Achieving schooling for all: Budgetary expenditures on education in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

This paper analyzes public spending on education in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia over recent years; with a particular focus upon primary schoolin g. It identifies regional expenditure trends since 1980, and provides more detailed comparative data for selected countries during 1990-95. It shows t hat the achievement of high enrollment ratios has been associated not only with high priority being assigned to public expenditures on primary schooli ng, but also with the presence of modest unit costs of schooling. The paper argues that schooling for all is achievable, even in countries which are a mong the poorest, and where school enrollments are presently very low, prov ided governments are willing to reform both the private and public costs an d efficiency of school systems, and to give expenditures on primary schooli ng their proper priority. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.