Education and Development: The Issues and the Evidence



However, low allocations of expenditure on primary education do not seem to be simply linked to
relatively high levels of indebtedness or defence spending (Colclough with Lewin 1993:18). The mean
value of defence spending as a proportion of GNP in those developing countries with primary gross
enrolment ratios (GERs) of less than 90 and GNP per capita of less than US$ 2000 in 1986 was
substantially lower than the mean for all developing countries with GNP per capita below US$ 2000. And
the levels of indebtedness of those countries with GERs below 90 were similar to the mean for all
countries in the group.

Thus, though the proposition that high levels of debt servicing and defence spending are related to lower
levels of educational investment is plausible, it appears that the chain of causality is more complex than a
simple linear relationship. It remains consistent to argue that, in particular cases, the problem of
insufficient resources for education may indeed result from excessive allocations to the military beyond
reasonable need, and/or levels of indebtedness that reduce the resources available to governments to levels
insufficient to allow effective implementation of educational development policy.

There has been a considerable debate on the extent to which structural adjustment programmes have
contributed to diminutions in social sector spending in general and for education in particular, and whether
Adjustment with a Human Face" (Cornia, Jolly and Stewart 1987) - a response to concerns with the
impact of structural adjustment programmes on social welfare - has led to some protection for investment
in social sector programmes.

Structural adjustment programmes are broadly intended to support the ordered transition of economies
experiencing changed external conditions (oil price shocks, high interest rates, exchange rate fluctuations,
deteriorating terms of trade etc.) to new points of budgetary equilibria and to create the conditions for
economic growth. About 70 countries had received over 200 adjustment loans by the end of 1 990.

Recently the balance has shifted in favour of adjustment loans targeted on particular sectors. Most of the
loans were to low income countries in Sub Saharan Africa and to highly indebted middle income
countries. The policy conditionality associated with most of these loans carries four main implications for
educational investment. Public sector recurrent and capital spending is usually constrained to reduce
budget deficits. Wage restraint and public sector establishment rationalisation is usually required of public
services. Reductions in public subsidies and the recovery of costs are encouraged. Most recently social
policy conditionalities have been introduced into to attempt to protect the most vulnerable groups from the
impact of adjustment policies (Noss 1991:2).

Recent contributors to the debate on the impact of structural adjustment include Stewart (1991a), Noss
(1991), and Sahn (1992) and contributions to special issues of the IDS Bulletin (1989 Vol 20 Nol) and
World Development (1991 Vol 19 No 12). Stewart argues that adjustment policies have not had the
desired effects of restoring economic growth and that the balance of the experience was "undoubtedly
negative (Stewart 1991 b: 1848). In both Latin America and Sub Saharan Africa per capita income and
investment declined and inflation accelerated. Moreover, although there was a variety of experience
among adjusting countries, on balance government per capita spending declined. As a result social sector
spending per capita declined by 26% in Africa and 18% in Latin America between 1980 and 1985. In a



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