COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
COM(94) 399 final 
Brussels, 26.09.1994 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL 
AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
CN CDOFDIIVATICN BEMfflM THE ŒXMJMITY 
ANZ Tr€ UMBER STATES CN ffiLCûTICN PfiD TFWINI^G 
90BVES INDEVELOPirGŒLNTRIES 
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Following a request made at the Council meeting on development in IVBV last 
year; this cormrunicat ion out I ines proposals for the Ccnmrunity and Member 
States to coordinate act ion on educat ion and training in developing countr ies. 
The main aim is to strengthen their action in this area by coordinating it 
wi thin a framework of pr inciples, pr ior i t ies, strategies and resources which 
will make aid operations in developing countries rrore effective and useful. 
The ccrmrunication gives a qualitative overview of education and training 
systems in the developing worId. It highlights the role of education inhuman 
development. In line with internat iona I ly agreed pr inciples, it stresses the 
top pr ior i ty to be accorded to basic school ing, the value of long-term backing 
for education in the relevant countries and the need to support educational 
planning, achninistration and reform. 
Support strategies have to be country specif ic and development cooperation can 
only help if each nation is dealt with in its OATI right. 
Turning rrore speci f ical ly to the pract ical i t ies of coordinat ion (Art ic le 13Qx 
of the Union Treaty), the corrnrunicat ion places special emphasis on the 
following: informât ion exchanges in al I areas; operational coordination for 
each individual country on the basis of a conrplerrentary approach between the 
Qrmrunity and IVferrber States; regular experts'meetings; an annual coordination 
progress report; and greater consul tat ion wi th other major donors in educat ion 
and training. 
'J-
June 1994 
Communication from the Commission 
to the Council and Parliament 
on coordination between the Community and its Member States 
on education and training schemes in developing countries. 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Articles 126,3 and 127,3 of the Union Treaty state that the community 
and Member states shall foster cooperation with non-member countries 
and international organizations in the fields of education and 
vocational training. 
In addition, Articles 130u and x stipulate that the Community's 
development cooperation policy shall be complementary to those of the 
Member States and that the Community and Member states shall 
coordinate their policies and consult each other on their aid 
programmes. 
On the basis of the Commission's communication "Development 
cooperation policy in the run-up to 2000", the Council adopted a 
declaration in November 1992 inviting the Commission to put forward 
proposals on improving policy coordination procedures, both 
operationally and in international fora. 
In its conclusions of May 1993, the Council took the view that, of 
those areas where coordination should be strengthened, education and 
training should be treated as a priority. 
2. In its communication on "Development cooperation policy in the run-up 
to 2000", the Commission was at pains to stress that education had a 
greater correlation with the level of development than any other 
factor. 
Education and training policies are, therefore, central to the 
development strategies of the developing countries (DCs). Such 
policies derive, in fact, from the more general framework of an 
overall strategy for Human Development whose principles are fully 
endorsed by the international donors and which identifies education as 
a basic human right. 
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In last November's communication to the Council regarding the policy 
of the Community and Member States on the campaign against poverty in 
developing countries, the Commission also highlighted the role of 
social service provision, including education, in combating poverty. 
The struggle against poverty in the DCs is a common goal of the 
Community and the Member sta&tes. 
3. For many of the DCs, the existing systems of education and training, 
both formal and non-formal, are unable to meet the human resources 
needs of those countries' economies. It is clear too, that the gap 
between "needs" and "provision" is increasing rather than shrinking 
with time, even though it is important to distinguish between the 
situation of the poorest countries and those that are somewhat more 
affluent. 
The gap between needs and provision now poses an important challenge 
for the international donor community. This challenge consists of two 
main elements: 
the reform of the DCs' systems of education and training is no longer 
something that can be achieved by interventions "at the margin". It 
is essential that assistance to the education and training sectors 
reach a "critical mass" if the interventions are to be both effective 
and sustainable; 
the sustainability of measures to support the education and training 
sectors can no longer be regarded as being achievable within the time 
frame of the conventional project. Only within the framework of a 
properly conceived "programme approach" can the necessary long-term 
assistance be provided. 
But if the present situation of the education and training sectors in 
the LDCs poses a challenge to the European donors, it also presents 
European donors with an unique opportunity. 
The challenge consists of how best to strengthen the complementarities 
between European aid programmes within the framework of greater total 
assistance to education and training. This can only be achieved by 
promoting increased coordination between the Member States and the 
Union with the aim of improving the overall quality and effectiveness 
of European aid in the field of human resources and by utilizing the 
other kinds of coordination that already exist between donors, 
especially Community experience with cooperative education and 
training programmes. 
However, more efficient coordination can only be achieved on the basis 
of a common understanding of the problems confronting education and 
training in the DCs and on the basis of an agreed framework of 
principles and priorities applicable to all interventions in this 
field by the Community and the Member States. Accordingly, the aim of 
this present communication is to present such an analysis applicable 
to all the DC•s. 
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II. THE STATE OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN THE DCs 
Definitions r 
It is important to start by defining the concepts used thoughout the 
present communication. These definitions take account of other 
existing definitions used by international organisations. 
Basic education: comprises any form of educational delivery which 
provides basic knowledge and skills. Used in this way, "basic 
education" becomes a flexible concept depending on the circumstances 
and needs of a particular context. Literacy and numeracy remain clear 
targets for all basic education programmes. 
Primary schools constitute the first channel of basic education for 
the school-age population. 
Formal education : is used in the sense of courses offered in 
recognized schools or institutes leading to the award, on successful 
completion, of a final qualification which is either awarded or 
accepted by the national administration. Technical education may also 
be an element within the formal education system. 
Non-formal education: is used to refer to any organized education 
activity outside the formal system. As such it includes literacy 
training for adults, agricultural extension training for farmers, 
job-related skills imparted by employers to new recruits, enterprise 
and business management and cooperative training offered by NGOs plus 
a whole range of activities in the field of family planning and 
health. 
