Published by Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) in collaboration with the Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES)

The book’s contributing authors raise questions about the false expectations of target-setters, the failures of international development aid processes to assist the achievement of the MDGs, the denial of local context and history in the target-setting processes, the arbitrary selection of targets, the choice of definitions that enable manipulation of data to show they have been achieved, and the inability of individual countries to sustain reforms initiated with development aid without aid.

Here is a rich set of reflections on development thought and practice at the start of the twentieth century, representing the cumulative wisdom and judgement of scholars who have made an indelible mark on educational thought. They present a formidable set of conceptual, practical and political challenges for consideration by the development world in its target-setting processes, especially in the field of education.

Linda Chisholm is a Director in the Education, Science and Skills Development research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria. Graeme Bloch is Education Specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Brahm Fleisch is a Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Table of Contents

• Preface (Linda Chisholm)
• Lessons from the past two decades: Investment choices for education and growth (Martin Carnoy)
• Aid agency support for education: Gaps between intention and action (Christopher Colclough)
• Why some Education for All and Millennium Development Goals will not be met: Difficulties with goals and targets (Keith Lewin)
• Education, skills, sustainability and growth: Complex relations (Kenneth King)
• The developmental state in Africa (Dani W. Nabudere)