Analytical take on K-12 Education /Schooling

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CHALLENGE EVERYTHING & NOTE THAT AS SCOTT ADAMS SAYS, BOCTAOE (BUT OF COURSE THERE ARE OBVIOUS EXCEPTIONS)
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Education 101
10 /10 Series – 10 “killer” slides in 10 minutes
22nd July 2020
FAST FOOD FOR
QUICK DIGESTION
OFFICIAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

2. McKinsey & Company 2

3. 3
These slides were spun up from a number of solid reads
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10
Hugh’s Killer
Idea’s (HKI) Book
Rating
Hugh’s Killer Ideas is an Amazon Associate. Book purchases resulting from Amazon links may earn an affiliate commission

4. 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Yes. It’s Quiz time! ☺
• In 1820 only ~12% of the world’s population could read and write.
Today, that number is closer to?
❑ A: ~42% ❑ B: ~64% ❑ C: ~87%
1
• Today, there are around 800 million primary age children in the
world. While there are more children in school that at any point in
history, ~60 million are not in school. What percent will be literate
and numerate by the time they complete primary school?
❑ A: ~33% ❑ B: ~50% ❑ C: ~66%
2
• When looking at international standardized tests, the average 15-
year-old in Shanghai is how many years ahead in learning than the
average American 15-year-old?
❑ A: -1 year ❑ B: +1 year ❑ C: +3 years
3
You can find the answers at the top of the next slide! 10 10

5. 5
While there can at times be romanticism around not needing to be educated
…
“I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” –
Daisy in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, when she gives birth
The CEO and The Island Boy.
There was a very successful CEO of a large multinational company. This CEO had never
taken a day off for over a decade. The board intervened and mandated that she take
four weeks off. Her Blackberry was taken away, as was her work computer. A week
later, she was on a yacht sailing through the Caribbean. She met a local boy on a small
island who proceeded to spend the next few weeks teaching her how to scuba dive,
spear fish, snorkel, jet ski and so on.
“A few days before her departure, she asked the boy, ‘Why don’t you come back with
me to the U.S.?’ He replied with, ‘Why would I want to do that?’ She said, ‘I’ll make
you a store manager at one of my stores!’ He said, ‘And why would I want to do that?’
The lady said, ‘Well, after a few years of managing a store, you could become a
regional manager, and if that goes well, a few years later you could become a national
manager.’ The boy asked again, ‘Why would I want to do that?’ ‘Well, if that goes well a
few years later you could become the chief operating officer of our global operations,
responsible for over 1,000 stores in more than 30 countries.’ ‘And why would I want to
do that?’ ‘Well if that goes well, four to five years later you could have my job. And
then you would be able to take a month off and sail the Caribbean and fish and be one
with nature!’ The boy said, ‘Don’t I already do that today?’
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10
Answers to Quiz! Q1. C: ~87%. Q2. A: ~33%. Q3. C: +3 years.

6. 6
… and examples of those who have “dropped out” and been (very) successful
(some more controversial than others)
“The heralded social dividends of education are largely illusory: rising education’s main fruit is not broad-based
prosperity, but credential inflation” – Bryan Caplan, The Case Against Education
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

7. 10 10
“The main reason to go
to school is to learn
how not to think like a
professor”
– Nassim Taleb
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
And some skepticism around the exact value an education can have
“Education is an
admirable thing, but it is
well to remember from
time to time that
nothing that is worth
knowing can be taught” –
Oscar Wilde