Training : the function of the training system is to provide 
instruction in job-related skills designed to prepare the student 
either for direct entry into a trade or occupation or to provide him 
with the additional certification needed for progression within his 
employment from one skilled area to another. Training can take place 
at training centres, through apprenticeships or directly at the place 
of the trainee's employment. 
2. Education and training goals 
Education and training systems in the LDCs are required to address a 
range of objectives. 
These objectives fall into two categories : on the one hand are the 
objectives of society (social objectives). On the other hand are the 
objectives of the individuals who utilize education services (private 
objectives). 
From the point of view of society, education systems are needed: 
1) to promote social cohesion and to transmit the values of the society; 
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2) to realise the benefits of the increased potential for democratic 
participation that stem from an educated population; 
3) to meet the requirements of the various sections of the labour market 
for educated and trained manpower. 
From the point of view of the private individual and his family, 
education systems : 
1) provide increased lifetime choices of employment with the 
possibilities of higher standards of living and provide access to 
channels of upward social mobility; 
2) provide access to greater security of employment and to greater 
choices regarding its physical location; 
3) provide certification of academic ability and skills which gives 
access to higher levels of education; 
There is a real possibility of a contradiction, existing between the 
achievement of social and private objectives. To take one example, an 
economy's demand for manpower with a particular level of education or 
with a specific kind of training is finite and is determined by the 
needs of employers and managers of enterprises for educated and 
skilled staff. 
There is, thus, an optimal size for the education facilities for these 
skills which will allow an adequate number of individuals to be 
produced with the necessary qualifications to meet the expected labour 
market demand. 
Social criteria, therefore, provide a rationale for restricting the 
size of the facilities dedicated to producing qualified personnel. 
From the private point of view, however, the signals transmitted by 
the labour market lead to an entirely different conclusion. The 
student and his family perceive that the returns from educational 
certification are very significant. 
The logical response of the individual to this situation is to seek to 
maximize access to all levels of education. 
Private criteria, therefore, provide a rationale for expanding the 
size of facilities dedicated to producing qualified personnel for 
reasons which are not necessarily related to the extent of social 
needs. 
This analysis of the goals of education systems in DCs highlights the 
difficulty of balancing two alternative perspectives. 
First, donors are faced with real difficulties when seeking to assist 
the education sector because of its political and social importance 
and because of its complexity. 
- 5 
Second, the DCs are under considerable pressure to expand all types of 
education. But expansion may not really help to tailor education to 
meet the DCs social and economic needs. 
3. Progress made in recent decades 
1) Education and training in the developing world has made considerable 
progress for over the past four decades. 
Despite very real problems, the low-income countries too, have made 
substantial advances : increasing the number of classrooms, providing 
places for more children in school, and, training more teachers. Up 
to the end of the seventies, enrolment levels rose faster than the 
population. 
2) At the primary level, the global total of children enrolled rose by 
328 million between 1970 and 1988, with the sharpest increases being 
in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. 
Of countries with a primary school enrolment rate well below 100 %, 
those in sub-Saharan Africa undertook proportionately the biggest 
drive to expand the primary sector followed by the Arab countries and 
those in South Asia. 
3) Throughout the world, the growth rate of secondary education has been 
much higher than that for primary schooling. 
4) Similarly, the growth rate of higher education across the globe has 
been greater that for secondary education, particularly in the 
seventies and more so in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and Oceania. 
Everywhere, growth has been accompanied by the diversification of 
post-secondary and higher education establishments. 
5) Education expansion in DCs has mostly been the result of government 
policy: the majority of schools and training establishments are either 
wholly or partially funded by the state. 
6) However, the expansion of education has been very unevenly spread: 
three quarters of illiterate adults are concentrated in ten countries 
(including China and India) and illiteracy is worst in the poorest 
countries. By 2000, UNESCO reckons that the overwhelming majority of 
countries where less than half the people can read and write, will be 
in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia. 
4. Progress has not been consolidated, especially in the least advanced 
countries and the past ten or so years have seen a deterioration in 
education systems 
Economic and population trends in the DCs have impacted so severly on 
the education sector that the situation in many places is now one of 
deep crisis. 
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Education systems in many countries are hampered by external and 
internal constraints. 
1) External constraints 
a) Population growth has been a major factor in hampering moves to 
improve education. In particular, the demographic explosion in the 
towns has made it very difficult to provide the necessary school 
places. 
b) The external economic climate, which has been extremely unfavourable 
for the DCs, has also had a generally adverse effect on the resources 
allocated to education, especially in Africa. 
c) The biggest external constraint is the resulting gross under-funding 
of education in the DC s. 
Per capita public expenditure on education in Africa has fallen 
sharply and is lower than in all the other continents. 
The reduction of the financial resources available for education has 
made it more difficult to continue expanding and improving education. 
2) In addition to these external constraints, there are other, internal 
factors. 
a) Apart from specific national and regional problems, in many DCs the 
management and information systems for planning and administering 
schools are extremely weak. 
This has led to an element of chaos in the development of education 
systems, where the real situation is no longer reflected clearly in 
public expenditure figures because budgets do not correspond to 
reality and because statistics are unreliable. 
As a result, certain imbalances have occurred : such as the hugely 
disproportionate size of running costs to investment, and of salaries 
to other running costs. 
similarly, higher education often receives a disproportionate 
percentage of the available resources than either primary schooling or 
basic education. 
b) With notable national and regional exceptions, education in DCs is 
generally of a low quality, with poor teacher training, no clearly 
defined educational roles, staff disenchantment, unsuitable curricula, 
a shortage of materials, and poor quality control systems. 
With the expansion of enrolment, quality has suffered and although 
school failure rates have fallen overall in the developing world, they 
remain very high, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. 
c ) The education system is also not integrated with the needs of the 
economy in many DCs where there is an increasing mis-match between 
school-leavers and jobs available in the public or private sector. 
