Education in the 1980s: World Bank perspectives - the myth and the reality

Author(s)
Saraf, S.N.
Languages
English
Series
IIEP Occasional Papers, 57
Year
1980
Pages
41 p.

Online version

About the publication

In reviewing and analyzing the World Bank's "Education Sector Policy Paper" of April 1980, the author concentrates, first, on the report's description of worldwide issues and trends in educational development and, second, on the report's assessment of past and future World Bank lending for educational programs. The discussion of worldwide issues and trends examines the relationship between education and development, equal educational opportunity, education and work, the need for educational research, educational costs and financing, and the management of external aid to education. In his treatment of World Bank support for education, the author covers the problems of economic growth without redistribution, World Bank priorities and concerns in education, the expansion of basic education, the delayed impact of educational programs, the advantages of nonformal over formal education, and the need for a flexible World Bank lending policy in education. The essay's conclusion stresses the size and potential impact of World Bank loans. Two appendices compare the activities of the World Bank and the International Institute of Educational Planning and provide an annotated list of 25 World Bank studies on education.