We now have the first set of papers on education: what is the smartest target?
Reduce by 50% the proportion of children not in pre-school in sub-Saharan Africa. For every dollar spent, the net benefit is 33 dollars
Education Targets
Benefit for Every Dollar
Increase the preschool enrollment ratio in Sub-Saharan Africa from the present 18% to 59%
$33
Increase the primary enrollment ratio in Sub-Saharan Africa from the present 75% to 100%
$7
Increase student test scores by one standard deviation
$4
Ensure secondary school completion
$4
The top target is not universal, because pre-school is a much better investment in Sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere. The top target is not 100% because that is both much harder and much less effective.
Here, Copenhagen Consensus Center has just released its latest research series on Education targets for the Post-2015 agenda. George Psacharopoulos, formerly of the London School of Economics and the World Bank writes the main report, peer-reviewed in perspective papers by Paul Glewwe and Caroline Krafft of the University of Minnesota, Department of Economics, and by Peter Orazem of the Economics Department at Iowa State University. Additionally, NGOs and stakeholders such as Education International, Save the Children, and UNICEF present viewpoint papers concerning Psacharopoulos’ analysis.
Best regards,
Bjorn Lomborg
PhD and Adjunct Professor
President of Copenhagen Consensus Center
PS.The Post-2015 Consensus project brings together more than 50 top economists, NGOs, international agencies and businesses to identify the targets with the greatest benefit-to-cost ratio for the next set of UN development goals. If you have questions about the project, send an email to Research Project Manager Brad Wong by replying to this email.
