Here is a fascinating article that comes about as the result of bringing together the minds of some of the world’s top economists to think about some of the big issues and challenges facing the world today. In this case, looking at how to improve the outcomes of school education there is a starting acknowledgement that quite significant strides have been made, though there is a long way to go and the improvements have not been consistent between countries. Tellingly, it points out that the education outcomes are worst in the worst governed countries!
Three major interventions are proposed;
- Improved nutritional inputs for young children (presumably both before and during schooling),
- Education programmes targeted at increasing parental awareness of the longer term benefits of staying longer in school, to improve drop-out ratios,
- Cash transfer payments to incentivize parents to keep their children in school longer.
The first and second are not only more affordable, but also appear to yield the best results.
Slate Article – Copenhagen Consensus 2012 Article – Education
For those who have the time there’s a wealth of very thoughtful and well presented articles in this ‘Copenhagen Consensus’ section of this website.
Strangely, it’s just occurred to me – nowhere did these wise economists appear to be advocating forcing private independent schools to provide free education under a vast social experiment as a solution for improved educational outcomes in developing countries – strange that!
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