Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he is taking to increase the proportion of bilateral official development assistance spent on education.

Helping poor countries provide 12 years of good quality education, particularly for girls, is a top priority for this Government.

DFID Ministers have approved seven new country education programmes with a total value of £640m in sub-Saharan Africa where education outcomes lag furthest behind, to drive progress on the Sustainable Development Goal for education and meet the commitments in DFID’s 2018 ‘Get Children Learning’ Policy.

In addition, the UK remains a lead donor to the major multilateral education funds the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait – the education in emergencies fund – and has made the leading pledge to the new International Finance Facility for Education which will improve standards and increase education finance in Lower-Middle Income Countries.