Re Education : Issue #22 - Summer Reflections
Seeing through a glass darkly
Summer Reflections – Seeing Through a Glass Darkly
(If this message does not format properly in your email - please click the “Read in App / View in Browser” above, top right).
This month’s Re Education has no special feature or interview as many, including me, are taking a summer break. Instead, a brief reflection on the year so far:
It’s hard to believe the year is barely 7 months old – and within that time USAID has been abolished and the UK government has taken an axe to its development programme – with the first of the big impacts on education : the reported demise of Cambridge Education (see below).
In last month’s issue I reported on the various campaigns to try to get FCDO to rethink their stated aim of cutting education and gender. I speculated on whether the level of noise would entail a rethink of sorts, perhaps some constraint on the severity of the cuts : such misplaced naivete. The details of the cuts are in the News section below, but the headline is “it’s pretty dreadful and there’s worse to come”.
Shortly after this analysis was released a ray of hope came in the shape of Gates Foundation who announced a scaling up of their support to global education to $240m in Sub-Saharan Africa and India over 4 years (see Gates Foundation doubles down on education as other donors scale back for an interview with Ben Piper on how the funds will support governments).
I don’t want to downplay this generosity – in the current circumstances, hats off to the Gates Foundation. But, to put this announcement in perspective, the FCDO Education budget, expected now to be less than £150m in FY25/26 (down 80% from £930m in 2016) will still be three times more than Gates is spending each year.
Another small beam of positive news was the announcement that the US House Appropriations Committee is proposing a much lighter cut to the development budget than the Trump administration wants c. 22% reduction – see here for initial readouts. Are these stirrings of the much-touted bipartisan consensus, or is the wish father to the thought ?
There is no shortage of commentators out there who are trying to help navigate this bewildering and fast-moving shape-shift of the development system. Some seem rather too eager to signal the end of “big aid” (without even defining it) and to provide prescriptions for what should replace it – sometimes without explicitly acknowledging the scale of the change, like replacing an Airbus with a Tiger Moth.
Others are providing the kind of analysis that is needed to move on and deal with the new realities. One of the best I’ve read is this speech by Masood Ahmed of CGD which first dwells on the reasons why these destructive acts were able to happen – not least on why the response from recipient countries has been so muted, in some cases welcoming.
That looking backwards to look forwards is important. A rush to focus on “what happens now ?” without sufficient pause to dwell on the “what just happened and why?” truncates the time needed to process the new situation and appraise the good and bad aspects of the old. There is a space needed for “grief” – and through that grief comes understanding and the commitment to move on.
Indeed, the world moves on, and there have been real elements of crisis management in dealing with the unplanned, unevidenced and vandalistic actions taken by northern governments. But, a measured movement towards “new paradigms” is essential for two reasons.
First, in haste, principles tend to go out the window ; everything becomes centred on pragmatic compromises. Thus, rather than conversations about holding on to principles of equity and fairness, or redressing power imbalances – everything becomes focused on how the funding gap can be filled.
Second, accepting the “new normal” does not mean accepting the language of the vandals. So, narratives of “waste and inefficiency” should be rejected as excuses for change ; and the constant repetition of “no money for development” exposed as a measure of priorities, not a real fiscal lack. Those, with good intentions, who are eager to define the new paradigm need to avoid entrenching, normalising and accepting this vandalism instead of calling it out for what it is ; a deliberate, mean, self-interested, political choice.
We cannot turn the clock back, but we can acknowledge, and salvage, some of the good that has been thrown away. The “new normal” itself is still being formed and can be shaped even by those who are its victims. The principles and practices that lie at the heart of the best development work – principles of cooperation and respect, of building and strengthening systems that support the most disadvantaged – these are principles that we need to fight for, to become part of the new shape of development.
Andy Brock, August 2025
Subscribe for free and receive each issue of Re Education automatically to your inbox.
