Poor countries spend more on richer pupils

New Research from Unicef highlights that poorer children in developing countries have their disadvantage compounded by government policy, as educational resources there are much more likely to be allocated to rich students.

“The Investment Case for Education and Equity”, report, presented to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, stated that “Ironically, public education – which is supposed to be an equalising force – is a source of great inequality (in Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Mali, Rwanda, Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi).

The richest 20 percent of students in Mali allegedly receive 18 times more than the poorest 20 percent.

Figures released showed that, the poorer a country is, the greater the degree of inequality.

In Malawi, where forty percent of the National budget is comprised of Overseas Aid, the richest ten percent of students use 68 percent of the public educational resource.

The paper contends that the unfairness is a result of wealthier children being more likely to continue study up until higher levels of education, which have higher associated costs of provision.

A further paper published this week, “Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All”, reports that 58 million children aged between six and 11 do not have access to schooling.

Those most likely to miss out are children in conflict-ridden countries, female students, children engaged in child labour, those in rural areas, with household poverty one of the “most persistent” barriers to education.

The University of Warwick’s Warwick in Africa programme saw students teaching in schools in Tanzania, South Africa and Ghana for a total of 322 weeks.

In 2011 an Independent Evaluation of Warwick in Africa recommended that more disadvantaged schools in Tanzania should be targeted where appropriate.

The UK currently spends 0.7 percent of GDP on international aid, amounting to 11.3 billion pounds, or £180 per UK citizen.