Education in crisis - this way out

A text based on the discussions of the 2011 conference on rising inequalities and the need for a sustainable international financial system is divided into four sections: that of political challenges, that of the linkages between inequality, the state of multilateralism and the financial crisis, that of embedding social policies in financial ones, and that of the challenges that inequality places on development. This text aims to discuss the social and financial consequences that these four interlocking issues will have, both domestically and internationally.

The European Trade Union Institute’s collaborative compilation of articles examines a wide range of issues such as: monetary and fiscal policies, short and long-term employment statistics, different economic growth development models, labour markets and standards, etc., as they pertain to different regions around the globe. Joseph Stiglitz kick starts Exiting from the crisis… with his preface, “Any economic system has to be graded on its ability to provide sustainable increases in well-being to the vast majority of its citizens …” He goes on to point out that, “We may have pulled back from the brink at which we stood in the fall of 2008, but we are not out of the woods…”

“We are a precarious generation: unemployed, underpaid or working for free and invisibly, sentenced to a long dependence on our parents. Precariousness is our leitmotiv, we live our lives in the absence of any rights: the right to study, to housing, to a decent income, to health, to live our emotional relationships happily and freely.” –The Italian ‘Our Life is now. Life doesn’t wait.’ network.

The idea of young people being hit hardest by the economic crisis is one that predicts an ‘increasingly hazy future;’ a fact that will inevitably hurt long-term employment growth potential; a threat that the Interntional Trade Union no longer wants to ignore.

The International Labour Organization’s and the Global Labour University’s collaborative text on how to  navigate a wavering status quo during the tumultuous tide of an economic recession. The ILO and the GLU examine a wide range of approaches that seek to eliminate any demoralized motivations or attitudes reminiscent of the booming capitalism of post-WWII, while focusing on how to drive home the more concrete trade union initiatives such as solidarity, human rights, and a more productive means of accomplishing work.

“In late 2009, the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, Thailand, established the Educational Research Institutes Network in the Asia-Pacific (ERI-Net) to encourage and facilitate regional cooperation in carrying out analytical studies on tertiary education policy issues in the region.

The first task of ERI-Net was to conduct a study on the impact of the 2008 global economic crisis on higher education. Preliminary findings were shared with policy makers, university researchers and educators from China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Thailand at an ERI-Net seminar held in Bangkok on July 2010. Based on the discussion, feedback and recommendation from participants, the case studies were revised and are now available in this 2012 publication.”

This OXFAM sponsored report by Katerina Kyrili and Matthew Martin of Development Finance International examines, "This report examines the impact of the global financial crisis on the budgets of lowincome countries, especially their spending to reach the Millennium Development Goals. The crisis created a huge budget revenue hole of $65bn, of which aid has filled only one-third. As a result, after some fiscal stimulus to combat the crisis in 2009, most LICs (including those with IMF programmes) are cutting MDG spending, especially on education and social protection...The report urges the international community to make strong new aid commitments at the Millennium Summit in September 2010, funded by financial transaction taxes or other innovative financing; the IMF to encourage LICs to spend more on MDG goals and on combating climate change and to report regularly on such spending; and LIC governments to increase spending on social protection and education; taxation of income; property and foreign investors; and efforts to fight tax avoidance".

The UN believes that the ”central challenge of the post-2015 UN development agenda is to ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the worlds’ peoples of present and future generations. The purpose of a global development agenda is thus not to prescribe specific development strategies or policies, but to provide guidance for priority setting at all levels (global, regional, national and sub-national). Such an agenda should help create an enabling environment to meet shared objectives, support global solutions to global problems and guide national development efforts, while supporting the empowerment of people to determine their own futures. This report of the UN System Task Team aims to serve as a reference to orient these ongoing discussions and the broader consultation process taking place among governments, the UN system and other international organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector.”

A 2013Eurydice report, on the impact of the financial and economic crisis on education budgets across Europe, reveals that investment in education fell in eight out of 25 Member States since 2010. The report analyses trends in education spending in 35 European regional and national education systems between 2000-2012. The analysis covers the developments in education funding from pre-primary to tertiary level and provides an overview of the main trends in the adult learning sector in 31 European countries.