Learning and Schooling: models for a sustainable future (Banerji); Sustainable Development and Education: new frontiers for research and policy (Dercon)

Dr Rukmini Banerji; Professor Stefan Dercon

Pratham & ASER; DfID

RUKMINI BANERJI has been with Pratham since 1996 (www.pratham.org). She is a member of the national leadership team of the organization. Until recently, she was responsible for Pratham's programs and activities in several major states in India. Rukmini has extensive field experience both in program implementation as well as in assessment, evaluation, survey and research.

Initially trained as an economist in India, she did her BA at St. Stephen's College and attended Delhi School of Economics. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and completed her Ph.D at the University of Chicago. She did her post-doctoral work at the Population Research Center at the University of Chicago and later worked as a program officer at the Spencer Foundation in Chicago before returning to India in 1996. Originally from Bihar, Rukmini is now based in Delhi.

Rukmini has led the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) effort since it was launched in 2005. ASER is a nation-wide household survey of children conducted in every year in every rural district in India. It is the only current source of information on children's ability to read and do arithmetic for the country. ASER has been acknowledged nationally and internationally for its innovativeness in involving citizens and for its impact on education policy and practice (www.asercentre.org).

Rukmini has represented Pratham and ASER Centre at a variety of national and international forums. She is currently a member of the CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education) Committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Government of India. In the past, she has also been a co-chair for the Global Learning Metrics Task Force (convened by the Brookings Institution and UNESCO), a member for the Hewlett Foundation’s advisory group on Quality of Education in Developing Countries, and a member of the international advisory group for the Think Tank Initiative.

STEFAN DERCON is Chief Economist at the Department for International Development, London. He is also Professor of Development Economics at the University of Oxford, associated to the Department of International Development and to the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford. He is Professorial Fellow at Wolfson College. Previously, he has held positions teaching economics at Jesus College, Oxford, the University of Leuven (Belgium) and Addis Ababa University. He also acted as a Programme Director for the World Institute of Development Economics (WIDER), United Nations University.
Stefan Dercon’s research has emphasized the application of microeconomics and statistics to the analysis of development problems. He has published in top general and field journals in economics and other disciplines on diverse topics, including risk and poverty, the foundations of growth in poor societies, agriculture and rural institutions, migration, political economy, childhood poverty, social and geographic mobility, micro-insurance, and measurement issues related to poverty and vulnerability. He has worked extensively in Ethiopia, Tanzania and India.

At DFID, he is responsible for strategy and research, especially on the economic aspects of development, and for the use of evidence to improve the quality of development policy design and evaluation across a wide range of development issues.

Abstract

BANERJI: The experience of the last decade as well as accumulated evidence from the last decade and more e points to the need for going “beyond schooling” and for taking a closer look at issues related to children’s learning. Over time, governments and societies have created pathways through the school system and developed variety of different ways of viewing and understanding “progress”. But as we look back as well as when we think ahead we can sense dissatisfactions with the way teaching-learning is organized in today’s world and unease about how to plan for tomorrow.

In my talk, I will reflect on a series of questions: Are our current assumptions getting in the way of dealing with our realities? Many of our school systems are squarely anchored by age-grade institutional structures. But there is growing evidence of the “negative consequences of over ambitious curricula”.[1] How is this playing out in developing country contexts? More and more students are completing more and more years of schooling. But at the same time there is dissatisfaction from employers in the organized sector about the level of skills of school leavers as they enter the labour market. Youth people are increasingly unhappy about the opportunities available to them for livelihoods and for life. What are the implications of such disconnects as we think of preparing young people not just for their futures but for sustainable futures. How ready are we to understand and plan for change? Will the changes have to be in content, in the “delivery” of education or are there more fundamental changes that we need to think about?

[1] This is the title of Lant Pritchett and Amanda Beatty’s 2013 paper.

DERCON: I will reflect on the role of education in the broader attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and in development and poverty reduction more generally. Often, we find strong arguments about the primary role of education in achieving poverty reduction, economic development, the emergence of open societies and strong political institutions. The same is currently heard about even climate change and sustainability. While this may be right conceptually or theoretically, or even supported by lots of micro-level evidence, the evidence suggests that it adds up to much less than seems to be claimed, not least in poorer countries. This is important and leads to a re-examination of the evidence and key policy questions around education – focused on a much better understanding what education or more specific skills training can and cannot do for development. I will raise some implications for development policy, but also for the way we research education and for the ways we try to influence development policy.

Session

P1S » Plenary 1 (09:00 - Tuesday, 15th September, South School)

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