Such distortions are both quantitative and qualitative (under- and 
over-skilling). 
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d) This gives rise to a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, DCs 
remain under-educated (not all school-age children have been through 
school), a phenomenon which started in the mid-eighties. They are also 
poorly schooled: expansion has been at the expense of quality. On the 
other hand, they are over-educated when set against the economy's 
ability to absorb school-leavers. 
Falling primary school enrolment affects different countries in 
different ways, with the biggest drop being in the poorest countries. 
In Sub-Saharan Africa, between 1975 and 1988 the number of primary 
pupils enrolled rose from 40 million to 7 0 million. At the same time 
the rate of enrolment fell from 79 % in 19 80 to 72 % in 1988. The 
same trend, albeit to a lesser extent, can be observed in Latin 
America and Asia. 
e) Similarly, unit costs are high with big differences from" one level of 
schooling to another. For example, in Africa, the ratio between the 
annual cost of teaching, a university student and that of teaching a 
primary school child is 15:1 in Niger; 26:1 in Kenya and 62:1 in 
Uganda. In the Caribbean, the ratio varies from 12:1 to 51:1. In the 
main, the gap is wider in Africa than in other developing regions. 
f) Access to education-is also tending to become more unequal, with girls 
suffering the most. This phenomenon is clearly exacerbated by the way 
structural adjustment policies have often been implemented, causing 
families already on the breadline to be unable to pay for their 
childrens' schooling. 
5. Donor policies: their influence on financing and education priorities 
in DCs 
Donor policies have determined the total amount of aid for education 
as well as influencing the way in which aid has been distributed 
within this sector. 
1) Aid for education has not risen consistantly. The World Conference on 
Education for All in 199 0 set out to reverse the downward trend in the 
volume of financial resources provided by both DCs themselves and by 
the donors. 
2) A similar inconsistency is highlighted by the low priority given to 
basic education. The 199 0 Conference underlined the fact that 
education is a right and that all parties involved, including the 
donors, must put basic education high on their agendas. 
In reality, however, donors, including the Community and its Member 
States, are still a long way from giving priority to supporting basic 
eduction even though some donors are paying increasing attention to 
this area. 
In addition to such discrepancies between principles and actions, 
donors' operations have affected DCs' education systems in ways which 
have produced a number of negative consequences. This is particularly 
true of the emphasis given to quantity over quality, to the results of 
the "project" approach and to the effects of structural adjustment 
programmes. 
3) Donor interventions in the DCs' education systems have shown a clear 
tendency to emphasise the quantitative expansion of educational 
provision rather than the improvement of the quality of education. 
Admittedly, some relative improvements in quality have been supported 
but, in general, these have been too isolated to open the way for the 
positive, overall, sustainable development of education systems. 
4) The "project" approach versus the "programme" approach. 
The "project" has been and continue to be the form of intervention 
most commonly used by donors. Although useful in certain 
circumstances, this approach reveals its limitations when efforts need 
to be directed to supporting entire education policies and systems. 
The "project" approach has led to donor financing of specific new 
investment operations, particularly in higher education; but has not 
always focused sufficiently on maintaining existing investments or on 
the key question of recurrent costs throughout the system. On 
occasion, it has even fostered the development of parallel financial 
and accounting systems which governments cannot afford. The approach 
also has a time-frame determined by the administrative procedures of 
the donors themselves and does not generally take account of the 
longer periods of time needed to ensure that investments remain 
sustainable and viable. 
Obviously, this approach cannot be said to have jeopardized the many 
projects which have proved their usefulness and sustainability. 
The advantage of the "programme" approach, however, lies in its 
ability to focus donors' attention on priorities deriving from an 
overall education sector policy. Thus, the individual actions 
subsumed under the programme can , be targetted at the sectoral 
priorities of the DC itself. 
5) Structural adjustment programmes. 
Macroeconomic imbalances in the 1980's and the resulting austerity has 
led to many developing countries adopting stabilization and adjustment 
programmes in response to donors• demands that they reduce their 
budget deficits. As part of this process, public spending has been cut 
and funding levels for the social sectors, including education, have 
not always been maintained. 
In practice, education spending per capita has fallen in real terms in 
many of the African and Latin American countries which underwent 
structural adjustment in the eighties. Conversely, spending has risen 
in South and South-East Asia, an area less vulnerable to such external 
constraints. 
Over the same period, the ratio of primary to higher education 
spending in Africa and Latin America has tilted away from higher 
education, evidence of a desire to safeguard primary schooling. Again 
over the same period many countries have made efforts to lower the 
unit cost per pupil. 
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It is clear that the crisis in the DCs' education systems originated 
prior to the implementation of structural adjustment programmes. In 
general, structural adjustment programmes have not by themselves 
always helped improve -access to education or made education more 
effective. True, this was not their aim. Yet despite the fact that in 
parts of Africa and Asia, they may have helped close the gap between 
spending on higher education students and primary school pupils, they 
have not necessarily opened up access to higher education. 
6) In conclusion, there remains a continuing inconsistency between the 
various donors. 
Access to public education, particularly to basic education, is a 
proven long-term weapon against poverty. 
However, in the face of diminishing aid resources, pressure to make 
aid more effective could end up damaging the interest of the most 
vulnerable groups within, the DCs not only in the poorest countries but 
also in the more affluent. 
6. The importance of education and training for development in developing 
countries and the role of donors 
1) investigations over the past thirty years on human resource 
development and observation of trends in the developing world 
demonstrate the importance of education, particularly basic education, 
for economic progress, the reduction of income disparities and gender-
based inequality, and the promotion of higher living standards. 
Studies show that the level of schooling achieved by a majority of 
pupils is directly correlated to salary levels and to levels of 
economic productivity, and that the greatest returns come from primary 
rather than from higher education. 
Education levels are also linked to a fall in infant mortality. 
