Rebirth of Education

Lant Pritchett is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and professor of the practice of international development at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, USA.

"UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 26 guarantees the right of every child to free elementary education. Today, nearly 90 percent of children are enrolled in primary school, but enrollment is only the first step. Pritchett's insightful analysis and rigorous evidence point to the next step in realizing every child's right to education: the need for governments and donors to move from a focus on enrollment to a focus on learning." —S. E. M. Vuk Jeremic, president of the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly|"A timely call to build on the success of expanding schooling to now focus the same dedication, energy, resources, and creativity on learning. Innovation in close partnership with our developing-country colleagues, whose voices must be heard on the systemic challenges, will be critical to the success of this next phase." —Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education|"With abundant data, experience, and clear thinking, Pritchett makes a compelling case for why more of the same won't cut it anymore, how we need to think deeply about how change happens and who can drive it, and why we need to be suspicious of experts and blueprints." —Rakesh Rajani, founder and head of Twaweza|"Lant Pritchett's recommendations will disappoint both orthodox economists and orthodox educators since they do not reinforce any of the standard recipes. But those willing to be convinced by Pritchett's logic and the particular blend of caring and impishness that characterizes his writing will be justifiably alarmed, then enlightened, and finally filled with hope. I urge all my colleagues to read it immediately." —Luis Crouch, chief technical officer, International Development Group|"With his unique voice, full of data and analogies (after all, what book on education reform also mentions snakes, spiders, and elephants?), Lant Pritchett will make people rethink what they know (or think they know) about education, schooling, and learning." —Elizabeth King, director of education, World Bank|"Lant Pritchett's pathbreaking and courageous work exposes the scandal of education policy which contents itself with achieving quantitative targets on student enrollment even when no real education is happening. Pritchett documents convincingly the problem of missing education, while offering constructive alternatives to the unacceptable complacency of the status quo. Nobody reading this book will ever think about education the same way again." —William Easterly, professor of economics, New York University