Education and Training for Development

In recent centuries, the pace of technological change across most sectors in many countries -- in agriculture, in manufacturing, and in some services -- has been rapid. As a result, in many industries productivity increases have been dramatic. In contrast, across the globe productivity improvements in the education sector in many countries have often been rather slow. To be sure, in rich countries many new techniques have been introduced in recent years. Much more capital is used (better buildings, projectors, sound and TV equipment, and so on) than was the case, say, 50 years ago. But especially in developing countries, the techniques of education and training widely used have changed but little from the techniques used in Europe three or four centuries ago. In many developing countries few books are used, rote learning is still common, schools are equipped with the no more than the most basic facilities, and little attempt is made to encourage an outward-oriented, imaginative and questioning attitude amongst students. The need for reform is urgent.

Partly in response to these difficulties in the developing world, in recent decades many multilateral and bilateral development agencies have supported a wide variety of training and education programs. Indeed, the range of forms of delivery used by international agencies to provide education and training assistance in developing countries is almost bewilderingly varied: long-term and short-term formal and informal courses have been used, in-country and overseas training has been provided, all kinds of workshops and seminars and conferences have been used as delivery mechanisms, training has been provided in foreign and local languages and for almost all age groups, and so on. It is hard to avoid the impression that this very large overall effort, sustained over decades, needs more rigorous evaluation than it has so far received and may be in need of substantial reform.