A realistic account of the way the world works will sound cynical.
Noam Chomsky
News
Breaking news just in today : After the closure of Crown Agents last year, there’s another major victim of cuts to the UK and US aid programmes. Reputable sources indicate that Mott MacDonald, my old company, of which Cambridge Education is a subsidiary, will withdraw from development work. So, after 43 years as one of the UKs largest and most influential global education providers, Cambridge Education is set to fold ; heartbreaking. More on this in September.
Apocalyptic headlines : Heather Stewart had this piece on the aid cuts : UK’s aid cuts ‘will hit children’s education and raise risk of death’ | Aid | The Guardian. In the Independent Bambos Charalambous, Chair of the APPG on Global Education : The UK’s aid cuts are staggering – and much worse is to come | The Independent
A very good piece from by Chidinma Ibemere and Hannah Frisch of Results UK “what the latest UK aid data really means for education”. Good because it really gets behind the headline figures to show how bad the cuts to education really are (51% this year) – and how there is still time to protest / influence the cuts planned for FY 26/27.
This link for the FCDO Annual Report and Accounts 24/25 and here for the equality impact assessment of Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations for 2025 to 2026. Bond, the NGO network, have a full assessment here.
A masterclass in influencing : GPE and ECW have successfully had their contributions protected this year (could the beeline for meetings with Baroness Chapman in June have anything to do with it ?), but both are coming up for replenishment – so no guarantees beyond this year.
David Lammy was in front of the IDC defending the cuts to education and gender in fairly bombastic fashion. But, those who have worked in the global education sector will understand that suggesting “mainstreaming” as a strategy in this situation is simply giving the semblance of action without the resources to make it happen.
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies points out the government’s assertion that the FCDO aid budget was cut to invest in Defence is untrue. As he says all the new money in Defence is for capital spend and so the money taken from aid is “shoring up” domestic department spending. 4:47:00 onwards.
So much for free speech : an entire issue of the Harvard Education Review (HER), dedicated to education in Palestine, has been cancelled : Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication | Harvard University | The Guardian
A new network has been launched : Educationalists for Palestine “an independently formed collective of education academics, researchers, and practitioners”. Anyone from HER ? Check it out here.
I highlighted the REAL Centre 10-Year Anniversary last month - they have now uploaded videos and blogs from the day here.
Development
Kat Patillo runs a Substack called EdWell. she doesn’t publish often, but when she does it’s always very high quality. Her latest edition has an excellent piece on FLN in India - sharp and insightful, and a recipe of the ingredients needed for scaling. Well worth subscribing.
This is really taking the long view…300 years in fact. A great new paper from the World Inequality Lab and authors Nitin Bharti, Amory Gethin, Thanasak Jenmana, Zhexun Mo, Thomas Piketty, and Li Yang. “Human capital, unequal opportunities and productivity convergence – A global historical perspective 1800-2100”.
They find that over this long period returns to education are higher than for heath and higher for public investment than private. Spending on education per child in 2025 in North America / Oceania $9,025 ; Sub-Saharan Africa $220. These figures are in purchasing power parity terms – if using market rates you could double or treble the disparity. Emphasises why small amounts of money, by northern standards, can have sizeable impacts in the south.
More on the harmful impacts of lead poisoning : The end of lead - Works in Progress Magazine and see this article specifically on the impact of lead on children’s cognitive abilities : The Effect of Lead Exposure on Children’s Learning in the Developing World: A Meta-Analysis
Voices from the front
A very moving 90 sec. video from Shaima A of Save the Children UK on why children in Gaza love being in photos.
This is worth reading : Conrad Sackey, Minister of Basic and Senior Education in Sierra Leone, on the lessons he has drawn from trying to keep education front and centre in the national frame. The article includes a statement you won’t read often :
Our Ministries of Education and Finance work in close partnership, grounded in shared goals. I often say the Finance Minister’s office is my second office.
