ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews a number of issues all of which are seen as affecting the present and future role of education in international development assistance. The formidable tasks which many of the poorer developing countries face in politically as delicate and volatile an area as living up to the mandate of universal primary education is well exemplified by projections of the cost of accomplishing this particular objective in Africa. Assessing the effects of a situation of steady state is, of course, radically different in the context of a developing country from what it is in the context of educational financing in North America and Western Europe. The cost of running existing educational systems is already a major burden on the fiscal capacities of many developing countries, partly as a result of the considerable follow-up cost associated with externally financed development projects.
