Issues in Education and Globalisation in Southeast Asia:

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Issues in Education and Globalisation in
Southeast Asia  Contending mindsets in MDGs
and GATS

• Raquel D. Castillo
• National Coordinator
• E-Net Philippines
• 25 October 2005

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• Education has been considered as one of the
  most important contributors to the achievement of
  MDGs to halve extreme poverty by 2015

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Education for All (EFA)

• Universal Primary Education (UPE)
• Vs
• Universal free compulsory basic education

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The performance of South East Asia on educational
outcomes has been varied

• Education Devt Index (EDI) for a country is the
  arithmetical mean of the values of the indicators
  selected to measure the four EFA goals
• gender parity
• universal primary education
• quality of education, and
• adult literacy

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• Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are
  in the intermediate position with an EDI score of
  0.8-0.94
• Cambodia and Lao (PDR) with a score of less than
  0.8 are unlikely to achieve the EFA goals by 2015

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• Post the ratification of the EFA and MDG goals
  in the year 2000, ironically bilateral aid to
  education(16 B promised by 2006) has in fact
  experienced a downward trend from an average of
  4.5 percent in the 1990s to only 4.2 percent in
  the first three years of the new millennium (GMR
  2005)

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Contending principles

1. Education is a basic human right. The State is
   duty-bound to provide it as a public good.
2. Market is more efficient than government in
   providing goods and pushes for formation of
   international market in public service delivery.

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Political tension between MDGs and GATs

• MDGs place expansion and improvement of basic
  public services such as education at the heart of
  international development policy
• GATS expands corporate access through
  privately-owned, privately-financed,
  privately-delivered services

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• It has been argued that GATS is beneficial as
  services liberalization helps developing
  countries by increasing efficiency and providing
  required inputs.

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Trends in so-called public service reform
according to WB (NPM)

• Separation of policy making from service delivery
  responsibility
• Increased public-private partnerships
• Decentralisation
• Contract-based accountability
• Users as consumers

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1. Direct impact of GATS on policy Standard
prescription of privatisation of education

• Cost recovery through user fees, (Aka community
  financing)
• Greater private sector participation in education
  
• Decentralization of education (Phils RA 9155)
• Abolishment of subsidies for tertiary education

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Private enrollment as a percentage of total (GMR
2005)
Preschool Primary Secondary
Cambodia 27.4 0.9 0.4
Indonesia 98.8 16.0 42.7
Malaysia 41.1 3.8 6.6
Philippines 46.0 7.1 21.5
Thailand 20.2 13.6 6.4
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The faces of privatization in the Philippines

• Service providers for Non-Formal Education
• 2. Preschool contracting mechanisms
• GASTPE
• Increased user fees for state colleges and
  universities

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Impetus for GASTPE LAW

• Exodus from private to public high
• school
• Perennial financing constraints

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Growth of Education Services Contracting (ESC)
YEAR NO. OF RECIPIENTS NO. OF PARTICIP. SCHOOLS
1986/87 4,322 158
2003/04 280,216 1,517
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Some hard questions

• Will performance indicators be better?
• What values?
• Will they go to under-served areas?
• What impact on teachers welfare?
• Will it really cost less, given need to monitor
  standards?

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2. Indirect Impact of WTO on school push-offs
(dropouts)

• In Atok, Benguet, Philippines, vegetable-growing
  communities have become poorer because of
  plunging farm prices. As a consequence, child
  workers and OSC and OSY numbers are significantly
  high.

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Learner outcomes
312 drop
1000 Grade 1 entrants
439 will finish in 6 yrs
249 will finish in 9.6 yrs
Only 7 will have 75 scores in Science, Math,
English
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How many are they nationwide? 11.2 M
Number of
among 7-24 years old, 1989-2004
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More hard questions

• Would governments come under pressure to change
  the conditions under which public services are
  provided with GATS?

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• Article I of GATS
• The definition of services covered in the
  agreement gives an exception to services
  supplied in the exercise of governmental
  authority.
• BUT
• Government services provided on a commercial
  basis are subject to GATS provisions, as are
  government services supplied in competition with
  any other suppliers.

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• Once the public service is privatized, it ceases
  to be an exempted government service. Even in a
  case where privatization is partial, or where the
  government still maintains its service but allows
  private entities to also participate in supplying
  that service, in terms of Article I.3(c) of GATS,
  such a service may no longer qualify as a service
  supplied in the exercise of governmental
  authority and thus could be brought under GATS.
  (Martin Khor)

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The way to go

• 1. Developing countries can choose to liberalize
  selectively and autonomously, without making
  binding commitments at the WTO thus, if the
  liberalization turns out to have negative
  effects, they can reverse course without having
  to pay any compensation. National policy-making
  sovereignty can be upheld.

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• 2. Designing good governance should embed
  defined roles for private and NGO delivery while
  strengthening and not undermining public
  institutions.

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• 3. Education is a basic right,
• not a commodity!

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Thank you!