). Thus, because of this ambivalence, multiple contradictions must be highlighted in the GPE’s discourse: the organization insists, for example, on the links between education and environmental issues at the global level while promoting economic models that are destructive for the planet and societies.

More specifically, the GPE has chosen a number of priority areas to work on: “Focusing our resources on securing learning, equity and inclusion for the most marginalized children and youth, including those affected by fragility and conflict”. Given the issues raised in blogs #01 and #04, these are indeed relevant areas that have too often received too little attention from international cooperation in education. We know, for example, that aid to basic education for low-income countries has fallen from 36% in 2002 to 22% in 2016. This is reflected in the long-term decline in the share allocated to sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for half of the world’’s out-of-school children. Therefore, support from the GPE makes it possible to limit this trend.

Within these axes, specific themes are addressed by the GPE. For example, on the issue of learning and its improvement, the organization is particularly interested in teacher training. From this point of view, it has been able to engage in promising actions in recent years.

Among the priorities for action, we also find “the achievement of gender parity”. However, here again, the GPE is ambiguous on this issue. To get an idea of it, all you have to do is analyse your discourse on social networks. Indeed, with regard to girls’ schooling, the institution has moved in a month’s time from a holistic and progressive vision to a utilitarian vision focused on the needs of the economy.

Policy instruments

Having presented the GPE guidelines, let us now turn to its means of action in the education systems of developing countries.

It should be noted that many criticisms are levelled at international cooperation in education, and in particular at the fact that projects or programs are still too often thought of without coordination efforts (each organization acts in its own corner), which makes it difficult to appropriate not only national policies, but also and above all beneficiaries4. It is to meet this challenge that the Partnership was created with the conviction that “by working better together, through collaboration and coordination, the aid regime will become more democratic and participatory”5. From this perspective, the GPE endorses the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), which highlights the following five fundamental principles for making aid more effective: 1. Ownership; 2. Alignment; 3. Harmonisation; 4. Results; 5. Mutual accountability6.

“The Global Partnership is underpinned by principles set out in the March 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Donors, multilateral agencies, civil society organisations and the private sector and private foundations then commit to aligning their support for a developing country partner’s program”.

GPE Charter (2013)

In concrete terms, the GPE supports countries in the development of sectoral plans. In particular, the organisation offers an analysis of needs in the field. In other words, among the priorities identified by the GPE as priorities, what are the areas on which countries should focus their education policies? Despite a clear speech about “partnership” and “mutual exchange”, a personal experience of advisory support linked to the elaboration of sectoral plans a few years ago leads me to say that many of the proposals in the countries’ documents come from experts in the North, and few from the actors in the countries concerned. It would appear that changes are emerging as the GPE has just published a practical guide to help partner countries organise joint sector reviews that are effective and adapted to their specific contexts. Let us hope that this will enable governments to assume their responsibilities and that international organizations and experts will take a greater distance.

In addition, the GPE is a unique entity in the field of education because of its common financing mechanisms. These funds come from public and private donors. For example, the graph below illustrates a set of countries (or regional groups) that contribute to financing the education sector in developing countries through the GPE .

As UNESCO notes, the GPE “is strengthening its position as the main multilateral financing institution for education in low income countries: in 2016, it disbursed US$351 million to low income countries out of total disbursements worth US$497 million”7.

Share of cumulative contributions by donor – 2003 to 2018 (Source : PME)

That being said, not all countries delegate this power to the GPE. The influence of countries through bilateral cooperation remains strong. Thus, despite its efforts to mobilize financial resources, the institution does not have the means to implement its policy: a gap exists between its willingness to act on the quality of education, such as learning outcomes, and the funding put on the table.

Since the last strategy, the GPE financing has been performance-based. The organization allocates its funds in tranches. If countries have succeeded in improving their education performance in line with the strategies in the sector plans, then they can receive the additional tranche.

Even if the GPE is now a key player in international aid to education, it is not free from criticism. And most of them question, as we have already implied, the effectiveness of the notion of “partnership”, which appears in the name of the organization. It is a term frequently used in the international development world to describe the relationship between two (or more) entities working together. It is often idealized and ambiguous in the development discourse, with the implicit assumption that a partnership is beneficial, that there is a warm mutuality. However, reality shows rather unequal power relations that continue to shape development projects (capacities in terms of human and financial resources are in fact unbalanced)4.

