This research project has explored the ways in which both the achievement and the
developmental impact of the goal of Universal Primary Education (UPE) rely on strengthening
of systems for post-basic education and training (PBET). Reviewing the relevant policies,
institutions, and experience in six countries (India, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa,
Tanzania), we have sought policy-relevant lessons concerning the ways in which the povertyreducing
benefits of basic education depend on PBET’s contributions to an enabling
environment in two broad ways:
• a delivery context in which basic education can flourish (essentially a question of the
quality and sustainability of educational provision across the whole education sector);
• a transformative context which facilitates translation from basic and post-basic education
into developmental outcomes (essentially a question of the developmental value of
education for individuals and for society in general).
Obvious though these interdependencies may seem, our starting-point is the problematic lack of
reference to PBET in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the related trends
among some international donors and country strategies towards an under-emphasis on PBET
in development policy and even in budgetary provision, and towards an over-emphasis on the
importance of rapid progress towards achieving UPE regardless of its sustainability and
outcomes. We also identify as a critical problem the naïve use of research knowledge to support
unwarranted assumptions about simple translations from primary educational inputs to
developmental outcomes. Our aim is therefore to promote more sophisticated and holistic use of
research in developing and implementing policies for education and poverty reduction.