All they need is a school
                  - By Amartya Sen
         The Asian Age dated 30th May 2002

             Cambridge, England: Isaiah Berlin has
             argued: “Men do not live only by fighting evils.
             They live by positive goals.” The advice was
             not aimed at the leaders of the war on terror:
             Berlin was speaking more than 40 years ago.
             But his idea is worth the attention of current
             world leaders. And one of the most important
             positive goals has already been identified by
             the United Nations: universal primary
             education by 2015.
             I am aware that when I argue that basic
             education for all can transform the miserable
             world in which we live, I sound a little like a
             Victorian gentlewoman delivering her favourite
             recipe for progress. As it happens, however,
             extensive empirical studies have
             demonstrated the critical role of basic
             education in economic and social
             development in Europe and North America as
             well as in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
             When Japan set out in the 19th century to
             catch up with the Western nations, its
             Fundamental Code of Education, issued in
             1872, expressed the public commitment to
             make sure that there must be “no community
             with an illiterate family, nor a family with an
             illiterate person.” Kido Takayoshi, one of the
             leaders of Japanese reform, explained the
             basic idea: “Our people are no different from
             the Americans or Europeans of today; it is all
             a matter of education or lack of education.”
             By 1910 Japan was almost fully literate, at
             least for the young, and by 1913, though still
             very much poorer than Britain or America,
             Japan was publishing more books than
             Britain and more than twice as many as the
             United States. The concentration on
             education was responsible, to a large extent,
             for the nature and speed of Japan’s economic
             and social progress.
             Later on, China, Taiwan, South Korea and
             other economies in East Asia followed similar
             routes. Explanations of their rapid economic
             progress often cite their willingness to make
             good use of the global market economy, and
             rightly so. But that process was greatly
             helped by the emphasis all of these countries
             placed on basic education. Widespread
             participation in a global economy would have
             been hard to accomplish if people could not
             read or write — or produce according to
             specifications or instructions.
             The contribution of basic education to
             development is not, however, confined to
             economic progress. Education has intrinsic
             importance; the capability to read and write
             can deeply influence one’s quality of life.
             Also, an educated population can make
             better use of democratic opportunities than
             an illiterate one. Further, an ability to read
             documents and legal provisions can help
             subjugated women and other oppressed
             groups make use of their rights and demand
             more fairness. And female literacy can
             enhance women’s voices in family affairs and
             reduce gender inequality in other fields, a
             benefit to men as well as women, since
             women’s empowerment through literacy
             tends to reduce child mortality and very
             significantly decrease fertility rates.

             The lives that are most burdened and
             impoverished by over-frequent bearing and
             rearing of children are those of young women.
             A greater voice of young women in family
             decisions tends, therefore, to cut down birth
             rates sharply. For example, the fertility rates
             in the different districts that make up India
             vary extremely widely, from almost 5
             (roughly, five children per couple) in some
             districts to less than 1.7 in some others.
             Empirical investigations by Mamta Murthi and
             Jean Drèze indicate that only two general
             variables significantly help to explain these
             differences: female literacy and female
             economic participation.
             In sub-Saharan Africa, 40 per cent of
             primary-age children have no opportunity for
             schooling. Around the world, there are
             currently 125 million children who have never,
             at any time, seen the inside of a classroom.
             A well coordinated global initiative on basic
             education is crucial. To be sure, it is also
             important that the priority of basic education
             be fully accepted and pursued by the
             developing countries themselves. But a global
             approach to schooling can inspire initiatives
             and bring ongoing efforts together, as well as
             help with resources.
             The need for a new kind of partnership — a
             global alliance — on schooling is hard to
             exaggerate. The time to live by positive goals
             has certainly come — not least for the
             leaders of G-8 countries who meet at a
             summit next month in Canada.

             By arrangement with the New York Times