Indeed, it should be recalled that the GPE was initiated by the World Bank. Thus, since its creation, a relationship of dependence between the two institutions has persisted. In particular, it is the Bank that physically hosts the GPE, employs its staff, or serves as a supervisory entity in the majority of recipient countries. Although external evaluations have identified this close relationship, the two organizations remain very close. This raises the question of the reality of “partnership” in the face of the influence of a powerful organization.

And beyond the World Bank, northern donor countries, particularly those providing significant aid, are widely perceived as having power within the GPE; they are the ones who sit on the Council with the most important votes. Actors collaborate under the guise of equity in decision-making, but those who have historically built up administrative positions, possess material resources, and speak the dominant languages, are positioned differently within the partnership than others, which gives them a greater ability to influence the direction of the organization. Thus, they maintain their hierarchical positions by maintaining structures that reproduce their dominant status, thus contradicting the principles underlying the GPE’s mandate5.

IN THE OFFICIAL VIDEO PROMOTING ITS ACTION, THE GPE IS DELIGHTED: “OUR MODEL IS WORKING, MILLIONS MORE CHILDREN ARE GOING TO SCHOOL AND CAN LEARN”. WHILE THE ORGANIZATION MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO CHANNEL A PORTION OF INTERNATIONAL AID FOR EDUCATION TO THE COUNTRIES MOST IN NEED, IT MUST BE ABLE TO FREE ITSELF FROM THE POWERFUL ACTORS THAT REVOLVE AROUND IT IN ORDER TO TRULY ENGAGE IN A MORE PARTNERSHIP-BASED APPROACH ON THE ONE HAND, AND TO ASSUME ITS HUMANIST VISION OF EDUCATION ON THE OTHER HAND.

References

1 Rose, P. (2011). What’s in a name? Rebranding the EFA Fast Track Initiative

2 Global Partnership for Education. (2019). About us

3 Oxfam. (2019). False promises. How delivering education through public-private partnerships risks fueling inequality instead of achieving quality education for all

4 Lauwerier, T. & Akkari, A. (2019). Construire et mettre en œuvre un projet de coopération internationale en éducation

5 Menashy, F. (2017). Multi-stakeholder aid to education: power in thecontext of partnership

6 OECD. (2005). Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

7 GEMR-UNESCO. (2018). Aid to education: a return to growth?

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#03 The World Bank and education: Does the wolf wear the grandmother’s bonnet?

The wolf is wearing Grandmother’s bonnet, but the perceptive observer can still note the size of its teeth

(Sensenig, 2012, about the influence of the World Bank on national education policies)

We wished to devote our first article on the actors of international cooperation in education to an essential organization, namely the World Bank.

Even if it is the subject of abundant and often very critical literature, and even fantasies about its supposed omnipotence, it seems important to us to recall the role it plays in the education sector at the international level; its influence is not weakening.

Some general characteristics

The World Bank was created in 1945 in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its original name was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and its mission was to help the countries of Europe and Japan, deteriorated by the war, to rebuild themselves. Thus, the first loan granted by the Bank in 1947 was for France. It was only after decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s that it focused on developing countries and the education sector.

Governance189 states // “1 dollar/1 vote”: distribution of voting within the bank was based on measures of national income, foreign exchange reserves, and contributions to international trade
Areas of interventionDeveloping countries (through the International Development Association – IDA)
Fields of interventionMultisectoral (industry, agriculture, health…)

Policy guidelines

In blog #02, we had already pointed out that the World Bank, like many other international organizations, has for several decades been part of a capitalist liberal vision of development, which has implications for education:

  • Education to improve economic growth (which should help to lift people out of poverty) Investments in quality education lead to more rapid and sustainable economic growth and development (World Bank, 2011)
  • Education as preparation for job market Education must be designed to meet economies’ increasing demands for adaptable workers who can readily acquire new skills rather than for workers with a fixed set of technical skills that are used throughout their working lives (World Bank, 1995)

We can specify by reminding that this vision is to be linked to the theory of human capital (= good students finish their studies with a head full of knowledge that they can then use for their future job and thus contribute to the productivity of their country). With this in mind, the Bank began investing in vocational training programs in the 1960s, which was based on the demand for skilled labor. In the 1980s, it eventually expanded its scope to all levels of education, from pre-primary to higher education. However, this theory of human capital is still relevant for the Bank, as this video shows.