Many studies have also shown that fertility in women is inversely 
proportional to their level of education, study delays marriage, 
increases women's chances of getting into the job market and makes 
them more aware of contraception. 
2) Education and training are also closely bound up with the 
implementation and success of other public service activities, such as 
health campaigns and policies for family planning, employment, poverty 
alleviation and the promotion of women in society. 
Indirectly, education and training (particularly that which leads to 
economic activity) can play a part in strengthening democratic forces 
in the DCs. 
Education and training policies are also crucial to bringing about a 
just society, an obligatory goal of any state. 
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3) Although everyone agrees that education and training are essential, 
past history shows that there is a clear gulf between the actual 
situation and the means available to donors to improve matters. 
If donors are to be able to make a useful contribution, the DCs' 
education systems must be susceptible to reform. This requires a 
willingness by the DCs themselves to undertake this task. 
III. PRINCIPLES AND PRIORITIES FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY AND 
MEMBER STATES ON AID FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING 
1. Principles 
Increased coordination between the Community and the Member States in the 
field of aid to education and training is possible only on the basis of a 
common framework of agreed principles and priorities. Only on such a basis 
can the aid effort be expected to respond systematically to the actual 
needs of the DCs rather than to current donor fashions or to other ad hoc 
considerations. 
The principles guiding coordination in education and training are as 
follows : 
1) Basic education is a fundamental human right. 
It follows from this principle that the Community and the Member 
states in collaboration with the DCs themselves, need to give greater 
emphasis to the area of basic education within programmes of 
assistance to education. This conclusion is in line with the outcome 
of the "World Conference on Education for All" in 19 9 0 and of the 
subsequent World Summit on Children. 
As pointed out in Section II, 1, above, the concept of basic education 
includes, but is not identical with, the concept of formal primary 
schooling. 
2 ) The Community and the Member States must devote more resources, in 
both absolute and relative terms, to supporting education and 
training. 
Increasing access to education, whether formal or non-formal, requires 
an increase in the total volume of resources devoted to human 
development. Such an increase is needed not only to address the 
problem of the growing inequality of educational opportunity in many 
DCs but also to ensure that donor-supported activités are on a large 
enough scale to have a real impact on the delivery of educational 
services. 
The appropriate level of European donor support for these areas must 
be determined with reference to the needs of the country concerned, to 
the absorptive, and managerial capacity of the local administration 
and to the political will to undertake reforms and to increase the 
efficiency of the education systems. Particular emphasis needs to be 
placed on assistance to the poorest of the developing countries. 
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Aid to education for the poorest countries should be in the form of 
grants and not loans. 
3) The problems of the education sector can only be properly analyzed on 
a country-by-country basis. 
It follows that the approach of the Community and the Member States 
must be to tailor their support for education and training to the 
specific needs of the country concerned rather than seeking to 
extrapolate responses which have proved appropriate in other contexts. 
It is only by such an approach that the cultural diversity of the DCs 
can be fully respected and the differing long term political choices 
of the DCs taken into account. 
Such an approach does not exclude support for regional cooperation in 
cases where countries clearly share common problems. 
4) Aid from the Community and the Member States to education and training 
must support the developing countries' own efforts rather than acting 
as a substitute for local initiative. 
Aid activities that are not "owned" by the recipients themselves are 
unlikely to be effective. Thus, activities that are to be funded by 
the European donors must involve all the relevant social actors. This 
can only be achieved on the basis of dialogue at all levels. It is 
only by such means that the real needs of each recipient can be 
ascertained. 
Similarly, it follows that if European aid to education and training 
is not to be a subsitute for action by the DCs themselves, each 
project or initiative must involve clear reciprocal commitments by the 
recipient state on measures to support the successful outcome of the 
operation. 
In this context, a part of the increased financial resources for 
education should be provided by the DCs themselves by means of 
reallocations within their own budgets. 
5) The sustainability of education and training interventions is a long-
term consideration. 
The concept of "sustainability" as applied to education and training 
activities is more complex than the allocation of a recurrent budget 
by the local administration. This is because the time frame needed to 
complete any part of the educational cycle is usually longer than the 
duration of the conventional project. 
While limited pilot interventions or other small scale projects must 
continue to be supported, the community and the Member States must 
accept that the expected results of most interventions in the area of 
education can only be achieved by adopting a "programme approach" 
with a firm donor commitment for the total lifetime of the programme. 
Only under such circumstances can the DCs themselves be expected to 
undertake commitments involving major changes and reforms in their 
education sectors. 
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A key factor in ensuring sustainability is creating an appropriate 
local institutional capacity. Capacity building must become a focus 
for all Community and Member States' assistance to education and 
training. 
6 ) Interventions funded under structural adjustment facilities must be 
integrated with the long term education priorities of the recipient 
countries. 
In the context of the fight against poverty, the Commission has 
already highlighted the need for a closer integration of economic, 
social and political objectives (1). 
This is particularly important in the case of structural adjustment 
programmes where the economic and financial logic does not always take 
into consideration the long-term dynamics of education systems. It 
follows that education priorities, especially those concerning basic 
education, need to be explicitly incorporated at all stages in the 
discussion of the social implications of the effects of adjustment 
programmes. 
From the point of view of the Community and the Member States it is 
essential to ensure that there is greater congruency between the 
utilisation of structural adjustment funds and those projects and 
programmes in the education and training sectors funded from the 
regular aid budget. 
2. Priorities 
The Principles described in the preceding section constitute the basic 
reference points for assistance from the European Community and the Member 
States to education and training in the developing countries as a whole. 
The priorities described in the present section, however, reflect the 
current assessment of the needs of the DCs. Priorities are essentially 
medium term, are subject to periodic analysis and review, and are dependent 
on the actual conditions prevailing in an individual recipient country. 
The priorities are : 
1) Improving the "quality" of education as well as the "quantity". 
