ABSTRACT
The 1990s have witnessed much greater emphasis being placed upon the need for all children to go to school. The long-established human rights case for everyone being able to have at least a basic education had been supplemented, during the 1980s, by strong evidence, from many developing countries, that primary schooling helped people to be more productive in both farm and non-farm work, and that, particularly in the case of women, it facilitated the achievement of other important development objectives, including lower fertility, better health and nutrition, reduced infant and child mortality, and a better intergenerational transmission of basic skills within households. Accordingly, the idea that there was a strong ‘investment’ case for the widespread provision of primary schooling became generally accepted in professional and international circles. Having been largely ignored by aid agencies, it became one of their most favoured targets for aid support – more so, even, than other levels of education.
