Education: the 2010 Year in Review

2010 was a banner year for education as global attention brought by the UN Millennium Development Goals summit in New York City spotlighted the catalytic role education plays in fighting poverty and meeting a number of critical development goals. As countries and development partners alike strive to maximize development effectiveness, investing in education has emerged as a clear priority for this reason -- as well as as part of the solution to rising unemployment, a point echoed by US President Barack Obama in last week's State of the Union. The World Bank's forthcoming Education Strategy, which launched global consultations in 2010, takes special aim at the critical need for learning to translate into skills for work and life. While the global economic downturn has threatened to slow hard-won progress, the World Bank scaled up development assistance with over $5 billion in support to education during FY2010.

Check out our newly released Education Year in Review 2010 for more on the World Bank's work in education in the past year, including an in-depth look at country operations, detailed lending information and links to many of our newest publications. Jump to the website here. This product is also available as a brochure and CD-ROM. Copies may be ordered through our Education Advisory Service.

For more on some of the hottest topics in education this past year, check out our TOP 10 Education for Global Development blog posts in 2010:

1. New Open Data Initiative Emphasizes Importance of Education Stats and Better Visualization of Data 
2. Can Public Accountability Motivate Teachers to Perform at their Best? The Conversation Heats Up
3. Education is the best investment
4. Call for Action: Help Shape Our Work on Equity in Higher Education
5. Are Non-Cognitive Gains in Education More Important than Test-Scores?
6. Notes from the Field: Comparing Three Villages in Madhya Pradesh
7. Investing in Early Childhood - What can be done?
8. Cash on Delivery: Exploring a Results-Based Approach to Education Aid with the Center for Global Development
9. Southeast Asian Nations Can Leverage the Private Sector to Better Prepare a Skilled Workforce
10. Stepping It Up For Vocational Education

Also head over to see the Top 10 blog posts from our EduTech blog, which explores the potential of technological innovations for educational progress.

Finally, check out this interactive World Bank timeline of the past year.

Photo credit: Hongyu Yang/World Bank