The real power over decisions on the financing of education tends to lie with Ministers of Finance more than Ministers of Education. But Ministers of Finance often lack good evidence and arguments about why they should invest more in education. For this reason, ActionAid has prepared this short briefing, laying out the case for investing in education, drawing on the latest evidence and arguments. This has been endorsed by many powerful region and global education movements, including the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), Education International (EI), the Global Student Forum (GSF), regional education platforms (ASPBAE, ANCEFA, CLADE and ACEA), the Tax Justice Network and the Center for Economic and Social Rights.
This briefing argues that education is the soundest long-term investment a country can make. It contributes to stimulating economic growth, reducing inequality, ending gender injustice, combatting racism, boosting health, enhancing social cohesion and peaceful societies, building resilience to climate change and driving the fulfilment of human rights. But too often governments are caught up in short-term thinking, seeing education spending as consumption rather than recognising it as investment. This is an underlying mindset that must change, and this briefing will be sent to Ministers of Finance in every country to demand a shift in their perspective and practice.
Globally 97% of financing for education comes from domestic financing and only 3% from aid or loans. In looking at domestic resource mobilisation for education, the briefing argues that Ministers of Finance need to focus on increasing 4 Ss:
- Increasing the Share of national budgets dedicated to education (to at least 20%);
- Increasing the Size of government budgets overall (determined by tax, debt, macro-policies, overall public spending, trade etc.);
- Increasing the Sensitivity of education budget allocations – driven by an evidence-based approach to equity and improving effectiveness;
- Increasing the Scrutiny of education spending in practice – so resources are tracked (especially in the most disadvantaged communities), data quality is improved and the capacity to use data is enhanced.
This briefing is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. We encourage national education coalitions, teacher unions, and NGOs to work together in each country to open up a new dialogue with Ministers of Finance based on this new briefing.