This focus on economy is all the more true since the World Bank expects a return on investment from actions aimed at educational policies. To measure this investment, it relies very heavily on benchmarking and the analysis of rates of return on education. The latter approach is not without its challenges, since rates of return must be calculated quickly with long-term projects, and with incomplete statistical information. Thus, it is not surprising to note that priority is given by the Bank’s specialists to the material conditions of education (construction of schools, libraries, provision of textbooks, etc.). And in this concern for profitability, educational investments that involve too high costs, and which are not effective, must be avoided.

This cost-cutting rationale led many countries in the South countries to adopt Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in the 1980s and 1990s to respond to the financial crises of the 1970s. Here are the characteristics of the SAPs1:

  • A sharply curtailed role for government in educational provision;
  • The rationalisation of its role in educational finance and system oversight;
  • A commitment to decentralisation, cost-recovery and privatisation in higher education;
  • Increased attention to ‘productive’ inputs like textbooks;
  • A movement out of technical vocational education.

Teachers have often been targeted by the World Bank’s cost-minimization approach. Indeed, their salaries and training were considered by the Bank’s experts to be excessive in relation to the services provided in the classroom; hence the need to reduce them. However, these measures have led to the inefficiency of the system, which is contrary to the wishes of the organization, since they have caused blockages in the school with repeated strikes. That is why today, after encouraging drastic actions in the 1980s and 1990s, the Bank recognizes the need for motivated teachers with a wide range of learning skills2.

We will conclude this section with a discussion of the World Bank’s orientations and recent developments. First, it should be noted that a reversal occurred at the end of the 1990s and in the 2000s, namely that the organization took into account the criticisms addressed to it, particularly with regard to the SAPs3. Also, while we noted that the Bank was interested primarily in quantitative aspects of education, over time, more intangible issues, such as learning outcomes, have become central to the discourse and particularly to the Bank’s loan portfolio2.

Moreover, the organization has been working for decades in areas of education that can be considered alternative or more socially oriented. These areas are not explicitly linked to a neoliberal logic such as projects related to the financing of bilingual indigenous education in Ecuador. Moreover, social and environmental aspects are becoming increasingly important in the World Bank’s discourse since the organization has been involved in the process of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which suggest a broader vision of development and education. In this sense, even if the Bank still defends a capitalist-liberal vision, there is an evolution compared to previous periods4.

Policy instruments

Beyond the World Bank’s orientations, it is relevant to look at the organization’s instruments at the level of education policies, which are much more significant than the institutions traditionally dealing with this field such as UNESCO or UNICEF (which will also be the subject of an article shortly). Three main instruments will be presented successively: 1- funding; 2- conditionalities; and 3- expertise.

Since its inception, the World Bank, through the International Development Association (IDA), has been active in 113 countries and has provided $375 billion for investments in 113 countries. More specifically, the Bank provides loans to low-income countries as well as to small island economies and some lower middle-income countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan5.

Year after year, the volume of its commitments has increased. IDA funding represents 20% of all development aid that flows worldwide. According to the evolution of its loans, the social sector, including education and health, has grown in importance over the past 30 years. It corresponds to more than a quarter of the loans today.

Since the 1990s, basic education has been at a level of 30% to 40% of the volume of credits to the education sector. The international meetings in Jomtien (1990) and Dakar (2000), which had as their motto « Education for All », encouraged the Bank to increase its commitments in this sector, which continued with the SDGs.

Thus, as an external funder of educational development worth several billion dollars, an administrator of several multidonor trust funds for education in countries affected by conflict or in crisis, and the main donor to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) (a major antechamber for the past decade or so), it can be said that the Bank shapes education aid policy globally6.

However, in quantitative terms, the financing of education through the Bank represents a relatively small percentage of national education budgets. It is more the conditional nature of its credits that increases its influence on education systems. And even if they have not disappeared, conditionalities have reached their peak with the SAPs which, according to many authors, have been imposed on States in exchange for funding1.

Mais au-delà des financements, et des conditionnalités qui y sont attachées, c’est par sa capacité d’expertise que la Banque mondiale influence le plus les politiques éducatives. L’organisation développe des recherches et des études internes, qui assurent une large connaissance technique des secteurs aidés. Tout en tenant compte de leurs limites méthodologiques et théoriques, ces études recèlent un ensemble considérable d’informations qui sont utilisées comme références lors de la négociation des accords. Cela fait de la Banque mondiale la plus grande institution de recherche sur le développement du monde.