There are two contrasting views on this issue. The first argues that 
the relationship between development and an educated population 
implies the need to increase the quantity of eductional provision. 
Expanding existing education and training systems will provide 
increased access to formal education across the entire population plus 
a greater equality of educational opportunity. 
(1) Communication of November 1993 from the Commission on the policy of 
the Community and its Member States on the campaign against poverty in 
developing countries. 
13 
The alternative view takes as its premise the argument that the 
majority of the DC s formal education systems are better adapted to 
reinforcing and maintaining existing social structures than to 
providing a quality of education that will enable all population groups 
to participate fully in the development process. This implies that the 
problem of educational capacity is essentially one of quality and that 
providing the kind of education that is relevant to the actual 
conditions under which most people in the developing live, requires 
sustained innovation and the qualitative reform of the existing 
education system. 
But while the need to expand educational access is generally accepted, 
the notion that there is also a need for major qualitative changes is 
not a view that is automatically welcomed within the DCs 'themselves. 
However, educational innovation and reforms focussing on the improved 
management of educational systems impact not only on the quality of 
educational delivery but also on the quantitative aspects of the 
system. This arises because reform and innovation leads to 
improvements in the productivity of resources devoted to the education 
sector. This frees resources to support a more significant expansion of 
educational opportunities than would be possible if increasing access 
to education is equated solely with expanding the number of schools. 
It follows that aid which results in an increased access to formal 
education without ensuring that access is to an education that is both 
relevant to the real needs of students and of sufficient quality to be 
generally useful for their subsequent careers is unlikely to have a 
significant developmental impact. Similarly, aid which increases the 
quality and relevance of the education available but which confines 
this education to the few, can only serve to perpetuate the 
inegalitarian aspects of a society and is also unlikely to have a major 
impact on the development process. 
Thus, the priority for the European community and the Member states 
must be to maximise access to education within the limits of the 
available resources while, at the same time, seeking to ensure a 
quality of education that is genuinely relevant to the need of the 
majority of students. In terms of quality, such an education must be 
that which provides the basis for a continuous improvement in the 
educational level of the population. 
In practice, this means support for the qualified expansion of the 
school system in the interests of ensuring equality of access to 
primary education for all school-age children, while at the same time 
stimulating measures to increase the productivity of the sector's 
resources through the processes of innovation and reform.-
2) Increasing the availability of vocational training. 
While there is general agreement on the importance of technical 
education and vocational training (TEVT), the practical consequences of 
policies to promote TEVT have been the subject of vigorous debate. The 
experience of the past 20 years has shown that the costs of adapting 
the school system to teach vocationally relevant skills almost always 
outweight the benefits obtained. 
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For the DCs' national administrations, the justification for 
diversifying the school curriculum to include skills training lies in 
the realization that conventional schooling is geared to the production 
of aspirants for white collar and professional employement. This 
raises the question of the relevance of such education to the vast 
majority of students who are being "screened out" as they proceed 
through the successive stages of the system and who are destined either 
for unskilled labour in the towns or for work in the traditional areas 
of the agricultural sectorj-sveh 
The attempt to turn the school into a combined school-cum-training 
centre has, however, resulted, almost universally, in a declining 
standard of education while failing to provide a standard of vocational 
training that can be recognized by formal sector employers. 
The experience of the European Community and the Member states in 
supporting the diversification of the school curriculum serves to 
underline the need to shift the focus of support to job-related 
training in the context of: specialized training institutions or in the 
context of in-service training offered by employers themselves. 
3) Improving opportunities for educationally disadvantaged groups. 
In countries with restricted access to formal education, the patterns 
of educational opportunity show a clear discrimination against certain 
groups within the school-age population. Such educational 
discrimination tends to be closely correlated with other aspect of 
social disadvantage, with the result that groups with the most 
restricted access to formal education are also those with highest 
incidence of poverty. The three commonest manifestations of this kind 
of disadvantage are : the restricted access to formal schooling 
experienced by rural as opposed to urban children; the restricted 
assess to schooling, in many countries, for girls and young women in 
comparison to the opportunities available to boys and young men; and 
restrictions on educational opportunities for children and adults with 
special educational needs. 
Assisting the efforts of the DCs themselves to increase the scope of 
educational opportunities for such groups must be a priority for the 
European Community and the Member states for three fundamental 
reasons : 
1. considerations of social equality and justice which demand that 
systematic discrimination be eradicated; 
2. the fact that such groups are deprived of educational opportunities 
represents a huge waste of potential, educated manpower that would 
otherwise be available to the country concerned; 
3. the fact that education and its links to the labour market is a 
potent weapon in the fight agains poverty. 
- 15 -
Amongst the various disadvantaged groups priority must be given to 
improving the access - to education available to women and the impact of 
all education sector projects on womens ' education must be studied at 
the stage of project appraisal and monitored during the course of 
project implementation. In particular, stress must be placed on 
womens' education in all projects leading to interventions in primary 
schooling and in teacher training. 
Emphasis must also be placed on the development of inclusive schooling 
for groups with special needs. 
Such priorities are fully in line with the conclusions of the World 
Conference on Education for All and of the Salamanca Statement of June, 
1994. 
IV. STRATEGIES. 
The principles and priorities outlined in the previous sections are 
only meaningful to the extent that they can be translated into 
practical measures whereby education and training in the DCs can be 
supported. The mechanism proposed for this task is a strategy for 
European aid to education an training. 
The first requirement of such a strategy is that it should permit a 
"balanced" approach to the needs of the DCs' for education and 
training. Education systems are both complex and interrelated and the 
impact of developments in one part of the system will, inevitably, have 
repercussions for other parts. 
The proposed strategy comprises two main elements, based on the 
experience of existing Community education and training programmes, 
and, where possible, on a bottom-up approach : 
1. the identification of target areas of intervention; 
2. the identification of measures to increase the efficiency of 
resource utilization in the target areas; 
1. Target areas of intervention 
1) Basic education 
Adequate basic education is both a fundamental human right and a 
pre-requisit for development. The cornerstone, therefore, of any 
European strategy for education and training in the DCs must be 
support for the provision of basic education. 