8. 8
560 580 600
0
10,000
240
140,000
260
20,000
25,000
5,000
15,000
35,000
280
30,000
620
300 320
40,000
400
340
45,000
360
50,000
380 540
420 440 460 500
480 520
Brazil
UK
France
Average learning outcomes score
South Korea
GDP per capita
Democratic Republic of Congo
India
China
Mexico
Russia
US
Africa Europe
Asia North America South America Oceania
Average Learning Outcomes vs. GDP per capita, 2015, harmonized across
subjects & inflation adjusted
Mean Years of Schools vs. GDP per capita, 2010, 15+ years, inflation
adjusted
12
2
0
13
75,000
11
6
0 8
7 9 10 14
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
4
30,000
5
35,000
40,000
45,000
China
South Korea
Output-side real GDP per capita
US
Mean years of schooling
Democratic Republic of Congo
India
Mexico
Brazil
Russia
France
UK
Africa Europe
Asia South America
North America Oceania
It’s virtually a truth universally acknowledged that education matters, a lot.
Both educational achievement and attainment (years) seem to matter
“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The
human mind is our fundamental resource” – John F. Kennedy, 1961
“South Korea’s centralized school system has performed well, in part because of sustained
leadership attention (the Minister of Edu. has the rank of Deputy Prime Minister),
and in part because education is seen as pivotal to national survival” – OECD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

9. 9
Annual net1 income by education level
25-64 year-olds, 2009 or latest, $ ‘000 at purchasing-power parity
Germany
$27
Canada
South Korea
Australia
United States
Netherlands
Britain
Sweden
France
$37
Spain
Israel
$35
Greece
$53
$40
$39
$39
$36
$31
$28
$25
$22
Upper secondary
Below upper secondary Tertiary
Unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment,
2019, USD, using full-time salaries
Unemployment rate (%) Median usual weekly
earnings ($)
Doctoral degree
Master’s degree 2.0%
Professional degree
1.1%
5.4%
2.2%
1.6%
Bachelor’s degree
2.7%
Associate’s degree
3.3%
Some college, no degree
3.7%
High school diploma
Less than a high
school diploma
Total 3.0%
$1,883
1861
1497
1248
887
833
746
592
All workers: $969
Furthermore, education could even be the most important determinant of
your future success …
1. Less taxes and social contributions; Source: OECD; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
“Demand for highly educated individuals is increasing, as is their potential to create value, while demand for those with low education is decreasing”–Fenton Whelan
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

10. 10
Food, sleep,
water
Security, health,
finances
Friendship, intimacy,
family, connections
Respect, status,
recognition, strength,
self-esteem
Meeting one’s full
potential in life, different
for every person
Basic
needs
Psychological
needs
Self fulfilment needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Biological and physiological
Safety
Love/
belonging
Esteem
Self
actualization
… and not just financially, given the importance of education in other
important life outcomes
Life Expectancy by Education Attainment
25+ year olds, 2005, men and women
75
81
Less Than High
School Graduate
High School Graduate Graduate Degree
69
76
85
87
Men Women
“Scores on achievement tests in school correlate strongly with life outcomes, no matter
what a student’s background.” – Paul Tough
“Everywhere, skills transform lives, generate prosperity and promote social
inclusion.” – Andreas Schleicher
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

11. “Parents also tend to believe that the first few years of education pay much less than the
next ones. For example, in Madagascar, parents believed that each year of primary
education would increase a child’s income by 6 percent, each year of junior high education
by 12 percent, and each year of senior secondary education by 20 percent. We found a very
similar pattern in Morocco. There, parents believed that each year of primary education
would increase a boy’s earning by 5 percent, and each year of secondary education by 15
percent. The pattern was even more extreme for girls. In the view of parents, each year of
primary education was worth almost nothing for them: 0.4 percent. But each year of
secondary education was perceived to increase earnings 17 percent. In reality, available
estimates show that each year of education increases earnings more or less
proportionately. And even for people who do not get a formal-sector job, education seems
to help. For example, educated farmers earned more during the Green Revolution than
uneducated ones. Moreover, there are also all the other nonfinancial benefits.”
- Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Poor Economics
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
However, a large number of parents believe that education is a lottery
ticket rather than a safe investment
10 10

12. Education is
the most
powerful
weapon
which you
can use to
change the
world
- Nelson
Mandela
An
investment
in knowledge
pays the
best
interest
- Benjamin
Franklin
Education is
the
passport to
the future,
for
tomorrow
belongs to
those who
prepare for
it today
- Malcolm X
I do feel strongly
and passionately
that education is
the most
important gift
that we can give
to people. That
every individual
can be
transformed with
the right
educational
opportunity
- Sir Ken Henry
We also shouldn’t forget all the age-old wisdom around the importance of
education!
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10 10