His three priorities are refreshingly direct and practical : 1. Protect and prioritise foundational learning in national budgets. 2 Institutionalise collaboration between Ministries of Education and Finance 3. Improve budget efficiency, and scale what works. All power to his elbow.
Voices from the rear
(Gray and Published Research)
Brad Olsen of Brookings has a timely piece “Are we thinking correctly about “data” and “data use” in global education ?” which raises issues about the agendas behind data use, the overselling of data as a development panacea and the ignoring / dismissal of qualitative data. Is the pendulum starting to swing back ?
A new paper from Lee Crawfurd at CGD on the economic returns to foundational literacy and numeracy. May seem obvious but adds to the stock of evidence. The Economic Returns to Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: Evidence from Indonesia | Center For Global Develo
A new paper from Noam Angrist, Kevin Winseck, Harry Anthony Patrinos, and Joshua Graff Zivin suggests a year of education substantially increases pro-climate beliefs, behaviours, and policy preferences. Human Capital and Climate Change | The Review of Economics and Statistics | MIT Press.
Three pieces on similar themes with contrasting takes. First, what used to be called, within DFID, GRIPP (Getting Research Into Policy and Practice). This from Peter Evans (aka “Peachy Pete”), ex-DFID Adviser – From Nose to Tail, an engaging, and charmingly illustrated, piece on the power of telling stories to get your research /policy taken seriously – don’t miss it.
The second feels like it could have done with reading the first, first. Carolina Rivas and Dave Evans have published a paper with a shocking finding : “Education Policy and Results : It’s (almost) all in the Implementation”. Are there really people still out there who think that producing research or policy papers automatically leads to adoption ?
And the third, a hair-tearing piece from Anna Gawel at Devex seeking to explain “Why the aid sector lost the comms war”. The most interesting aspect of this last piece was how USAID’s hands were partially tied – they weren’t allowed to trumpet their own successes, and so became the victim of them. See also Matt Watkins on how “Word Jumble” has also turned some against the sector.
Anna Christina d’Addio of the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR) on GEM’s Gender Report. “Most Teachers are women. Most education leaders are men”. She points out that it’s not just a gender issue but a systems issue – systems need to change.
Summer Reading / Listening
A few suggestions including some non-global-education related.
Podcasts : Your Undivided Attention - Episode 114 - Daniel Kokotajlo Forecasts the End of Human Dominance. A really sobering listen about the potential for AI to get out of human control - by 2027 - and why nothing is being done about it. Some uncanny parallels with education systems : if AI is given outcomes targets (win, be the best, beat others etc.) and few guardrails, it will cheat and lie.
ODI - Think Change Episode 77 - “Corporate Humanitarianism ? Gaza, Sudan and beyond”. Worrying discussion about the privatisation and militarisation of humanitarian aid.
Books : None new, but two top recommendations : "Second Hand Time" Svetlana Alexeivich, a truly astonishing and revelatory book about Russia pre-Putin : in my top 5 ever. “Paradise” set in East Africa is a lyrical and touching story by Abdulrazak Gurnah, a beautiful writer and deserved winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Films : No Other Land (2024) Oscar-winning disturbing account of life in the West Bank. Black Box Diaries (2024) - an emotional tale of sexism and mysogyny in modern Japan told first hand by journalist Shiori Ito.
And finally
A couple of linked thoughts – the first on human creativity (from one of my favourite actors, Ethan Hawke. If you are over about 30 and haven’t seen the trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight – make it your summer project !).
Secondly, this resonates, not to dismiss AI, but to assess it for what it is and how we should use it.
The task that generative AI has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of things we read, and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are : creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world. (Ted Chiang)
If you know someone who would be interested in reading this newsletter, please pass on, by clicking the share button below. Subscription is free - subscribers receive each issue of Re Education automatically.
What a great read. Stacked with insights and cloaked with wisdom and warmth. Many thanks Andy.