10 User Payments for Basic Education in Low-Income Countries
Author:
Arye L. Hillman https://isni.org/isni/0000000404811396 International Monetary Fund

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Language:
English
Print Publication Date:
17 Sep 2004
Keywords:
BOOK; country; user payment; per capita income; francophone country; recipient country; exchange rate; hazard function; Health care spending; Africa; Western Hemisphere; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; Asia and Pacific; primary education; basic education; school enrollment; demand-side influence; Community schooling; Education spending; Caribbean; South Asia; South America; Central America; enrollment rate

Abstract

Basic education combined with social mobility is a prerequisite for successful economic development. Basic education improves productivity through investment in human capital, and also through beneficial externalities when more educated people complement one another in productive activities. Basic education also improves the quality of life by allowing people to read, write, and do arithmetic calculations. It is a responsibility of government to ensure that children have quality basic education independently of their parents’ social and economic circumstances. Ideally, therefore, all children should have access to free-access, publicly financed, quality schools.1 Yet, in many poor countries, education of children is not free; rather, parents pay fees or user payments for the education of their children. The user payments in some cases supplement public spending on schools. In other cases, where no public financing is available, user payments self-finance community schools that are organized and funded by communities and parents independently of government.

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Cover Helping Countries Develop
Helping Countries Develop
The Role of Fiscal Policy
ISBN:
9781589063181
Publication Date:
17 Sep 2004
Publisher:
International Monetary Fund
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9781589063181.071
Pages:
540
Front Matter
1 Fiscal Policy for Economic Development: An Overview
I Macroeconomic Policy in Developing Countries
II Public Spending and the Millennium Development Goals
III Revenues and Growth
IV. Fiscal Policy and Aid
V. Special Topics

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