E. Defining Basic Learning Needs
From the preceding discussion of human development and its
potential effects, it is possible to identify basic learning needs in general
terms along both personal and societal dimensions. These needs
comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression,
numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic learning content (such as
knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to
survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to
participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make
informed decisions, and to continue learning. The scope of basic learning needs
and how they should be met varies with individual countries and cultures, and
inevitably, changes with the passage of time.
The satisfaction of these needs empowers individuals in any
society and confers upon them a responsibility to respect and build upon their
collective cultural, linguistic and spiritual heritage, to promote the education
of others, to further the cause of social justice, to achieve environmental
protection, to be tolerant towards social, political and religious systems which
differ from their own, ensuring that commonly accepted humanistic values and
human rights are upheld, and to work for international peace and solidarity in
an interdependent world.
Basic education facilitates the ability to meet other basic
needs - adequate nutrition, shelter and clothing, and access to health services
and clean water. All of these basic human needs are interdependent, but basic
education promotes accomplishment of, and increases the individual benefits
from, the satisfaction of other needs.
The possession of basic learning also is a prerequisite and a
complement to other sources of social and economic development. It can help
resolve the problems of economic decline, widening economic disparities,
dislocation and disadvantage, environmental degradation, and excessive
population growth. Another and no less fundamental aim of educational
development is the transmission and enrichment of common cultural and moral
values. It is in these values that the individual and society find their
identity and worth. Moreover, sound basic education is fundamental to the
strengthening of higher levels of education and of scientific and technological
literacy and capacity and thus to self-reliant development.
Basic education is more than an end in itself. It is the
foundation for lifelong learning and human development on which countries may
build, systematically, further levels and types of education and training.
Box 1.07. Korea: Providing Primary Education for All
Historically, Korea illustrates a country whose educational
policies, particularly in the finance area evolved in support of their rapid
industrialization. Korea was able to invest a large proportion of its GNP in
education because of its commitment to, and broad and flexible approach to,
educational finance. Including all sources of finance, the percentage of GNP
going to education was 8.8 percent in 1996 and rose to 9.7 percent in 1970.
About 71 percent of educational expenses were paid for by students and their
parents. These were used for construction and operation of schools, as well as
for out-of-school household expenses on books, school supplies, transportation,
extra curricular activities and room/board. In the mid-1960s, out-of-school
expenses accounted for 80 percent of household educational expenditures, close
to one half of which were for primary education. A large share of these
expenditures went for the purchase of textbooks at the compulsory education
level since only a quarter of the students got them for free.
The central government concentrated expenditures on primary
education. By allocating three-fourths of its national public education budget
to compulsory education and relying on private schools and parents
willingness to pay for secondary and tertiary education, Korea achieved primary
education for all, while at the same time satisfying the strong and growing
demand for post-primary education. In 1965 public schools accounted for 99
percent of primary enrollment, but they served only 45.5 and 27.4 percent of
enrollment at the academic secondary and tertiary levels of education,
respectively.
Korea also made use of local institutions in the finance and
provision of primary education. As early as 1949, Parent-Teacher Associations
(PTAs) played an important role in the finance of primary education. Despite the
ambitions of the Education Law, the central government could provide only 15
percent of the revenues needed to finance primary education. Hence, the PTAs,
which were originally organized to supplement teacher salaries and to increase
parental involvement in school decision making, provided 75 percent of the funds
for local schools, with local governments contributing another 10 percent. In
the sixties local sources provided between 20 and 25 percent of the total amount
of local education expenditure at the primary level. In 1970, PTAs were
reorganized as the Yuksonghoe (voluntary parent-teacher association)
with the same objective as before. With the reorganization, the Yuksonghoe fees
amounted to 28 percent of the public budget for compulsory education in 1974.
Finally, the central government provided grants to local schools
for compulsory education, amounting to 78 percent of total local government
expenditures in 1970. Conscious of the inequality among communities, the
national government has attempted since 1982 to equalize public expenditure
among primary school districts across the country by means of formulas that
distribute national funds on the basis of local need and ability to pay. |