Lessons learned from East Asia on policymaking

• In Event: Financing education: an overview of the landscape

Proposal

Financing for education is based on policy and legal frameworks, but what public policies are cost-effective while also strengthening equity and promoting learning outcomes. This presentation will draw on the World Bank’s research and analysis to look at historical case studies from East Asia Pacific to discuss how high-performing systems established policy and finance frameworks that successuflly improved learning outcomes and increased access. These historical case studies from East Asia and Pacific have relevnace for contemporary developing countries, struggling to balance growing youth populations, demand for education, and budget constraints.

The World Bank’s 2018 report, “Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia Pacific”, draws on lessons learned from education systems which have systematically approached public policy and finance to imrpove education outcomes. What are the policy frameworks they implemented, and what can we learn from their experiences? On financing, the Bank’s report highlights that “Top Performing Systems in East Asia and Pacific all adopted three principles for effective spending of public resources: prioritizing public spending on basic education, managing essential inputs efficiently, and enhancing the equitable distribution of resources.” (World Bank, “Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia Pacific” (2018), p. 2-3)

“These principles reinforce the concept of “progressive universalism” advocated by the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (2016), known popularly as the Education Commission. Progressive universalism means that ‘when balancing spending across different levels of education and population groups, decision makers should prioritize the poor and early years where social returns are highest, and minimize household spending on basic education by the poor’ (International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity 2016, 20).” (World Bank, “Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia Pacific” (2018) p. 103)

This panel will use historical case studies from East Asia Pacific to highlight lessons learned from the experinces of high-performing systems for education policy and finance.

Author

• Harry Anthony Patrinos, World Bank