ABSTRACT
As the post-Washington consensus has sought to displace the Washington consensus by emphasising the significance of market imperfections, one longstanding area of World Bank thinking and funding has shone out like a beacon in contradicting exclusive reliance upon market forces – education. This is hardly surprising given the widely accepted notion that education forms an exception in the weight of market externalities and imperfections that would lead to its under-provision. In addition, in both developed and developing countries, education has increasingly been seen as a panacea for solving problems of economic and social advance. Emphasis on human capital and endogenous growth has marked many of the explanations over the past decade for differing economic performance. Not surprisingly, the watershed literature bridging the transition from Washington to postWashington consensus has even witnessed a strengthening commitment to education.
