Why and How Can We Improve Primary Education - Report Example

Why and How Can We Improve Primary Education Introduction The first compulsory schooling years are called primary school. In the US, this would start in the kindergarten at age 5 and proceeds through to age 11, that is, grades K to 6 (Dean, 2005). Primary schools offer instructions in the critical foundational skills in writing, reading and mathematics, and could also include social studies. These are critical skills to see children into adulthood according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT (2014). Despite the importance of primary education in meeting the millennium development goals and fostering literacy and numeracy, it still suffers crucial shortcomings that inform the need to undertake improvements on the system. Why We Need To Improve Primary Education In as much as immense gains have been made to increase the number of children attending primary school, there is a significant number of children who are yet to be enrolled and even more who do not complete primary schooling. Statistics by the World Bank (2013) indicate a significant 57 million children at their primary school age still not going to. The United Nations Development Group, UNDG (2014) puts this enrolment rate at 80% with a forecast of 56 million children not enrolled to primary school in 2015 if the current trend persists. This is further marred by gender parity which stood at 97% with an even greater proportion of girls at about 60% constituting the number of out-of-school primary school children (The World Bank, 2013). As such, improvements need to be undertaken not only to increase enrolment into primary schools, but also ensure a proportional enrolment of both boys and girls. The other reason why primary school education needs improvement is informed by the relatively low completion rate. As at 2011, completion rate in primary education reached 90 per cent. This has largely contributed to adult illiteracy which has remained at high levels in the recent past at about a sixth of the global population (UNDG, 2014). This indicates the need to make adjustments in the systems governing primary education to ensure that relatively all enrolments complete their studies. Finally, primary education receives limited budgetary allocation to meet its demands. Statistics documented by Lips, Watkins and Fleming (2008) indicate that a majority of Americans feel that the Federal and State governments allocate limited resources and funding to primary education, this being a major problem among public schools. These statistics show a shortfall of about $48 billion among 29 states with a high likelihood of more states falling victims in future. Despite the US government spending 4.2% of its gross domestic product in primary education combined with secondary education as of 2007, the allocation seems limited to meet the demands. This shortcoming has been further aggravated by the fact that few bilateral donors prioritize primary education, with the same amount that was donated in 1999 persisting through to 2007 as opposed to health donation which doubled during the same period (UNDG, 2014). Therefore, there is need to improve on the budgetary allocation to primary school education. Importance The basic importance of improving primary education is to meet the millennium development goal, MDG2, “providing a full course of primary schooling for everyone in every country” by the year 2015 (UNDG, 2014, 1). Completing primary education is one of the basic human rights, providing an opportunity to enjoy many other rights. It transforms and empowers humans thus a means to access broad social, economic, cultural and political benefits. In fact, primary education serves as a powerful driver for the realization of all the other MDGs and generally to ensure sustainable development. Therefore, improving on primary education would open up children to a myriad of opportunities into their adulthood. Even more specifically, proper primary school education would foster numeracy and literacy that would benefit children into adulthood and thus positively affect the national economy. Basic numeracy and literacy skills imparted in primary school enables children to be efficient and more able to learn according to MIT (2014) which increases national technological progress and income. Furthermore, ensuring that an equal number of boys and girls acquire primary education would build the requisite knowledge for combating disease, eradicating hunger and poverty and ensuring environmental sustainability. Proper budgetary allocation to primary education would see an improvement in academic achievement and thus increase literacy levels, a key economic indicator (Lips et al., 2008). Thus, improving primary education is vital. How Do We Improve Primary Education The basic approach to improving primary education would be to implement sector policies for expansion and improvement of primary education. With this regard, Dean (2005) advocates for educational policies and programs that seek to make primary education more affordable, accessible, available and culturally appropriate through the identification of characteristics defining specific groups of children not taking part in primary education. This would enable the development of policies and programs that specifically address their issues. Among these would include setting of enrolment and retention targets that best fit the given groups. Efforts aimed at making children ready for primary schooling by expanding early childhood programs which include making schools more effective and welcoming would see to it that primary schools attract more children and also increase completion rates. A study by Berlinski, Galiani and Gertler (2006) indicate that one year pre-primary program increases test scores in primary level by 8% and also improves on primary school self control. This would also be critical in reducing gender parity as measures specific to both genders would be employed making primary schooling attractive to both genders. Another approach would be to improve on the curriculum and the learning experience of primary school children. The curriculum for primary education should define the skills, knowledge and attitude that it expects to impart on children at each stage and not just the numeracy and literacy of the course. In addition, such learners should be accorded the opportunity for engagement in a broad and balanced curricular experience that would support all aspects of their development extended to emotional, social, physical, imaginative and aesthetic dimensions (Department of Education and Skills, 2011). This would boost on retention of children in primary school, thus positively impact on completion rates. Finally, it would be crucial to adequately and effectively finance primary school education. Respective governments should ensure adequate expenditure on primary education and diminish the burden of primary schooling on households through measures such as provision of compensatory grants to schools and abolishment of school fees among others (UNDG, 2014). This could be undertaken by involving appropriate partners to help meet any budgetary deficits. Such partners include World Bank, a critical partner that has been financing primary education in developing countries to the tune of $9 billion per year (The World Bank, 2013). These partners would be crucial in helping primary education meet its intended objectives through financing and offering knowledge services including policy advice, technical assistance and analytic work. These knowledge services are crucial in supporting the financial assistance because as argued by Lips et al. (2008) from historical indications, a mere increase in budgetary allocation for primary education would not yield the expected results. Instead, policymakers together with primary school leaders should come up with policies that would implement reforms on resource allocation. Such reforms should streamline regulations, reduce bureaucracy and cascade funding authority to local and state levels. This would ensure that schools receive funding based on their needs and that there would be an oversight mechanism to ensure proper resource utilization. Thus, financial assistance needs to come with knowledge service to enable effective, in addition to adequate, allocation of resources to primary education. Conclusion Primary education is foundational in imparting numeracy and literacy in children into their adulthood. However, many children who need to be in primary school still do not go to school, a fact compounded by gender parity. Additionally, primary education completion rates are low and governments have unsatisfactory budgetary allocations. Improving on primary education would foster the attainment of MDGs and numeracy and literacy, critical for economic development and sustainability. As such, sector policies should target specific needs of the varied groups of primary school-going children, improve their curriculum and learning experience and adequately and effectively allocate resources and funding. This would not only positively transform individuals but also economies at large. References Berlinski, S., Galiani, S. & Gertler, P. (2006). The effect of pre-primary education on primary school performance. The William Davidson Institute. Retrieved 7 December 2014 from http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/ Dean, J. (2005). Improving the primary school. Oxon, OX: Routledge. Department of Education and Skills. (2011). Literacy and numeracy for learning and life: The national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy among children and young people 2011 – 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2014 from https://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Policy-Reports/lit_num_strategy_full.pdf Lips, D., Watkins, S. & Fleming, J. (2008, September 8). Does spending more on education improve academic achievement? The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 7 December 2014 from http://www.heritage.org/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2014). Improving primary education. Retrieved 7 December 2014 from http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/ The World Bank. (2013, May 6). Education: Sector results profile. Retrieved 7 December 2014 from http://www.worldbank.org/ United Nations Development Group. (2014). Thematic paper on MDG2: Achieve universal primary education. Retrieved 7 December 2014 from http://www.undg.org/ Read More