Dayo Adesulu reporting from Qatar
The funding challenges facing education systems were examined today at the World Innovation Summit for Education – WISE. With the impact of the international downturn generating widespread concern, over 1,200 delegates attending the global summit discussed how best to address and overcome such difficulties.

Director-General, UNESCO, Mrs Irina Bokova, has said that it is no longer going to be business as usual in the funding of education globally. “Business as usual is not working, she said. She noted that Aid disbursements to basic education have stopped increasing for the first time since 2000 – stagnating at US$4.7bn in 2008.

Education she reiterated is the way to invest out of the economic crisis adding that we must explore tangible proposals for innovative financing as decisions we take now will lay the foundations for the century ahead.

Director-General, UNESCO, Mrs Irina Bokova

According to her, the starting point must be to demonstrate that education plays a central role in employment creation, income generation and poverty reduction as quality education also promotes better health, democratic participation, gender equality and environmental sustainability.”

Regarding the future financing of education, Mrs Bokova cited the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development’s Task Force on Education, which identified a tax on international financial transactions – a 0.005 per cent on transactions between four major currencies could raise US$30bn a year.

Local currency education bonds, an education venture fund, debt swaps for education, public-private partnerships, and micro-donations from bank transactions were also identified as viable financing mechanisms which could be implemented without great difficulty.

Also speaking, the World Bank Sector Director, Mr Steen Jorgenson said: “The way ahead will entail a shift in focus where the emphasis had typically been placed on an engineering approach to reform such as building more schools, training more teachers – now, incentives to better align inputs and performance with results and accountability are to be given priority. Innovative financing clearly has a role to play in this shift.”

Jorgenson asserted that there three fundamental principles for funding the education sector which include:

Protection of education budgets: He maintained that it will be critical for national governments to protect their education budgets and invest in education as a solution to economic uncertainty.

Value for money: He stated further that educators must demonstrate that education is vital for economic recovery and that investment in education will result in a substantial return through increased employment and poverty reduction.

Future financing: “Education requires innovative financing to secure the long term future and viability of projects. Innovative financing of education must happen in two ways: funds should be raised innovatively and they should be disbursed in innovative ways.”