Education In Developing Countries Essay, Research Paper
Education can be defined as all forms of human learning or more narrowly as the process that occurs in specialized institutions called schools . It is unquestionably the most important form of human resource development, economists have agreed to the idea that education has an important role on economic growth. In many developing countries, there has been increasing concern on education.
Thailand is a country that has experienced great economic growth in the past few years fueled by cheap labor industries. With the Asian crisis, that growth has slowed down quite dramatically, and some say it is the result of the country’s lack of educated workers.
It is no question that much of Africa is still under development, and education is one of its biggest hurdles towards economic growth. Although the percentage of children in school has risen from 25% in 1960 to over 60% now, the number of children not in school is still continuously rising.
The two journals from The Economist both agreed that education is the first step towards development and economic growth. Both the World Bank and the IMF has demanded an increase in education spending as part of its relief effort to some of these developing countries. It is up to the countries themselves to spend their budgets on more important things like education, rather than the military.
South-East Asia
In the article “South-East Asia’s learning difficulties” published by The Economist on August 16, 1997. It defined the problem facing Thailand at that time. Thailand has been successful during the 1990’s with economic growth provided by its cheap labor. These labor-intensive industries are responsible for producing clothes, shoes and other goods for exporting to the West. As the Asian crisis sets in, the government began to realize the problem facing the country, the lack of qualified workers. Over the year, the country has been concentrating on its labor-intensive industries but failing to address the need of skilled workers by these industries. In fact all these years Thailand has only experienced economic growth, but not development.
Foreign companies are reluctant to invest in Thailand because they did not have workers who were qualified unless they are send aboard for training. That involved extra costs and the fear of losing them to a market eager to hire them away. The fear of investors can have a great effect on a country’s economy, and development.
But money, or the lack of it, is another big reason for Thailand’s educational failings. Public and private expenditure on education, at less than 4% of GDP, is the lowest in the region. Nor is it likely to rise much in the near future, even though the government has promised that education will be spared the budgetary cuts required by the IMF as part of the rescue package.
All this will have a big effect on the quality of its schooling systems, with this in mind; some parents will then send their children to study aboard. This is the case in Malaysia, where one billion dollars is drained annually from its economy by the departure of these students.
It is all about central planning, there has been complaints made by teacher on the country’s education system. Which has always been centralized and resistant to change, in Thailand alone, there are eight central government ministries that have a role on education. So proposed changes to the education system is very unlikely to pass. This is also the case in Indonesia, where the emphasis on using the Indonesian language has put its graduates at a disadvantage comparing to other graduates from Asia who speak better English. Which is another reason why parents send their children overseas.
In the cases of Thailand and Malaysia, it is the quality of its education that is holding back its success in the Asian market in terms of development. With better education, companies will be willing to invest and its skilled workers willing to work at home rather then draining the country’s manpower by leaving.
Africa
In the article “No school, no future” published on March 27th, 1999 in The Economist it states that there has always been a universal belief in education in Africa, that it will provide them and their children a better life. “Educate part of a community and the whole of it benefits.” Says Amrtya Sen, India’s Nobel-prize winning economist. And Africa has accepted that belief, especially after seeing how education has affected Japan after the war, with its economic growth; and how education help lower its fertility rate in Bangladesh. With education, parents can be more aware of diseases and raise more healthy children, while farmers will yield bigger crops. If enough people learn to read and write, the whole economy will improve and everyone could be better off.
Presently, the state of schooling in Africa is terrible, with children walking for miles to school. Which is a broken-down building to keep off the sun and rain, there is no promise for water or electricity nor is there enough desks for each child. Books and other equipment are often shared between classes of up to 100 students. Still there are many children who do not get education of any kind.
The lack of resources is the main reason that African countries do not spend as much on education as they should, although aid donors and IMF and the World Bank have required governments to spend on education, some are still spending money on defense rather and school. It has been proven that richer countries do not automatically have better education systems. For example, Kenya, less than half as rich per person as Pakistan, has a schooling system rated three times better.
Lack of money in families also keep children out of schools, especially when there are school fees and uniform costs. Uganda successfully increased its school enrollment by 2 million when it cut school fees and uniform cost.
It can be seen that if a country is willing to implement policies to help its children to get into school. Whether it is by cutting spending to other areas, establishes changes to its current education system, or pay more attention to teachers to improve their working condition. These will all help its education system and increase the country’s speed in development.
Education and development has always been a two-way relationship, on the one hand growing economies can and do devote increasing resources to improvement of education and health. But it is also apparent that investment in human resources helps to accelerate economic growth. As more and more people understand the role of education in a person’s life, “Education for all” will no long be just a phase, but a reality.
Reference:
“South-East Asia’s learning difficulties”, The Economist, 16 August 1997.
“No school, no future”, The Economist, 27 March 1999.
Malcolm Gillis, ed.,Economics of Development, 4th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996).