13. 13
400
30
6
0
420
2 14
540
4 8 10 12 16 24
18
380
20
320
22
480
26 28
340
300
360
440
460
500
520
560
580
600
620
Mexico
Netherlands
Australia
Italy
Israel
Brazil
Korea
Thailand
Percentage of variance in performance explained by ESCS1
Finland
Mean Score
United Kingdom
Macau-China
Qatar
Canada
Norway
Hong Kong
Spain
Indonesia
United Arab Emirates
Shanghai
Russian
Federation
Switzerland
United States
Malaysia
Singapore
Turkey
Ireland
Germany
Chinese Taipei
New Zealand
Belgium
Portugal
France
Some School Systems Have Reduced the Impact of Socioeconomic Background
Percentage of variance in performance explained by socioeconomic background1, Math, 2012
Below Average performance
Below Average impact of
socio-economic background
Below Average performance
Above Average impact of
socio-economic background
Above Average performance
Above Average impact of
socio-economic background
Above Average performance
Below Average impact of
socio-economic background
OECD
Average
Education has the ability to close gaps in inequality, and change the destinies
of individuals from less fortunate backgrounds
81%
93%
96%
Chinese Indian Malay
90%
71%
99%
1987 2007
Success Academy vs. Rest of New York City/ State Student
Performance, school ranking & pass rates by sub-group
4% 2%
8%
15%
4%
16%
29%
41%
55%
27%
Success
Academy
NYC
17,000 1,059,828
Black or African American
Asian
Hispanic or Latino
White
Examples Exist of Where Education Has Closed Ethnic Gaps,
Primary school students eligible for secondary by ethnicity, %
In 1987, in Singapore, over 20% less Malays than Chinese were eligible for high school
compared with just 6% less only two decades later
SA NYC NY
95% 97% 98%
18% 19%
27%
Homeless
students
Students
with IEPs1
English
language
learners
Ranked in the
top 1% among all
schools in the
state
Success academy NYC
Math Pass Rates by Sub-Group
19% 19% 3% 13% 6% 10%
99%
46% 47%
Math 2019
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10
“As to the determinants of mobility, the most important influence is probably access to education. Education
opens a path to upward movement in the income distribution for the children of the poor.” – David N Weil
x% Total student pop

14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
“Today, in such highly successful charter schools as those of the KIPP school network and the Success Academy schools, standards have been at least as unsparing,
with longer school days, longer school years, rigorous academy requirements and little tolerance for disruptive behavior, much less for gross behavior so often
overlooked or excused in other publics schools.
The payoff to such uncompromising demands had been as dramatic in education as in sports or entertainment. As already noted in Chapter 3, black graduates of
Dunbar High School were attending some of the most elite colleges in the country a hundred years ago, and graduating with honors, as well as going on to become the
first blacks to have various career achievements in a number of fields. The academic achievements of low-income black and other minority students in many charter
schools today have been similarly remarkable.
In school year 2016-2017, for example, the various Success Academy schools in New York City enrolled 14,000 students. On statewide tests given in 2017, the highest
percentage of students in any of the New York State’s regular public school districts who passed the English Language Arts (ELA) test was 81 percent. In the Success
Academy schools, 84 percent of students passed the ELA test. In mathematics, the highest-scoring regular public school district in the state had 85 percent of its
students pass. In the Success Academy schools, 95 percent passed.
This would be an outstanding record for Success Academy charter schools under normal circumstances. Under the actual circumstance – including the predominantly
low-income black and Hispanic students who constitute the great majority in these schools, where students are admitted by lottery rather than ability – it is truly
extraordinary, considering how poorly such students usually do in the regular public schools.
In New York State’s regular public school district with the highest percentage of its students passing the math and English exams, 65 percent of those students were
Asian and 29 percent were white. In fact, among the state’s top five regular public school districts with the highest proportion of their students passing the statewide
math and English examples, white-and-Asian majorities ranged from 86 percent to 94 percent. Black and Hispanic students, put together, were less than 10 percent of
the students in each of these five achieving regular public school districts.
By contrast, in the Success Academy schools, with even higher percentages of their students passing those same exams, 86 percent of the students were either black or
Hispanic, and only 6 percent of the students where white and 3 percent Asian. The average family income of the children in the five highest-scoring regular public
school districts in New York state ranged from four times the average family income of the children in the Success Academy schools to more than nine times that of
the Success Academy children’s families.
How many observes – of whatever race, class or political orientation – can honestly say that they expected such outcomes? Such results are a challenge, if not a
devastating contradiction, to prevailing beliefs about either heredity or environment, as those terms are conventionally used .. Nevertheless, education is just one of
the areas in which beliefs, arguments and policies are too often guided not by what has demonstrably worked but by what fits a prevailing vision.
- Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities
10 10

