Recommendation 4

HM Government Accepted

FCDO should focus education spending on the most impactful programmes for poverty reduction, particularly early years and primary education. All programmes should be disability inclusive, recognising the additional barriers disabled children face when accessing education. The FCDO supports education systems to deliver quality education for all children in a way that is resilient, safe, and inclusive. We have the greatest impact on poverty reduction through a focus on foundational learning and reaching the most marginalised. This starts with foundational learning for all, which includes basic literacy, numeracy and socio- emotional skills. These skills are the building blocks needed to make progress in school, attain higher-order skills, and reap the full rewards of education. From 2017–2021, over one third (36%) of the UK’s bilateral education ODA spend was on basic education (early years, primary, and basic skills training). That amounts to just under £1.2bn in five years. Primary education is by far the largest area, accounting for £1.1bn spend in that five-year period—it is a UK priority, in terms of policy, strategy, and ODA spend. The FCDO is committed to generating and using the best evidence for impactful programmes, including in early years, primary education and for the most marginalised. The THRIVE Early Childhood Development research programme will deliver research on how to implement effective Early Childhood Development interventions at scale in LMICs. In the FCDO Disability Inclusion and Rights Strategy 2022–2030, published in February 2022, we committed to: i Increase visibility of children with disabilities by contributing to the global evidence base and improving collection, analysis, and use of disaggregated data ii Ensure children with disabilities in humanitarian and protracted crises are given an equal opportunity to learn in safe, inclusive, protective environments iii Prioritise interventions that tackle the barriers children with disabilities, especially girls with disabilities, experience in accessing quality education and learning Through the UK Girls’ Education Challenge programme, over a million girls who were most at risk of dropping out are now staying on and making progress in school. The UK is helping over 150,000 girls with disabilities to attend school through this programme. Teachers and teaching remain at the heart of the FCDO’s education policy and recently published Girls’ Education Action Plan. We know teacher training is a ‘smart buy.’ The FCDO prioritises supporting teachers in all our programmes and through our global funds in education such as the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Education Cannot Wait (ECW). From 2017–2021, over £100m has been spent on teacher training. This is not all specific to primary education, but is highly complementary to the key elements of education programming, which are mostly aimed at primary education. This 6 Extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals: Government Response work is also central to our commitment to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more reading by the age of ten, by 2026.