In view of current demographic pressures, merely making more 
primary school places available may not succeed in providing an 
acceptable quality of basic education for a larger proportion of 
the primary age cohort. In addition, there is an important trade­
off in terms of the available government recurrent budget 
allocation for the education sector between expanding the number of 
primary school place and ensuring an adequate level of recurrent 
support for all the other components of the formal education 
system. 
16 -
Thus, European support for basic education must include an element 
to increase the availability of alternative non-formal education 
opportunities for those individuals who are unable to complete the 
primary school cycle successfully. 
A significant strengthening of non-formal education opportunities 
is the only effective route whereby basic education for the 
majority can be achieved within an reasonable time frame without 
placing unsustainabledemands on governments' recurrent budgets. 
At the same time, support to non-formal education provides the 
means whereby hitherto disadvantaged groups can secure access to 
education. 
There may also be a real need to protect current and future 
students against the trend of the decline in the quality of formal 
primary schooling. Should this need become apparent, measures to 
rehabilitate existing buildings and to supply equipment, books and 
teaching aids can be considered, but in the context of financial 
and managerial reforms which will ensure the sustainability of such 
actions in the longer term. 
2) Secondary and post-secondary education 
A sound secondary education sector is essential to provide the 
qualified entrants for higher education, teacher training, and 
other courses in tertiary and post secondary education and 
training. The strategy, therefore, to be adopted towards 
secondary education must focus on those areas and skills that are 
most relevant to the development needs of the country. 
Much of the impetus behind the expansion of secondary education 
over the past 2 0 years has come from the pressure of social demand 
caused by the inability of many DCs • economies to absorb 
inappropriately or inadequately educated primary school leavers. 
However, the existence of unemployed primary school leavers can no 
longer be considered as a valid justification for donors continuing 
to support the expansion of secondary schooling. 
As with the primary schools, there may be grounds for supporting 
interventions in the areas of construction and equipment supply on 
the basis that the quality of the existing system must be 
maintained. Such intervention should be undertaken within the 
framework of a longer-term plan for support to the sector. 
3) Teacher training 
One of the most important factors in ensuring the quality of 
education available in all segments of the formal education system 
is the professional competence and motivation of the teaching 
force. The extent to which the classroom is able to provide a 
constructive learning environment is directly related to the number 
of- trained and qualified teachers and to the quality and relevance 
of the training that they themselves have received. The importance 
of the teacher's or the instructor's role is equally apparent in a 
non-formal education learning situation and in vocational education 
and training. 
17 -
The fundamental importance of the teacher's professional function 
must be recognised by the inclusion of teacher training as an 
essential component of any donor strategy to support education and 
training in the DCs. 
For the European Community and the Member states, the approach 
towards teacher training must be conditioned by the approach 
adopted towards other sub-sectors of the education system. Thus, 
priority will be given to the training of teachers in the field of 
basic education and to those teachers engaged in the teaching of 
developmentally-relevant skills in secondary and post-secondary 
education. 
As regards the training of instructors for non-formal education, 
the achievement of all targets in the area of basic education and 
literacy training will depend upon the DCs' success in mobilizing a 
cadre of instructors having a high level of appropriate skills and 
motivation. support for basic education must, therefore, include 
measures to assist instructor training. 
The key question however, for all measures of support for teacher 
and instructor training, is the relative emphasis to be placed on 
in-service as opposed to pre-service training. Support for 
improved in-service training is likely to be both a cost-effective 
and professionally effective means of upgrading the professional 
skills of the teaching force while at the same time raising the 
morale of this important group. 
Interventions in the area of teacher and instructor training must 
be undertaken within a framework of long-term planning for the 
sector. Within such a framework measures involving the creation of 
infrastructure and the supply of equipment can be contemplated, in 
particular to rehabilitate elements of the system that are no 
longer able to function properly. 
Also, insofar as the availability of appropriate textbooks is 
essential for teachers to be able to teach effectively, measures 
are needed to support the production of local materials and to 
increase the overall supply of books to schools. 
4) Technical and vocational education and training 
Technical education and vocational training (TEVT) are essential 
to create the qualified manpower needed by all sectors of the 
economy. In addition, TEVT offers an alternative to purely 
academic post-secondary studies and provides a route to self-
employement in both the formal and the informal labour markets. It 
is essential, therefore that support to this area be included in 
the donor strategy of the European Community and the Member states. 
- 18 -
The question of relating the extent of any support to this sub-
sector to the needs of the labour market is particularly important 
as the unit cost of this kind of education is normally 
considerable. For the same reason it is essential to ensure that 
the kinds of skills for which training is being offered are 
tailored to the actual needs of employers. Support by the European 
Community and the Member states in this area must, therefore, be 
integrated into a long-term strategy for technical manpower 
development for the DCs "concerned as well as satisfying the normal 
criteria for sustainability in terms of the ability of the 
administration to provide recurrent budget support. 
In view of the need to relate training directly to the requirements 
of a specific employment context, the involvement of' industry and 
other users of technical skills is essential when planning 
curricula. Also, in-service training, such as apprenticeship 
schemes, upgrading programmes and extension courses should be given 
equal emphasis to the kinds of pre-service training that are more 
commonly supported. 
In view of the need to ensure that instructors in these areas have 
both professional qualifications and practical employment 
experience, support should be made available for industry-based 
instructor training and for the in-service training and up-grading 
of the existing instructor cadre. 
5) University education 
Three factors must be considered regarding support to 
tertiary-level education. 
Firstly, unit costs for this level of education are very high and 
the opportunity cost of funds devoted to university education is 
very significant in terms of the possible alternative uses of these 
funds at other levels of the education system. 