15. “A remarkable social experiment from Israel shows how much schools can do. In 1991,
15,000 more or less indigent Ethiopian Jews, including many children, were airlifted out
of Addis Ababa in a single day and dispersed into communities all over Israel. There, these
children, whose parents had completed on average between one and two years of
schooling, entered elementary schools with other Israeli children, both long-term settlers
and recent immigrants from Russia, whose parents had had on average 11.5 years of
schooling. The family backgrounds of the two groups could not have been more different.
Years later, at the point when those who entered school in 1991 were about to graduate
from high school, the differences had narrowed considerably. Sixty-five percent of the
Ethiopian children had reached twelfth grade without grade repetition, compared to the
only slightly higher 74 percent amongst the Russian emigrants. It turns out that even the
most sever disadvantage in terms of family background and early life conditions can
largely be compensated for, at least in Israeli schools, where the right conditions are met.”
- Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Poor Economics
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
In addition to “no excuse” charter schools, the education of Ethiopian
Jews in Israel is another remarkable example
10 10

16. 16
Schools systems and schools can experience rapid and sustainable
improvements in educational outcomes through a differentiated approach
1. Score cut offs: Excellent >560 (none of our sample systems achieved this level); Great 520-560; Good 480-520; Fair 440-480; Poor <440; Source: TIMSS, PISA, NAEP, national and provincial assessments; McKinsey & Company interventions database
Poor1 Fair1 Good1 Great
Singapore
Hong Kong
South Korea
Ontario, Canada
Saxony, Germany
England
Latvia
Lithuania
Slovenia
Poland
Long Beach, CA, USA
Boston, MA, USA
Armenia
Jordan
Western Cape, South Africa
Chile
Ghana
Aspire Public Schools (USA)
Minas Gerais, Brazil
Madhya Pradesh, India
1985 1990 2000
1995 2005 2010
Poor to fair Fair to good Good to great Great to excellent
Improvement
journey
Providing motivation and
scaffolding for low skill teachers
 Scripted teaching materials
 Coaching on curriculum
 Instructional time on task
 School visits by center
 Incentives for high
performance
Getting all schools to a
minimum quality level
 Outcome targets
 Additional support for low
performing schools
 Schools infrastructure
Improvement
 Provision of textbooks
Getting students in seats
 Expand school seats
Data and accountability
Foundation
 Transparency to schools
and/or public one school
performance
 School inspections and
inspections institutions
Financial and organizational
foundation
 Optimization of school and
teacher volumes
 Decentralizing financial and
administrative rights
 Increasing funding
 Funding allocation model
 Organizational redesign
Pedagogical foundation
 School model/streaming
 Language of instruction
Raising caliber of entering
teachers and principals
 Recruiting programs
 Pre-service training
 Certification requirements
Raising caliber of existing
teachers and principals
 In-service training programs
 Coaching on practice
 Career tracks
 Teacher and community
forums
School-based decision-making
 Self-evaluation
 Independent and specialize
schools
Cultivating peer-led learning for
teachers and principals
 Collaborative practice
 Decentralizing Pedagogical
rights to schools & teachers
 Rotation and secondment
programs
Creating additional Support
mechanisms for Professionals
 Release professionals from
admin burden by providing
additional
administrative staff
System-sponsored
experimentation/ innovation
across schools
 Providing additional funding
for innovation
Intervention
Cluster
Six interventions: (1) Revising curriculum and standards; (2) Reviewing reward and remunerations structure; (3) Building technical
skills of teachers and principals, often through group or cascaded training; (4) Assessing student learning; (5) Utilizing student data
to guide delivery, and (6) Establishing policy documents and education laws
Common
across all
journeys
Theme Achieving the basics of literacy
and numeracy
Getting the foundations in place Shaping the professional Improving through peers and
innovation
Many examples exist of moving from
poor to fair to good to great
The school system interventions will vary depending on the current
starting place
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

