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INTRODUCTION
Education is a key pathway for poverty reduction and sustainable development worldwide. At
the individual level, lack of schooling lowers productivity, undermines voice and agency.
Globally, a relatively small share of primary-school graduates is living in poverty (World Bank
2016). More schooling reduces child mortality and positively impacts on life expectancy,
women’s empowerment and civic engagement. School education is also critical for transmitting
social knowledge, building trust and increasing tolerance (Asadullah, 2016; Asadullah, Amin and
Chaudhury, 2018). At the national level, education is one of the fundamental determinants of
economic productivity. The accumulation of human capital through investment in education is
a key factor for long-run growth performance (Lucas 1988). Education in the form of advancing
knowledge and skills is necessary for adopting, attaining, and spreading new and improved
technologies and production processes (Benhabib and Spiegel 2005).
Therefore, in addition to the fact that education is a fundamental human right, the economic case
for investment in schooling is clear. According to the International Commission on Financing
Global Education Opportunity, “a dollar invested in an additional year of schooling generates
earnings and health benefits of $10 in low-income countries” and “a dollar invested in a one-
year increase in the mean years of schooling generates more than US$5 in additional gross
earnings in low-income countries” (Global Commission 2016). Sustained investments in human
capital reduced poverty rapidly without substantive rise in inequality and delivering inclusive
growth in East Asia (World Bank 2018a). Other instrumental non-economic benefits of a literate
and educated society include greater support for democracy and tolerance for others.
Most countries around the world have seen an expansion in schooling opportunities in the past
four decades. Following the global commitments to universalize education such as the UN
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, EFA, MDGs and more recently, the SDGs, there is a clear
political consensus on education for all. Today, more children are in school and completingmore
years of schooling. This is also true for many OIC countries which have successfully expanded
access to primary school education, encouraged by global initiatives such as the MDGs target of
achieving universal primary education by 2015.
Today more children have access to basic education in the OIC countries than at the start of the
MDG campaign. However, millions have been left behind when it comes to learning in school.
The latest World Development Report (WDR) of the World Bank echoes UNESCO GMR 2014 and
warns that there is a global learning crisis – schooling is not translating into learning. This
implies that a large proportion of uneducated child today can be find in school. This is worrying
because a primary channel through which schooling accelerates economic growth appears to be
through boosting learning and skills. UNESCO (2014) estimates that learning crisis is costing
$129 billion a year. This cost is particularly higher for developing countries in Sub-saharan
Africa and South Asia which has a higher proportion of children out of school. Equally, poor
quality education, especially in the early years in life, can undermine later achievements and
reduce the equalizing power of education. The learning crisis also has intergenerational
consequences. Educatedmothers play a critical role in improving children’s health and cognitive
development. Lack of basic numeracy and literacy skills among women implies low level of
human capital in the next generation.
An illiterate population also imposes significant social and economic costs while an educated
workforce is a valuable resource in today’s globalized economy. The double burden of low level
of school enrollment and learning often coexists and contribute to unemployment, economic