Education International
Recommendations We recommend that policymakers: 1. Take more seriously the provisions in their statutory and other national statements concerning the purposes of education and take steps to ensure that economically oriented objectives do not supersede more holistic ones in practice. Where purposes are framed almost or wholly economically, we recommend that policymakers take inspiration from other regional statements, for example, Antigua and Barbuda’s educational purposes, as set out in its 2008 Education Act. 2. Prioritise the funding of public education such that supplementary private funding is not required. Emphasis on ActionAid’s 4 Ss of public education funding (Share, Size, Sensitivity and Scrutiny) is instructive in this regard (Ethiopia Study, 2021). For the Caribbean, ensuring that education sector plans prioritise investing in the teaching workforce and cater to the most vulnerable children demonstrate commitment to and greater likelihood of improving education quality for the most critical beneficiaries of education funding (Education Commission, 2019; Ethiopia Study, 2021; WDR, 2018). 3. Create a policy narrative that centres on and foregrounds education as a public good, and challenges the ways in which this notion has been problematised (Daviet, 2016). While it may be quite alluring within a neoliberal climate for governments to shift from delivering education services directly to functioning as “contractor, monitor and evaluator of services provided by a range of providers” (Ball & Youdell, 2007, p. 59), they are encouraged to not lose sight of their responsibility to: (1) protect the rights of all learners to quality education and (2) ensure that education contributes to personal development, social cohesion, as well as economic development that benefits all citizens. 4. Engage with research that highlights the limitations of privatisation as a means of enhancing public services (e.g. Lubienski, 2003). Education sector planning informed by such evidence assists in bolstering public education against the negative effects of education privatisation, such as increasing inequalities and inequity created by education markets. 52