Thus, the institution has reinvented itself over time and self-identifies as a “knowledge bank”, increasingly acting as a global policy adviser to national governments and positioning itself as a powerful think tank among all aid agencies. From this point of view, it claims, on the basis of its analyses, to know not only what is good for the beneficiary countries, but also what other aid agencies should support. This capacity for expertise has been legitimized by the longevity of the organization, which has accumulated a number of projects, and therefore experiences, particularly in the education sector.

Thus, the institution has reinvented itself over time and self-identifies as a “knowledge bank”, increasingly acting as a global policy adviser to national governments and positioning itself as a powerful think tank among all aid agencies. From this point of view, it claims, on the basis of its analyses, to know not only what is good for the beneficiary countries, but also what other aid agencies should support. This capacity for expertise has been legitimized by the longevity of the organization, which has accumulated a number of projects, and therefore experiences, particularly in the education sector.

FINALLY, THE WORLD BANK IS A POWERFUL ORGANIZATION WITH NEOLIBERAL FUNDAMENTALS THAT CAN HAVE AN IMPACT AT THE LOCAL LEVEL. NEVERTHELESS, IT SHOULD BE STRESSED THAT THIS INFLUENCE IS MODULATED BY THE EMERGENCE OF DYNAMICS LINKED TO DIFFERENT CONTEXTS (COUNTRIES, PERIODS, ACTORS, ETC.), WHICH SOMETIMES MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO DISTINGUISH THE WOLF FROM THE GRANDMOTHER (TO USE THE INITIAL QUOTATION).

References

1 Robertson, S., Novelli, M., Dale, R., Tikly, L., Dachi, H. & Alphonce, N. (2007). Globalisation, education and development: Ideas, actors and dynamics

2 Fontdevila, C. & Verger, A. (2015). The World Bank’s Doublespeak on Teachers. An Analysis of Ten Years of Lending and Advice

33 Lauwerier, T. (2017). Rethinking World Bank influence on national basic education policy in Francophone West Africa. Teacher policy in Mali and Senegal from 1980 to 2010

4 Lauwerier, T. (2018). What education for what development? Towards a broader and consensual vision by the OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank in the context of SDGs?

5 UNESCO. (2017). Global Education Monitoring Report 2017/8. Accountability in education: Meeting our commitments

6 Mundy, K. & Verger, A. (2015). The World Bank and the Global Governance of Education in a Changing World Order

7 Sensenig, V. J. (2012). The World Bank and Educational Reform in Indonesia

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#02 Why are international cooperation organizations so interested in education?

These few slogans promoted by international cooperation organizations emphasize the change that education can bring to individuals and/or societies. This article focuses on the vision of « change » that is adopted by cooperation actors.

The discourse in the recent Incheon Declaration, initiated by major international organizations and focusing on international educational goals by 2030, also indicates this idea of education for change: « Our vision is to transform lives through education, recognizing the important role of education as a main driver of development and in achieving the other proposed SDGs ». The idea of change is associated with the notion of « development »1. However, behind this notion lie many visions. We propose below to present the most common visions of development2.

The first one, the liberal capitalist paradigm, stresses the need to emphasize economic growth in the context of globalization. The strategy is to modernize institutions and economic activities, to change attitudes, and to improve workers’ competences and productivity. This paradigm is located within a very economic-centred vision. Next comes the marxist paradigm, often contrasted with the previous paradigm, which promotes the idea of granting liberty to peoples and individuals in a context of economic exploitation. Particularly for developing countries, the strategy is to break the ties of dependence on the former—sometimes even modern—colonial powers. A third paradigm is postcolonialism, which is mentioned less frequently. The idea is to achieve a different structure of society as perceived by others by dismantling the dominant conceptions of development. It is aimed particularly at former colonial countries. A fourth paradigm, liberal egalitarianism, corresponds to the official vision of the institutions of the United Nations system. Its key concepts are human rights, equality, fundamental freedoms or well-being. The strategy is to establish constitutional guarantees and international obligations in order that these principles are respected. Finally, the last paradigm is radical humanism, which has for vision the transformation of consciousness for the emancipation of the people and the creation of a just society. To achieve this objective, the strategy is to empower individuals and societies, particularly through education or various political initiatives.