17. 17
Comparing countries’ and economies performance in mathematics, PISA 2018, S.D. = Standard Deviation
Level Mean score
Country
400 600
550
300 500
350 450
B-S-J-Z (China)
Austria
Singapore
Netherlands1
Luxembourg
Sweden
Macao (China)
Hong Kong (China)1
558
Chinese Taipei
Korea
Estonia
531
Latvia
Poland
Switzerland
Canada
Denmark
509
Slovenia
591
Germany
Belgium
496
Finland
526
Belarus
Australia
United Kingdom
512
Norway
Malta
Ireland
Lithuania
France
Czech Republic
Iceland
500
New Zealand
Portugal
507
Italy
519
Russia
Slovak Republic
Spain
Hungary
516
Japan
United States1
569
500
551
527
523
515
509
508
502
501
472
499
499
495
478
495
494
502
492
491
487
486
483
481
481
481
472
488
S.D.1
80
81
100
100
93
94
82
89
95
82
91
93
90
95
78
93
93
80
93
90
93
96
92
86
94
100
98
94
94
86
82
90
92
88
91
91
92
93
102
Level 4
Level 3
Level 2
OECD average 489 (91)
Level Mean score
Country
500 550
450
400
300 350 600
435
Mexico
Argentina
Croatia
Israel
Turkey
Greece
Ukraine
Cyprus
Serbia
Malaysia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Kazakhstan
Albania
Bulgaria
Costa Rica
United Arab Emirates
Brunei Darussalam
Peru
Romania
Montenegro
Moldova
Uruguay
Baku (Azerbaijan)
Dominican Republic
379
Thailand
Chile
Qatar
463
Jordan
North Macedonia
Georgia
Lebanon
Colombia
430
Brazil
453
Indonesia
420
421
Morocco
451
Kosovo
Panama
Philippines
398
436
Saudi Arabia
430
464
454
451
448
440
437
430
391
419
418
417
414
409
406
402
400
400
423
394
393
384
379
368
366
353
353
325
373
S.D.1
87
88
89
97
83
106
94
83
87
94
89
88
85
85
98
78
82
75
84
85
88
93
106
81
88
84
79
108
94
95
83
97
91
79
76
77
77
78
71
Level 2
Level 1
OECD average 489 (91)
From 544.68 to
less than 606.99
score points
From 482.38 to
less than 544.68
score points
From 420.07 to
less than 482.38
score points
From 420.07 to
less than 482.38
score points
From 357.77 to
less than 420.07
score points
Below
Level 1
Below 357.77
score points
Above 669.30 score points
Level 6
From 606.99 to less than 669.30 score points
Level 5
There is a substantial difference in learning outcomes across school
systems, with an average 16 year old in Shanghai being many years ahead
“In the darkness, all students, schools and education systems look the same. And when we know little about the strengths and weaknesses of schools and education systems, it is
difficult to help them” – Andreas Schleicher, the Director of the PISA program
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

