My essay draft (at the moment)

This is an on-the-way draft. Lend me your ideas or opinion please!

Name: Satoru Okamoto

Sec. BG

ARW

Prof. Christianson

Date: 10/17/11

Education as a tool for National Development

Education is becoming a more and more essential part of our life and societies, businesses and individual achievement. However, today “over 113 million children aged 6 to 11 (about 1 in 5) lack access to primary school” (World Bank 2011), and those children concentrate in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, which has stopped countries from their development. Research has proven that education is “one of the most effective development investments countries and their donor partners can make” (Basic Education Coalition 2004). This means that education is essential for the development of nations, but how does education help a country with their development? Before looking at the answer, we need to understand what “national development” is.

Today we often hear the words “developing country” (or less developed country) and “developed country” either on the TV, newspaper, or the internet, but it is biased and dangerous when these words are used and understood without knowing the actual meaning or the difference of the words. The criteria for the national development, however, are still controversial and the subjects that people argue on for long time. GDP per capita (Gross Domestic Product) is one of the tools to measure national development. The concept of GDP is mainly focused on the people’s income per person. The emergence of industrialization, some people say, has been also one such measurements. By industrialization, they mean a nation with a market of tertiary sector (services) and quaternary sector (Research & Development) as well as a market of primary (agriculture, fishing, mining etc…) and secondary (manufacturing) sector in which what people call “developing countries” often engage. The concept for national development today, however, has been substantially changed from those discussed above. Newly invented and utilized by Pakistan economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990, HDI (Human Development Index) has become widely used measurement of the national development. HDI is a combination of three indicators; life expectancy, GDP per capita, and education (enrolment/ literacy rate). What is new on HDI as a measurement of national development is that it is not only focused on the economic status of the country, but also the social improvements and needs of the nation. It is becoming a common idea that national development requires the development of human as well as the development of nation, as it is people (i.e. citizens) who shape the nation itself. Life expectancy, for example, is one social aspect of national development and indicates human development.

What about education? Education actually has multiple effects on one nation, which is either economic or social effect, or socio-economic effect. As discussed before, national development needs to meet the citizens’ economic and social needs. This essay will look at how education helps meet the economic and social needs of citizens and achieve national development, from two critical dimensions that education promotes. Education is essential for national development because it promotes gender equality and globally competitive economy.

I.         Gender Equality

   Education can reduce gender inequality, especially by educating girls. Let us take Japan and Sweden as an example. Both Japan and Sweden are high-income, developed countries, and they were ranked in the top 10 countries for HDI: Japan was in 8th place and Sweden in 6th place of 177 countries in 2007. However, next indicator will make clear the stunning difference of the two countries. GEM (Gender Empowerment Measure) is a tool used to measure gender inequality by women’s participation in politics and economic forums. Higher the value of GEM, The more equal the society is. Sweden ranked in the 2nd place, whereas Japan, despite the high HDI value, ranked in 54th place. Why did this happen? This result was greatly influenced by the countries’ education. Ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education in Japan was stably around 100% through past 20 years; 101% in 1991, 101% in 2001 and 100% in 2009. Likewise, Sweden also kept the ratio just around the line of 100%; 102% in 1991, 115% in 2001, and 99% in 2009. These results of ratio were excellent in both countries. The ratio of girls to boys in tertiary enrollment, however, splits the countries apart. The ratio kept far below the line of 100% in Japan; 65% in 1991, 85% in 2001, and 89% in 2009. On the other hand, the ratio in Sweden has shown an opposite result to that of Japan; 122% in 1991, 151% in 2001, and 158 in 2009. Research has shown that the economic return from schooling to secondary and tertiary levels is consistently higher than that of primary education; in other words, greater effects will be presented on individuals in secondary and tertiary education. The gap of GEM between Japan and Sweden therefore turns out to be the result from the differences of girls’ education in tertiary level. Gender equality is one of the social needs that one country has to meet, and education has for sure played vital role for better society.

II.      Globally Competitive Economy

The national economy can be enlarged by education in many ways. It is proved that “no country has ever achieved economic growth without reaching a critical threshold of about 40% in its adult literacy rate” (World Bank 2011). This time we will look at the process through which education helps extend one country’s economy, taking the example of Singapore.