The Key Development Goal should be Basic Skills for all Children

In autumn, the United Nations will define the sustainable development objectives that are to follow on the current Millennium Development Goals 2000-2015. Eric A. Hanushek, Stanford University, and Ludger Wößmann, Ifo Institute and Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, argue that the overriding development goal of the post-2015 agenda should be that all young people acquire at least a basic level of skills. Since the knowledge capital of the population is of paramount importance for an inclusive world development in which all groups of the population participate, the resulting increase in future prosperity would be immense.