Brasília – More than 150 countries, including Brazil, have vowed to invest at least 4% to 6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in education by 2030. The commitment is part of a Declaration signed during the World Education Forum in Incheon, South Korea, that should be the blueprint for global education target setting in the next 15 years.
Apart from the investment, the countries pledged to offer quality, inclusive, equal-access education, among other points. To the coordinator of Education of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in Brazil, Rebeca Otero, financing is the key issue when it comes to the countries meeting targets. "Financing is of the utmost importance. The financing target is crucial, something we hadn’t quantified in 2000."
The declaration lays the groundwork for the setting of educational targets in the Sustainable Development Goals slated for ratification by the United Nations in September. The goals for 2030 are the continuation of Dakar Framework for Action, Education For All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments, a commitment entered into by 164 countries in 2000 which expired this year.
According to Unesco, one third of the participating countries managed to meet the goals, and lack of resources ranks among the main reasons for other nations’ non-compliance. In the new declaration, the countries commit to either investing 4% to 6% of GDP, or 20% of their national budget. Unesco’s latest numbers, from 2012, show that out of 142 countries with data available, 39 spent 6% or more of GDP on education.
In Brazil’s case, the investment target has already been met. According to Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira (Inep), the state-run educational research institute, the country allocates 6.6% of its GDP to the area. "What requires looking into is how this money is being managed, and whether it is being effectively applied. The country already allocates the minimum standard, but we must strive for 10% of GDP in order to ensure quality,” Otero says.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
