Video interview: “The Underfunding of Public Education is a Political Choice.”
Actionaid, Education International and the Tax and Education Alliance, launched a new report “Still Cooking With a Failed Recipe: A review of IMF country advice on social spending, public services, debt, tax and gender equality” in June 2026. Sponsored by a further 19 civil society organisations from across the world, the report shows how the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) policies on public spending are still harming the realisation of the right to education across the world.
In a new video, David Archer, one of the report’s authors, discusses the key findings of the research which analysed 29 IMF documents from 11 countries (Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, the UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe) over three years. He explains that the IMF continues to prioritise the debt repayments over human rights. He also connects the dots between the IMF’s policies and the chronic underfunding of public education systems, which leads to increasing education privatisation. Together the intentional underfunding of public education and privatisation undermine the right to education for all as well as gender equality.
Video of David Archer, Actionaid International, discussing the new joint research by ActionAid, Education International and the Tax and Education Alliance.
The big takeaway from the research is that: “the underfunding of public education is a political choice”. It is possible for governments to choose an alternative path. By ending austerity policies and implementing progressive tax and debt policies, governments across the world can strengthen their public education systems so that all learners can enjoy free, quality education with smaller class sizes and qualified teachers.
How governments can choose to adequately fund public education