Secondly, the "prestige" element in achieving a university 
education has led to a strong social demand for courses which are 
not necessarily those most needed by the DCs' economies. 
Thirdly, every country needs a cadre of professionals to occupy 
senior positions in the administration, in commerce and in 
industry. On the basis, therefore, that the quality of a country's 
professional leadership depends on the quality of the education 
available at the national universities, there is a strong argument 
for donors to continue to support the highest levels of 
professional education. 
Thus, while taking account of the questions of cost and the 
economies' absorptive capacity, support from the European Community 
and the Member states should continue to be directed to the 
strengthening of the country's professional and intellectual elite. 
In this context it is important not to underestimate the value of 
scholarships and training awards for the nationals of the DCs to 
undertake certain kinds of advanced training in Europe. 
- 19 -
2. Measures to increase the efficiency of resource utilization in the 
target areas. 
The ability of the DCs to utilize aid more or less effectively depends 
on the stage of development of the local institutional structures 
involved with the management of aid and the implementation of aid 
funded projects. However, a DCs "absorptive capacity" is neither 
fixed, nor, indeed, is it inflexible in the short-term. 
is: J— yfioi 
The experience of the European Community and the Member states is that 
well-directed aid can have an important impact on the way in which both 
local and donor resources can be used. In the field of education and 
training this is particularly important as there is evidence that 
resource utilization in formal education is often significantly sub-
optimal . 
The strategy for the European Community and the Member states includes, 
therefore, two target areas designed to increase the internal 
efficiency of education provision : 
1) Support for education planning and management 
The point has been stressed consistently that the strategic 
approach of the European Community and the Member states must be 
based on a planned response to the educational needs of the DCs. 
The basis for such a response, and indeed the effectiveness with 
which aid measures can be expected to achieve the intended 
objectives, will depend on the quality of the DCs' own machinery 
for planning and managing the development of the various components 
of its educational system. 
Thus, an essential element in the support for all the target areas 
outlined above must be the strengthening of institutional capacity 
within the relevant part of the administration to monitor and 
manage local- and donor- funded measures of support for the 
education system and to establish a comprehensive planning 
framework within which targets for the future development of this 
system can be set and resource needs assessed. This implies 
additional support for planning and statistical units within 
educational administrations at both central and regional levels and 
the need for capacity-building within the Ministries responsible 
for Education and Training to receive greater attention from 
donors. Particular importance must be placed on the ability of the 
DCs' to undertake effective financial management. 
Two further aspects of this target area are support to agencies 
involved in the assessment of manpower needs and for manpower 
planning at the central government level together with 
institutional strengthening for those parts of the budgetary 
process that involve the education sector. 
2) Support for educational innovation and reform 
In describing the present situation of education and training in 
the DCs, this Communication has repeatedly underlined the need to 
take into account the problem of the poor quality of much of the 
available education and the crucial issue of the inefficiency with 
which resources devoted to the education sector are being used. 
20 
Thus, on the one hand, resources are being swallowed up by the need 
to expand the scale of provision of formal schooling, while on the 
other, constraints on the education budget mean that additional 
resources are not available to develop and disseminate the means 
whereby the productivity of the educational sector can be 
increased. 
The strategy of the Community and the Members states must be to 
assist the DCs to improve the overall quality of educational 
services and to increase the efficiency with which resources 
allocated to education and training are used. This means that the 
emphasis must shift from more traditional kinds of assistance to 
focus increasingly on innovation both as regards the delivery of 
educational services and as regards the process ôf curriculum 
development. 
One innovation offering significant possibilities for both 
expanding educational access and for increasing the quality of the 
education provided is that of distance education. 
Distance learning methods can increase educational opportunities on 
their own and as adjuncts to conventional classroom teaching. 
Delivery systems for distance learning courses can range from 
complex national networks involving radio or TV programmes to 
small-scale local distribution of written learning materials. As 
such they provide a means of economizing on scarce curriculum 
development skills within the DCs and support the work of teachers 
and instructors who may be poorly equipped for their professional 
tasks. 
In view of the importance of supporting educational innovation, it 
is recommended that criteria relating to the extent of quality 
improvement and resource efficiency should become standard 
monitoring indicators in all education projects funded by the 
Community and the Member states. 
V. IMPLEMENTATION : THE MEANS AND THE INSTRUMENTS. 
There is a synergy between the means available to execute and manage an 
aid programme and the character of that programme. The aim of this 
present Section is to show that the Principles, Priorities and 
Strategies outlined in Sections III and IV have resource implications. 
The extent to which these resource implications can be met in practice 
will determine the extent to which the goals of increased coordination 
can be achieved. 
1. The means for implementation. 
1) Financial resources. 
The necessity of increasing the total finance for education and 
training has already been emphasised in Section III.l, above. 
- 21 -
During the 1980's, despite calls to focus on the development of human 
resources, external aid for education and training failed to increase 
sufficiently to tackle the considerable increase in needs resulting 
from the growth of populations. 
The necessity of increasing the flow of resources to this sector can be 
seen as being especially urgent for the least developed countries. 
In this regard, the Community and the Member states must pay particular 
attention to the need to strike a balance for each individual country 
between, on the one hand, the need to raise the productivity of the 
DCs education system, and, on the other, to provide sufficient 
resources to make gains in productivity possible. 
For those countries where the possibilités for economic development are 
already severely limited, external funding should take the form not 
only of investment in projects and programmes but should also include 
finance for the running costs of educational systems within the 
framework of appropriate reciprocal commitments. 
2. •Human resources. 
An increase in the effectiveness of coordination between the Community 
and the Member states will be possible only on the basis that 
sufficient human resources are made available to enable coordination to 
be properly planned and managed. 
The increase in the availability of human resources that this would 
involve could be achieved through the sharing of expertise between 
different European donors; through a rationalisation of tasks, at all 
levels, between the Community and the Member states; through the 
creation of additional posts for education and training specialists; or 
by the re-training of existing personnel. 
