it is implemented. And not all the tendencies identified necessarily have adverse consequences for
development. For example, whether shifts towards or away from higher education support are
developmentally desirable will depend at a minimum on what the existing balance is, the ratio of unit costs
at different levels, the efficiency of different types of institution, and the strength of demand for
educationally qualified staff at different levels.
Stewart (1991 b: 1849) may be right to argue that it is inappropriate to adopt a "conterfactual approach to
assessments of the impact of changes associated with austerity and adjustment (where actual
developments are compared with what might have happened if no adjustment had taken place) since, from
the point of view of effects on human conditions, it is actual developments that are significant. If
deterioration has occurred, development has not taken place. If changes of the types listed have taken
place, and where these have not widened access, increased efficiency, and maintained educational quality,
there is a prima facie case for assistance that might lessen the deleterious impact of such changes.
One way of approaching this set of problems raised by austerity and adjustment for educational
investment and international assistance is to explore educational policy options that can respond to
austerity which consciously seek to minimise effects which erode the quantity and quality of educational
investment. Work initiated for the World Conference on Education for All (Colclough and Lewin 1990)
has been extended to provide a new analysis how this might be achieved. An operational definition of
basic education provision is used that allows for the achievement of Gross Enrolment Rates of 100% and
substantial reductions in drop-out rates and repetition. Policy reforms are applied which are cost saving,
cost shifting and quality enhancing. These include various measures concerned with double shifting, class
size, community assistance, higher education subsidies, expenditure on learning materials, teachers
salaries, and repetition and drop out. In summary, using both aggregated and individual country level
simulations, this work demonstrates that through selective use of educational reforms many countries
could finance more efficient educational systems with broader access and improvements designed to
enhance quality, without allocating disproportionate amounts of public resources to education. Reformed,
relatively efficient systems with GERs of 100 or more, which allow for real improvements in the resources
available to improve quality (e.g. for educational materials and for real increases in teacher's salaries) can
be no more demanding on the public budget than expanded but inefficient systems without quality
enhancements (Colclough with Lewin 1993).
The implications for educational assistance of the various trends outlined above are complex and many
dimensioned. It is not simply the case that countries which do not succeed in providing adequate education
to most of their populations are resource constrained in so doing. In some failure to achieve this is the
result of conscious decisions to allocate resources for other purposes whether these be military, excessive
levels of borrowing to sustain levels of public expenditure, or other preferred uses of public funds. This
one issue stands out above all others in relation to the policy dialogue between donors and recipients. To
what extent is failure to provide adequate access to educational services a function of resource constraints,
cost constraints or relative neglect? This bears directly on the question of whether aid can contribute to
improvements in those countries where many experience little or no access to schools and other
educational services.
Some assessments therefore have to be made of the conviction with which educational development policy