It should be made clear that the paradigms we have just presented are, by definition, fixed models lacking flexibility. Indeed, some of these paradigms may overlap: we are thinking particularly of the Marxist and post-colonial models. Furthermore, the features of different paradigms may be identifiable in the development policies in a particular context. Finally, the first paradigm presented—liberal capitalism—is often considered as the dominant development model at the international level. For Morin (2011), « growth is perceived as the most obvious and dependable motor of development, and development as the most obvious and dependable motor of growth. The two terms are at the same time a means and an end of each other »3.

If we simply take three influential organizations in the field of education at the international level, namely the OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank they have shared (to varying degrees) this vision of development for at least three decades, which has implications for education4.

All citizens through learning become more effective participants in democratic, civil and economic processes (OECD, 1997); It is through education that the broadest possible introduction can be provided to the values, skills and knowledge which form the basis of respect for human rights and democratic principles, the rejection of violence and a spirit of tolerance (UNESCO, 1996); Development of specific content in curricula and educational materials to promote acceptance and integration of minorities, and use of minority languages in instruction (World Bank, 2005)

Education to improve economic growth (which should help to lift people out of poverty)

The increasing emphasis on the role in economic growth of people’s knowledge and skills, or ‘human capital’, has helped make education and training more central to the concerns of governments (OECD, 1997); UNESCO plans to study the issues arising from the transition to a knowledge society and to examine its effects on the organization, forms and content of knowledge […]. ICTs represent a strong lever for economic growth (UNESCO, 2002); Only by raising the capacities of its human capital can a country hope to increase productivity and attract the private investment needed to sustain growth in the medium term (World Bank, 2005)

Education as preparation for the job market

How much do various forms of education contribute to people’s employment prospects, to the literacy skills they need in everyday life, or to their prospective earnings? (OECD, 1997); Knowledge-based societies […] where knowledge and information increasingly determine new patterns of growth and wealth creation (UNESCO, 2002); Education must be designed to meet economies’ increasing demands for adaptable workers who can readily acquire new skills rather than for workers with a fixed set of technical skills that are used throughout their working lives (World Bank, 1995)

Education to improve economic growth (which should help to lift people out of poverty)

All citizens through learning become more effective participants in democratic, civil and economic processes (OECD, 1997); It is through education that the broadest possible introduction can be provided to the values, skills and knowledge which form the basis of respect for human rights and democratic principles, the rejection of violence and a spirit of tolerance (UNESCO, 1996); Development of specific content in curricula and educational materials to promote acceptance and integration of minorities, and use of minority languages in instruction (World Bank, 2005)

Even for UNESCO, which is often described as defending a humanistic vision, its positioning actually falters between progressive and economically-centred conceptions of development, blurring its expectations for education.

In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) actively involving the three organizations, there is a tendency to broaden the vision of development by taking additional social or environmental aspects into account. However, the economy is key, even when it would seem that social aspects have been taken into consideration. The importance of education for economic growth and for acquiring the skills needed for the labor market has not disappeared. To give an example that concerns a large number of international cooperation institutions (see video below), 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙨’ education is too often utilitarian (= gender inequalities will improve on their own as women become economic partners in development). A little limited, no? It is very rare to see in the discourse of cooperation agencies the desire to tackle in depth the roots of gender disparities.

Thus, many contradictions need to be highlighted in the discourse of international organizations: for instance, they wish to reverse the ecological model while promoting economic models that are destructive for the planet and societies (as recognised by UNESCO in its recent Rethinking Education report5). It is therefore crucial to step back from the ambitions of international cooperation: what world do we want through education? Should it not explicitly promote a humanistic education whose aim is the well-being of individuals and societies rather than a predominantly instrumental education whose main aim is economic production and consumerism?

IN ANY CASE, WE MUST BE WARY OF SLOGANS AND LOOK IN DETAIL AT THE PRECISE ORIENTATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN EDUCATION. WE WILL ADDRESS THIS TASK IN FUTURE ARTICLES.

References

1 UNESCO, Republic of Korea, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women et al. (2015). Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4

2 McCowan, T. (2015). Theories of Development

3 Morin, E. (2011). La Voie. Pour l’avenir de l’humanité

4 Lauwerier, T. (2018). What education for what development? Towards a broader and consensual vision by the OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank in the context of SDGs?

5 UNESCO. (2015). Rethinking education: towards a global common good?