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Can the international education architecture be made to work?

Mon, April 26, 8:00 to 9:30am PDT (8:00 to 9:30am PDT), Zoom Room, 105

Proposal

Paper 2

Can the International Education Architecture be Made to Work?

This paper builds on an article in the International Journal of Educational Development and sets out for the first time a set of six dimensions on which the architecture could be assessed (advocacy, norms and standards, knowledge, monitoring, accountability, and financing) and argued that the current architecture was failing the global South, especially low-income countries. It argued that the international agencies were hypocritical in calling for systemic approaches to education within countries but not fixing their own broken system. The new paper to be presented at CIES will review developments since that essay, taking account of criticisms made of it, of subsequent actions by the agencies, and of the devastating impact of Covid-19, all with special reference to Sub-Saharan Africa.

SDG4 is becoming less relevant for Africa, with even universal basic education being unachievable by 2030 (40 years after it was first set as a global target). New thinking is needed, as is a major overhaul of the aid architecture. However, this will be difficult in the current global political climate. A more pragmatic approach would be enhanced cooperation around a revised vision for the future of education (both globally and for Africa), a program to finance adequately needed public goods in education (like data and knowledge), and a program to expand Africa’s absorptive capacity and improve its education governance systems, so it can absorb more finance and move more quickly to improve its education systems.

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