In addition, unless the outcome of the new strategy is properly 
monitored, then any future revisions of policy will be based on purely 
theoretical considerations rather than on a systematic analysis of 
actual experience. It is essential that the human resources should be 
made available to enable this task to be properly carried out. 
2. Instruments 
1) Much of the aid required will still have to come through the financing 
of projects and programmes. These will have to mésh together in a much 
more consistent whole than before and act as complementary and 
operative factors in the national strategies negotiated with donors. 
2) However, given the growth in manpower in many DCs, more direct ways of 
transferring resources should be developed, i.e. through previously 
used instruments and structural adjustment programmes such as general 
and sectoral import programmes or through direct budget support. 
- 22 
3) Where counterpart funds are used to support the education sector, there 
should be improved consistency with traditional types of financing in 
the form of projects. 
4) As regards study grants, at present the majority of scholarship and 
training awards granted to nationals of the DCs are for training in the 
North. 
European donor countries must be prepared to grant recognition to 
courses and training programmes of proven quality at institutions in 
the DCs and to increase their sponsorship of students from the DCs' 
onto such courses. 
5) Technical assistance should evolve over the next few years. Advisory 
and consultancy work remains a valuable way of comparing experiences 
and of jointly analysing problems and solutions, especially as part of 
support for education policies and of country-by-country planning 
activities. 
The necessary change should gradually result in the development of 
national capabilities through a progressive dismantling and 
replacement of technical assistance. Operations financed by the 
Community and its Member states should try to make even more use of 
individual and institutional skills in the DCs. 
VI. PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICAL STEPS FOR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE COMMUNITY 
AND THE MEMBER STATES 
1. General principles 
1) The DCs see education as a particularly sensitive area politically, 
socially and culturally. 
On the other hand, the comparative advantage enjoyed by respectively, 
the Community and the Member states is not easy to identify and so 
donors' policies tend to draw on different education models. 
2) Because of these various factors, coordination should simultaneously 
aim to: 
clarify the objectives of the Union in this field : the normal role 
of the Community as regards the conception and execution of 
coordination measures being maintained; 
- ensure the recipients of education schemes are closely involved in 
devising and carrying out the schemes recommended by donors; 
be clear about the areas for cooperation without trying to cover 
every aspect of the "development of human resources and education", 
which is something that can vary according to donor policy and DC; 
- turn possible differences between Member states' own ideas of 
development cooperation to good advantage, that is by not using 
coordination to bring in standardization but to avoid duplication 
and to increase the synergies and effectiveness of aid in line with 
Council resolutions. 
- 23 -
2. Practical steps 
1) The Community and its Member states will coordinate their work through 
existing mechanisms on the basis of the principles set out by the 
Council in its resolution of 2 December 1993 on procedures for 
coordination between the Community and the Member states. 
The Community and its Member states attach special importance to 
management committees, which also draw on the appropriate services of 
the Community responsible for cooperation in education and training if 
called upon, both in the planning phase of all development schemes in 
a country and in identifying education and training schemes. 
2 ) Unlike other areas of Community and Member State* development 
cooperation, policy coordination between the two on education and 
training is practically non-existent. 
Coordination will be based on the operational complementarity between 
the Member states themselves and between them and the community, 
including the Commission services with expertise in the area of 
education and training in DC s. 
3) At the policy level, coordination will be based on exchanges of 
information and experience. These could look at the place of education 
in DC budgets, policies and priorities; effectiveness, quality, 
financing, aspects of financing by the Community or Member States of 
specific schemes (budget support or projects) and any other relevant 
matters. 
On the Commission's side, thought will be given to the establishment of 
a data bank for community and Member state's education and training 
projects. 
4) Policy coordination will prove most useful for local operational 
cooperation in one or in a number of identified DCs (regional 
cooperation). 
It is" by taking each country or group of countries in turn that 
consultation will be of value: by talking with the recipient DCs, a 
coherent framework can be identified for action to be taken by the 
Community and Member states. 
The process will centre on regular, systematic contacts between local 
representatives of the Commission and Member States designed to 
exchange information and ensure greater consistency in discussion with 
the DCs (on sectoral and subsectoral policy issues and on specific 
operations or projects). 
It could lead to joint studies and evaluations and to the preparation 
and implementation of joint operations in line with the guidelines 
adopted by the Community and Member States. 
Such consultations could precede the programming stage or go on 
throughout it. 
It will be up to the Commission to instigate and maintain policy 
consultation and to follow progress in operational coordination. 
However, in each of the recipient countries, one or other of the 
European partners will, by joint agreement, act as leader in the 
education sector and take the initiative to strengthen coordination. 
- 24 -
5) At both the policy and the operational level, the commission will bring 
together groups of Member states' experts (at least once a year). On 
the basis of Council guidelines applicable to the Member States and the 
Community, they will discuss the range of problems outlined above and 
elaborate the analyses made of some geographical areas or particular 
aspects of policy or concrete actions in education and training. 
The expert groups could come up with specific guidelines to be 
submitted to the Council as needs dictate. 
They should concentrate their efforts on a limited number of DCs where 
the Community and Member States have a significant presence. 
The Commission will prepare an annual progress report onr coordination 
work, covering Member State and Community action. 
6) If the coordination between the Community and the Member States remains 
the first priority, a joint approach in other international fora must 
be pursued in parallel. In this regard joint consultations should be 
both systematic and informal. 
Regarding dialogue and coordination with the other major donors active 
in the field of education, this should be undertaken on the basis of a 
common "European perspective", especially in the context of the 
development of long-term sectoral programmes. 
The Commission's annual report referred to above, will cover activities 
undertaken in the context of coordination with other, non-European, 
donors as well as monitoring the progress of intra-European 
coordination. 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM (94) 399 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 16 il 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-94-420-EN-C 
ISBN 92-77-80684-2 
Office for Officiai Publications of the European Communities 
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