18. 18
Direction and trajectory of trend in mean performance in reading across PISA assessments, 2018
2000 2018 2000 2018 2000 2018
2018
2000 2000 2018 2000 2018
2000 2018 2000 2018 2000 2018
Increasingly positive Steadily positive
Positive, but flattening (less positive over more recent
years)
Countries/econom
ies with a positive
average trend
Countries/econom
ies with no
significant
average trend
Countries/econom
ies with a negative
average trend
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
2003 2006 2009 2012 2015
Sweden (00)
Albania (01)
Chile (01)
Colombia (06)
Germany (00) Israel (02)
Montenegro (06)
Peru (01)
Poland (00)
Qatar (06)
Romania (06
OECD average-23 (00)
Estonia (06)
Australia (00)
Finland (00)
Iceland (00)
New Zealand (00)
U-shaped (more positive over more recent years) Flat Hump-shaped (more negative over more recent years)
Steadily negative
Increasingly negative
Negative, but flattening (less negative over more recent
years)
PISA reading score PISA reading score PISA reading score
PISA reading score PISA reading score PISA reading score
PISA reading score PISA reading score PISA reading score
Jordan (06)
Russia (00)
Macau (China) (03) Portugal (00)
Belgium (00)
Greece (00)
Hong Kong (China) (02)
Hungary (00)
Indonesia (01)
Latvia (00)
Luxembourg (03)
Switzerland (00)
Chinese Taipei (06)
Turkey (03)
Korea (00)
Netherlands (03)
Thailand (01)
Argentina (01)
Czech Republic (00)
Ireland (00)
Slovenia (06)
Uruguay (03)
Austria (00)
Bulgaria (01)
Canada (00)
Croatia (06)
Denmark (00)
France (00)
Italy (00)
Japan (00)
Mexico (00)
Norway (00)
United States (00)
And the trajectories vary widely by school system, with some experiencing
positive, others neutral and some negative changes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

19. 19
Executive Summary
Situation Education – the acquisition of cognitive and non-cognitive skills – is arguably the most important determinate of someone’s future life trajectory. As the great Stanford economist (still batting on in his 90s) Thomas Sowell
states: “The stakes are huge – not only for children whose education can be their one clear chance for a better life, but also for a whole society that needs productive members, fulfilling themselves while contributing their
talents to the progress of the community at large.” The correlation between years of formal education as well as cognitive skill scores and economic prosperity is strong. Moreover, on an individual basis the link between
university (tertiary) education and those that do not get a high school diploma is dramatic in almost every country – with a 2-3x lower unemployment rate and a ~2x the average annual salary; (not to mention the other life
outcome differences)
Complication Despite the fact base; there are a number of global challenges:
The Long Tail. The number of those globally who do not have a basic level of education (literate and numerate) is substantial. Moreover, despite the Millennium Development Goal 2 to achieve universal primary education
there are still over ~60 million children who are not in school.
ROI. In countries where enough money is being spent, the return on investment whether that be in learning or in life outcomes is not always as high as it should be. In particular, a lot of recent investment in developed
countries (where only 6% of the world’s population live) has been in areas that do not improve the quality of teaching occurring in the classroom and hence does not affect the education of children.
Trajectory. For the vast majority of countries, the quality of their education systems and the quality of education in classrooms is either stagnant or in decline (over 70% of those that took part in OECD-led 2018 PISA
assessment). Both understanding where this decline or stagnancy is occurring; and why it is occurring is possible given the quality of data we have; however there are a lot of vested interests that will make placing these
systems on more positive trajectories challenging.
Resolution While all of these are “Wicked Problems” to begin to untangle and then tackle, and number of levers could be pulled around three main areas:
Equity – Ensure every child is in school and learning.
Primary aged children in school. A focus on ensuring 99%+ primary aged children are in school. This would mean an additional ~60million children need to be identified and then have them enrolled and attending school.
Primary aged children acquiring basic skills (literate and numerate). A focus to ensure 99%+ primary aged children are literate and numerate given how important this is to provide the first leg up in life. Today ~500 million
young people will not master the basics by the time they leave primary school.
Efficiency – Once there is a sufficient level of investment, ensure it is focused on the things that we know work to increase the education of children; and continue to assess effectiveness.
Ensure there is a sufficient amount of investment. Work to increase the average investment per student to ~$3,000 USD ppp around the world (currently only 50% of students receive this).
Focus investment on the things we know work. While there is a lot of excitement around education interventions, there is a lot of research around what works. While this varies by starting place, we know that investing
early (in years before age 5) matters while currently often less is invested in earlier years and more in later years. We know that class sizes don’t matter that much, and small class sizes force the quality and pay of
teachers down which impacts quality of learning.
Effectiveness – Make teaching and the education of future generations a national priority; and establish high standards around the amount of learning each year.
Ensure a year or more of learning each calendar year. On average, we can now measure how much cognitive and non-cognitive learning occurs each year. We should aim to have 90%+ of students learning one or more
years of learning each calendar year. For those students (often those who have come from disadvantage) we should be aiming for more than one year so they can catch up to others.
Explore ways to increase the status of teaching and education. Given the significance of an educated population to both national security and prosperity, exploring ways to increase status of education and teaching would
be prudent. For example, in South Korea they pay their teachers more (130% when compared to the average tertiary-educated worker; and a starting salary at 141% as a % of GDP per capita); keep them in the
classroom (with a ~1% annual turnover compared to ~8% in the USA) and the Minister of Education has the rank of Deputy Prime Minister.
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
There are six main areas for focus to increase education equity,
efficiency and effectiveness
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

