The Education Finance Watch Report (EFW), 2021 has been released by the World Bank and UNESCO. Two-thirds of low- and lower-middle-income countries cut public education budgets since the onset of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
This Education Finance Watch (EFW) is a collaborative effort between the World Bank and UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report. This Education Finance Watch (EFW) draws together and summarizes the available information on patterns and trends in education financing around the world.
The aims Education Finance Watch to shine a spotlight on an important education financing issue. The spotlight for this year’s EFW is on the impact of Covid-19 and provides a snapshot of how education budgets are changing in response to the pandemic. It summarizes the available information on patterns and trends in education financing around the world.
It observed that the challenge was also about improving the effectiveness of funding. It found that despite increases in public education spending before the pandemic, the funding has only resulted in relatively small improvements in educational outcomes.
Global spending on education has increased continuously in absolute terms over the last 10 years. However, the pandemic may interrupt this upward trend.
2/3rd of low and middle-income countries reduced their education budgets since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In comparison, only a third of upper-middle and high-income countries have reduced their budgets.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, high-income countries were spending annually the equivalent of $8,501 for every child’s education. It was $48 in low-income countries. The pandemic has further widened this spending gap.
Access to education has improved in low and middle-income countries. However, the learning poverty rate (the proportion of 10-year-olds unable to read a short, age-appropriate text) was at around 53%. It was only 9% for high-income countries. This has increased further to 63% after COVID-19-related school closures.
To achieve national and international education goals, many countries will need to invest more in their education systems.
During the last decade, government education spending has increased steadily, but the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted public finances dramatically, and the prospects for maintaining these increases have deteriorated.
Unfortunately, recent increases in public education spending have been associated with relatively small improvements in education outcomes.
Although access to education has improved, 53 percent of ten-yearolds in low- and middle-income countries are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text (World Bank 2019).
Tackling the large spending inefficiencies and inequalities common to many education systems will be vital in order to make better use of resources and strengthen the link between spending and education outcomes.