Educational inequity is a global crisis. Sixty per cent of primary children in low and middle-income countries leave school unable to read and write. Hundreds of millions more, in countries rich and poor, are not developing the ability to navigate the future of work, with its complex problem-solving challenges. Progress on this front is not just a moral imperative, it is vital for putting countries on the path to sustainable development.
How can we solve this seemingly intractable problem? Part of the solution is investing in co-ordinated international efforts — to do for education what investment in international institutions has done for public health.
Currently, education is seen as a local or national problem. For almost 20 years, launching and building up Teach For America, I too was focused on addressing the massive inequities in my country’s education system. But as I met those trying to improve education in other countries, and saw first-hand the challenges they were tackling, I learnt that the marginalised children in India and Peru had more in common with marginalised children in the US than with the more privileged kids in their own countries.