20. 20
“In Indian schools. The results show that just 10% of children meet the expectations for
their grade level. After 5 years, less than half can read a simple text. Just one quarter
can do division problems like “658÷4”, and only half can do basic subtraction.
Among 5th graders, 20% cannot even recognize numbers between 10 and 99”
60-70%
20-30%
>90% 50-60%
10-20%
80-90%
40-50% <10%
70-80%
30-40% No data
GL
CA
US
MX
GT
BZ
SV
NI
HN
CR
PA
CO
VE
PE
BR
BO
PY
UY
AR
CL
FK
GY
SR
GF
EC
CU BS
DO
HT
PR
NO
SE
FI
DK
GB
IE
FR
ES
PT
EE
LV
LT
BY
UA
PL
DE
IT
CH
BE
NL
MD
RO
TR
SY
GR
CZ
SK
ATHU
SI
HR
BA
RU
MN
CN
IN
KP
KR
JP
MM
LK
NP BT
BD
TH
LA
VN
KH
SG
ID
MY
BN
PH
PG
AU
NZ
KZ
UZ
KG
TJ
AF
PK
TM
IR
IQ
GE
AM
AZ
SA
YE
OM
AE
QA
BH
KW
TN
LY
EG
SD
TD
NE
DZ
ML
MA
EH
MR
NG
CM
CD
AO
NA BW
ZA
LS
SZ
MZ
MG
ZW
ZM
MW
TZ
BI
RW UGKE
SO
ET
SS
CF
DJ
ER
CG
GA
GQ
BF
CI BJ
TG
GH
LR
GN
SL
SN
GM
GW
CY
JO
BG
MK
AL
ME
RS
IS
FO
IL
LB
PS
TW
GL
CA
US
MX
GT
BZ
SV
NI
HN
CR
PA
CO
VE
PE
BR
BO
PY
UY
AR
CL
FK
GY
SR
GF
EC
CU BS
DO
HT
PR
NO
SE
FI
DK
GB
IE
FR
ES
PT
EE
LV
LT
BY
UA
PL
DE
IT
CH
BE
NL
MD
RO
TR
SY
GR
CZ
SK
ATHU
SI
HR
BA
RU
MN
CN
IN
KP
KR
JP
MM
LK
NP BT
BD
TH
LA
VN
KH
SG
ID
MY
BN
PH
PG
AU
NZ
KZ
UZ
KG
TJ
AF
PK
TM
IR
IQ
GE
AM
AZ
SA
YE
OM
AE
QA
BH
KW
TN
LY
EG
SD
TD
NE
DZ
ML
MA
EH
MR
NG
CM
CD
AO
NA BW
ZA
LS
SZ
MZ
MG
ZW
ZM
MW
TZ
BI
RW UGKE
SO
ET
SS
CF
DJ
ER
CG
GA
GQ
BF
CI BJ
TG
GH
LR
GN
SL
SN
GM
GW
CY
JO
BG
MK
AL
ME
RS
IS
FO
IL
LB
PS
TW
Primary-age children in school, % Primary-age children who will reach a basic standard of learning, %
While there are more children in school today than at any point in history,
~60m are not in school and just 1/3 will achieve a basic level of learning
“The biggest lesson of all is that, to misquote Bertolt Brecht, universal primary
enrolment will not come after a night of sleep. It has to be worked at vigorously,
consistently and unremittingly not just in national capitals but also on the ground in
the towns and villages of the relevant countries.“ – Sir Michael Barber
1.1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10
While most (~91%, or around 700 million) children are in
school (and 96% will attend some schooling), ~60 million are
still not (most of which are in Africa)
Just ~37% will reach a basic level of learning; with less than
10% of children doing so in 32 countries (25 are in Africa, and
are home to half of Africa’s children)
In 1950, only
47% of primary-
age children
were in school

