March 2015: “Substantial new investment is needed if the world is to achieve the key education targets” of the post-2015 development agenda, according to an Education for All (EFA) policy paper released by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The paper analyzes the cost of meeting the proposed post-2015 education targets in all low-income and lower middle-income countries, and finds that domestic resources are not sufficient to achieve them by 2030.

‘Pricing the right to education: The cost of reaching new targets by 2030′ highlights an annual financing gap of US$22 billion for reaching universal pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education of good quality in low- and lower middle-income countries between 2015 and 2030. It concludes that aid must remain a critical source of education finance over the next 15 years.

The report predicts that if external assistance only increases in line with overall growth of gross domestic product (GDP), the education targets will not be met until approximately 2050, and if current levels of external assistance remain, the targets are unlikely to be achieved until the 2060s.

Spending per student “will need to increase substantially” to improve education quality. For instance, low-income countries spending per primary school student needs to rise from US$65 to US$199, the report finds.

The report recommends that donors redistribute aid to education from upper middle-income countries to low-income and lower middle-income countries, suggesting that a four-fold increase in the volume of aid for pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education will be necessary in low-income and lower middle-income countries. It further recommends that such countries spend 5.4% of their GDP across all education levels.

The next EFA global monitoring report will be launched on 9 April. [Publication: Policy Paper 18: Pricing the right to education: The cost of reaching new targets by 2030] [EFA Website]