Education and Development: The Issues and the Evidence

and about 21% of the remaining illiterates are concentrated in eight developing
countries. Current projections suggest that the absolute number of adult illiterates is
likely to fall but by only about 1 % by the end of the century (UNESCO 1991:25).

The trends selectively reviewed above present donors with a sharply differing set of
education and development issues in different countries. In some regions notably Sub-
Saharan Africa - and in particular countries dispersed across the regions, a stagnation or
decline has occurred in enrolment ratios at primary level and proportions of GNP and of
the national budget allocated to education have fallen. In many of these cases there are
other signs of distress. Individual examples are not difficult to find where salaries of
teachers have diminished substantially in real terms below levels necessary to provide a
livelihood, non-salary expenditure has been squeezed to derisory levels, and evidence
from achievement studies suggests that standards have declined. By contrast, many
countries which have not suffered economic deprivation have been able to consolidate
first level enrolment gains, often to near universal levels, and direct concerted attention
towards other aspects of educational improvement, most notably increasing
achievement and improving quality at primary and subsequent levels.

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