VII. Education, Page 2

(Continued from Page 1)

Primary Education and Literacy

Attending primary school helps children acquire basic literacy and numeracy as well as other knowledge and skills needed for their future education. In low-income countries primary education in itself often improves the welfare of the poor by making them more productive workers, enabling them to learn new skills throughout their working lives, and reducing the risk of unemployment. In addition, primary education—especially for girls and women—leads to healthier and smaller families and fewer infant deaths.

Despite rapid growth in the number of children of primary school age, since 1970 developing countries have succeeded in considerably increasing the percentage of children enrolled in primary school (see Figure 7.1). But universal primary education, a goal being pursued by most governments of developing countries, is still far from being achieved in many of them (see Data Table 2). Low enrollments in many low-income countries may signal inadequacies in education system capacity as well as social conditions that prevent children from enrolling.

Because economic and social returns to society are known to be higher for primary education than for other levels of study, most governments are committed to providing free access to primary school to all children. But in low-income countries the public funds available for this purpose are often insufficient to meet the increasing demand of rapidly growing populations. These funds also tend to be allocated inequitably, with better education opportunities often provided to urban children relative to rural children, to well-off children relative to poor children, and to boys relative to girls.

Even when primary education is accessible, poor children may be unable to benefit from it. Many of these children must work rather than attend school. Premature and extensive involvement in work damages their health and impedes development of their social skills, decreasing their future earning power as adults and perpetuating the vicious circle of poverty.

In addition, primary school enrollments are generally lower for girls than for boys. This gender gap is widest in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. The only developing region that has already managed to do away with the gender gap in primary (and even secondary) education is Latin America and the Caribbean (see Data Table 2). The persistent gender gap in education reflects cultural norms, early childbearing, and limited employment opportunities for women, as well as traditional expectations of girls’ larger contribution to household work. As a result, of the 900 million adults in developing countries who are illiterate (nearly one in three), almost two-thirds are women (see Figure 7.2).

Note that child labor is known to be a poverty issue—that is, its incidence declines as per capita income rises. That means that further economic growth will tend to remove this obstacle to universal primary education. By contrast, gender disparities in school enrollments are not correlated with overall living standards, so countries do not just “grow out of them.” Narrowing the gender gap requires supportive national policies, such as reducing the direct and indirect costs of girls’ schooling for their parents and building more schools for girls in education systems that are segregated by sex.

Issues in Secondary and Tertiary Education

In most developing countries enrollment in secondary schools is much lower than in primary schools (see Data Table 2). Although the situation has been improving over the past few decades, on average less than 60 percent of children of secondary school age in low- and middle-income countries are enrolled, while in high-income countries secondary education has become almost universal (see Figure 7.3). Among the world’s regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest share of children not enrolled in secondary school. Check Data Table 2 for the indicator of child labor incidence—that is, the percentage of children in the 10–14 age range who work. Note that this indicator too is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Child labor remains the most formidable obstacle to education for children in low-income countries. According to available data, almost one-third of children in the 10–14 age range are in the labor force in low-income countries (excluding China and India), while in many Sub-Saharan countries this proportion is one-half. In fact, the situation may be even worse: in many countries data on child labor are underreported or not reported at all because officially the problem is presumed not to exist.

The gap between developed and developing countries is particularly wide in tertiary education (see Figure 7.4 and Data Table 2). In high-income countries tertiary enrollments have increased rapidly since 1980, but in low- and middle-income countries they have improved only slightly.

Note that neither the number of students enrolled at a level of study nor the amount of resources invested in education can indicate the quality of education and thus provides only a rough idea of a country’s educational achievements. For example, Figure 7.5 shows that across the countries, secondary students’ performance in math and science appears to be unrelated to per student real educational expenditure, so that the best international test scores were received by students from the countries with relatively modest cost of a student’s education (Singapore and Republic of Korea), while the most “expensive” students (those from Denmark and Switzerland) showed relatively modest results. Thus increased expenditure on education may not always be the answer--improving the quality of curriculum and pedagogy and the quality of management in education may be more effective.

Vast opportunities for improving the quality of education in the lagging developing countries are offered by modern information and communication technologies (ICT). Computers with Internet access can be used by teachers and students as an invaluable source of up-to-date information and cutting-edge knowledge, particularly precious in places with limited access to other teaching and learning resources. Potentially, ICT in education could be instrumental in bridging the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries (see also Chapter 9). But this potential can materialize only if the so-called digital divide–the gap in access to ICT dividing these countries—is bridged first. In fact, as of 2000 even Eastern Europe and Central Asia, leading other developing regions in access to ICT, had about 50 computers per 1,000 people compared with almost 400 in high-income countries. At the same time South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa had just 4 and 10 computers per 1,000 people respectively. The gap in access to the Internet is even wider (see Data Table 2).

Given the high cost and limited availability of computers and Internet connectivity in low- and middle-income countries, their benefits can be maximized by installing computers first in schools, libraries, and community centers. For example, when the government of the Republic of Korea decided to eliminate the digital divide (in April 2000), it engaged in distributing personal computers to school teachers, providing free-of-charge high-speed Internet access to schools, and organizing computer training for educators (as well as the wider public). Note that the Republic of Korea—one of the most successful developing countries--has recently crossed the boundary of high per capita income largely thanks to its successes in education and technological innovation and in spite of its insufficient natural resource base.

To see which countries appear to provide the best-quality math and science education to their secondary students, examine the recent outcomes of the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Among the 32 countries that participated in PISA 2000 (29 OECD countries plus Brazil, Latvia, and the Russian Federation), the highest rankings were received by Korea, Japan, Finland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia (see Figure. 7.6). Brazil and Mexico were at the bottom of the list. This cross-country comparison is particularly important because PISA’s methodology was aimed at testing students' ability to use their knowledge rather than to just present it—to recognize scientific and mathematical problems in real-life situations, identify the relevant facts and methods involved, develop chains of reasoning, and support their conclusions.

To generate economic returns, education and training have to meet the ever-changing demands of the labor market—that is, they have to equip graduates with the knowledge and skills needed at each stage of a country’s economic development. For example, countries moving from planned to market economies usually need more people trained in economics and business management to work in emerging private sectors as well as in reformed public sectors. Today’s ICT revolution requires more people with computer skills, and globalization (see Chapters 12 and 13) has increased the demand for foreign language skills. But perhaps most important, flexible workers who are ready to learn are needed everywhere, and an education system that fails to develop these qualities in its graduates can hardly be considered fully effective. Given the accelerating rate of technological and economic change, today’s students should be morally and intellectually prepared for several career changes over their working lifetime. The ability for lifelong learning is becoming a major requirement of the new job market, characteristic of the knowledge economy.

Investing in education is not only an important way to build a country’s human capital and move it closer to the knowledge economy, thus improving its prospects for economic growth and higher living standards. For every individual, education also has a value in its own right because education broadens people’s horizons and helps them to live healthier, more financially secure, and more fulfilling lives. This is why experts use data on literacy, for example, as important indicators of the quality of life in a country.

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