Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to ensure that her Department's education spending delivers the best learning outcomes.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
A focus on improving access to school and learning outcomes drives DFID’s approach to investment in education in priority countries.
DFID has pledged to support 11 million children with an education between 2015 and 2020. Not just to get children into school, but to ensure they are learning. All of DFID’s education programmes prioritise learning and we are seeing results; for example the Girls Education Challenge has increased the learning outcomes in literacy and mathematics for 700,000 girls across 18 countries. Motivated, trained, effective teachers are essential for children to learn. In Tanzania we are rolling out in-service teacher training with a focus on literacy, numeracy and better pedagogy for over 45,000 teachers in 7 disadvantaged regions.
In Bangladesh, DFID support the ‘English in Action’ programme in which school teachers receive specially designed training modules and lesson plans directly to their low cost mobile phones. It has been shown to improve their teaching and is being modified for use in Nigeria. DFID is also working internationally to embed a global focus on the quality of education.
DFID championed the inclusion of learning indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals and increased support for international monitoring to track progress. We have commissioned rigorous impact evaluations to understand what works to improve learning and ensure good value for money is achieved.
Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much Government overseas development assistance expenditure is spent directly or indirectly on low-fee, for profit private schools in (a) Nigeria, (b) Pakistan, (c) Kenya and (d) Uganda.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Our absolute priority is to ensure children in the world’s poorest countries get the education they deserve, regardless of whether the school is public or private. When state provision is not delivering for the poorest, we work with low-cost privately run schools to provide an education to children who would otherwise get none. DFID has made direct investments in low-fee schools in Nigeria, Kenya and Pakistan. In Nigeria, we have spent £7.6m since 2013, 4,000 students are enrolled in 17 new schools in deprived areas of Lagos, with ongoing work to improve the quality standards of education provided to 1.8 million primary students in private schools. In Kenya we have spent £2.4m since 2014. We paid for 20,000 children to go to private schools in deprived urban areas where there is very limited state provision.
In Pakistan we have spent £28m since 2012, contributed to enrolling 1.7 million children in Punjab and 16,000 children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. In addition, the UK’s development finance institution, CDC, invested $7.1m in 2014 on low fee private schools, which includes support in Uganda.
Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to respond to the recent recommendations by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on privatisation and the right to education.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The United Kingdom notes the recent recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Our priority is to ensure children get the education they deserve and in the vast majority of cases this means investing in the state sector. However, where state provision is weak or non-existent we work with paid-for schools to provide an education to children who would otherwise get none.
It is important for national governments to define the appropriate balance between private and public provision in their country, in compliance with their international human rights obligations. We do not accept that DFID’s funding of private provision of education violates children’s right to an education. On the contrary, in many cases it secures it.
Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when her Department plans to publish a new global education strategy setting out how the UK will help to meet Sustainable Development Goal 4.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The UK Aid Strategy sets out how the Government will tackle the great global challenges of our age in order to eliminate poverty. DFID is helping to ensure that every girl and boy can access, and complete, a good quality basic education.
Asked by: Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of direct or indirect Government overseas development assistance expenditure on low-fee, for profit private schools on the performance of those schools.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Through targeted investments in programming and research DFID is helping to build, and expand, the emerging evidence base on the performance of the low cost private education sector. It is also directly enabling children to attend school.
In East Africa, CDC’s investments have led to 245 schools opening, educating 60,000 children in areas with limited state school provision. Latest evidence shows that children educated in private and philanthropic schools in developing countries often fare better in terms of both teaching and learning than those in educated in public schools. However it remains the case globally that too many children are either out of school altogether or not achieving basic competencies, which is why the government continues to invest in providing a decent education for millions of children in developing countries.