21. 88%
79%
18% 14%
12%
21%
82% 86%
1900
1800 2000 2016
Literate World Illiterate World
Bottom 20 Countries by Literacy Rates, 2015, %
Yes, there has been massive global progress when it comes to basic levels
of education, however there is still lots of work to do
Global Literacy Rates, 1800-2016, %
Gambia
Cote d’Ivoire
Sudan
32%
Pakistan
Nigeria
19%
30%
33%
Senegal
Burkina Faso
38%
38%
40%
43%
48%
48%
49%
52%
56%
56%
56%
59%
59%
37%
Niger
Mozambique
Guinea
South Sudan
Mali
Central African Republic
Afghanistan
38%
Benin
Chad
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Ethiopia
Mauritania
60%
While only 12% of the people in the world could read and write
in 1820, today the share has reversed: only 14% of the world
population, in 2016, remained illiterate.
Illiteracy issues are largely a problem in the Middle East & Africa. In the Middle East & North Africa
only 65% of the population over 15 have attended some form of formal education; 70% in
Sub-Sahara Africa; 74% in South & South-East Africa.
1.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

22. 22
Lifetime spending of less than $3,000 per child
(50% of all children)
Lifetime spending of less than
$2,000 per child (24% of all
children)
<$3,000 <$2,000
0
250
200
50
South
Korea
Kazakhstan
Morocco
France
Syria
Russia
Vietnam
United
Kingdom
Mexico
Italy
Angola
Egypt
Spain
Ghana
Saudi
Arabia
Argentina
Malaysia
Phillipines
South
Africa
Yemen
Iran
India
Cameroon
Cote
D’lvoire
Kenya
Thailand
Algeria
Senegal
Nepal
Indonesia
Pakistan
China
Colomnia
Tanzania
Germany
Nigeria
United
states
Bangaladesh
Brazil
Ethiopia
Peru
Uganda
Japan
D.R.
Congo
60-70%
20-30%
>90% 50-60%
10-20%
80-90% 40-50%
<10%
70-80%
30-40% No data
% of children reaching a basic learning level:
Funding available per child (lifetime spending), $1,000
Cumulative number of primary-age children, millions
For one in every two students, lifetime education spending does not
exceed $3,000 (~$300 per year)
Funding available per child to fund a full course of education, by country, $
Can you educate children for just ~$45 per year? “BRAC is the world’s largest NGO, operating development programs in many sectors. Its schools serve more than one million primary
and preschool students from the poorest communities in Bangladesh and a growing number of children in other countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of Africa. Despite their
background and late start at school, within four years students in BRAC schools outperform students in government schools. Of the children who enroll in BRAC schools, 93% complete primary
school, compared to 67% of children who enroll in government schools. Of those who complete BRAC’s primary school program, 98% transition to secondary school.
The Government of Bangladesh runs a primary-school leaving examination at the end of grade 5. In this examination, 84% of BRAC students achieve one of the top three grades,
compared to 54% of students nationally.”
2.1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 10

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