A Study Of World Bank Aid Policy For African Education

Education is an important tool for poverty reduction and human development; therefore it has always been the focus of international aid. At present, World Bank has become one of the most important multilateral education aid agencies, which lends money to the Member States to develop education by various forms, directly involved in education through project investment (school construction, curriculum development or textbook publication) and education reform (school privatization, cost recovery, decentralization). Africa is the main aid target of World Bank, and its education aid policies not only have multiple and far-reaching impact on African education development, but also affect the aid practice of other aid agencies.This study mainly applied literature analysis method and history method, the main purposes of the study are as follows:To describe the evolution of education aid policies to Africa of World Bank since 1960s and analyze the factors affecting the policy changes; To evaluate World Bank's education aid policies for Africa and point out the positive impacts and the existing problems of education aid; To summarize the effectiveness of world bank's education aid to Africa, analyze the factors that affect aid effectiveness and describe initiatives of World Bank to improve education aid efficiency.In different historical periods, under different practical and theoretical background, World Bank's education aid policies for Africa show different characteristics, which can be divided into experience period (1963-1968), McNnamara reform period (1968-1980), economic deterioration and adjustment period (from 1980s to early 1990s), the new knowledge economy era (from mid 1990s to today). World Bank's education aid policy for Africa overall shows a few obvious trends:shifting from a focus on secondary education, vocational and higher education to basic education, and then turning to basic education, higher education and vocational education with equal emphasis; shifting from a focus on expanding the amount to quality improvement; changing from hardware assistance to software assistance; transferring from a single integrated project aid to sector assistance. The positive significance of World Bank's education aid to Africa includes increasing total education investment in African countries, promoting universal primary education in Africa, strengthening African educational systems and programs, enhancing the level of human resources in Africa and enriching educational researches in Africa; the problems include:education is viewed as a tool and its social and cultural values are ignored; the same and compulsory education aid policies are applied to recipient countries, and the education reform prescription does not meet the African reality; the policy orientation is to meet the interests of Western countries. To improve the effectiveness of education aid for Africa, aid agencies and recipient countries need to establish equal partnership. While reflecting on its aid effectiveness, World Bank is actively taking improvement measures.This paper consists of four parts.The Introduction part outlines the background and explains the significance of the research, presents the contents and methods of study and reviews the related literature.Part two describes the reality and theoretical background which affect the formation of World Bank's education aid policy for Africa, the policy priorities and policy practice at each stage.Part three evaluates World Bank's education aid policy for Africa and points out the positive impact and the existing problems of education aid.The Conclusion part summarizes the characteristics of evolution of World Bank's education aid policy for Africa, describes the effectiveness of World Bank's education aid in Africa, points out the factors that affect aid effectiveness and describes World Bank's initiatives to improve education aid effectiveness.