Education
The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university
Education Introduction
- Transformative Insition according to the West
- Provides a well-qualified workforce and ensures a strong and healthy economy
- An integral part of Development policies as held end cycle of poverty faced by the informal labour force
- Those without basic literacy and maths skills face exploitation
- Degree of development is reflected in the nature and size of its education system. As countries develop, rates of literacy, numeracy and technological competence increase and educational attainment continue to rise.
Introduction Example
UNESCO (2014) suggests that 175 million young people lack even basic literacy skills.
Education for All global monitoring report (2014) highlights the state of education in the developing world: ‘Access is not the only crisis – poor quality is holding back learning even for those who make it to school’.
Benefits of Education: Sen
- Very poor families often rely on the earning capacity of their children rather than prioritising education.
- Making education compulsory and promoting the economic benefits of schooling.
- Can compete in the global labour market.
- Illiterate people don’t understand and can’t invoke their legal rights. As can’t read what they are entitled to.
- A lack of education can also stifle the political opportunities of the poor, by reducing their ability to express effectively their demands and participate politically.
- A lack of education can exacerbate health problems, for instance, where knowledge is lacking on the way infections are spread
Modernisation Theory
- Education is crucial to overcoming barriers to promoting economic growth.
- The education system should be universal and based on the model of Western meritocratic systems
- Rustow: Most important thing is to do this to change values so that they appreciate things like achievement and meritocracy
- Shultz: Human Capital Theory= Educated people have more value than uneducated, education needs to be vocational so that population is what they lack in cash
Modernisation Theory: Hoselitz and Lerner
- ) Hoselitz: An education system based on meritocracy transmits values of individualism, competition and achievement. Thus education is crucial in breaking down traditional values of collectivism and ascription which hinders entrepreneurship. Education is one of the four motors of development.
- ) Lerner: Educate the children of elites and the values will trickle down as they set up business fuelled by the entrepreneurial spirit instilled by western-style education
Modernisation Theory Evaluation
-Western style curriculums are not appropriate.
-Benefit more from non-academic education and a system that doesn’t dismantle their traditional societies.
-Listen to what they want and work with them to meet their educational needs.
=Barefoot education movement which teaches women and men, many of whom are illiterate, in North West India to become solar engineers and doctors in their own villages, drawing as far as possible on their traditional knowledge. There is one condition people must meet in order to become teachers in this school they must not have a degree.
Neo-Liberalism
- Critical of placing the responsibility of providing Education on the state despite its importance
- State provision of any public services raises taxation and undermines development because: discourages entrepreneurship by reducing the rewards earned through investment and creates conditions which are less attractive to TNCs.
- Support opening public services to the private sector which can provide services more efficiently and without creating a tax burden.
- Leading to more entrepreneurs and investment from corporations which raises general wealth.
- People pay for education and choose a supplier. Marketisation.
Dependency Theory
- Western style education systems are inappropriate.
- Avalos: Poorer countries copying makes education a form of cultural imperialism and that system only helps capitalism and imposing RCI on children
- Overemphasis on higher education, at expense of primary systems, are expensive and irrelevant to people’s everyday lives
- Althusser: Education is part of the ideological state apparatus that maintains false class consciences
- Friere: ‘Education serves the interests of the oppression because it attempts to control thinking and action and inhibits individuals creativity’
Neo-Colonialists
- Colonialism left inappropriate education systems in the developing world.
- Imperial powers undermined local knowledge systems, leading to a sense of intellectual inferiority leaving majority world dependent on the minority as a source of truth.
- Education systems allowed to exist were manipulated by buying off elites with free education and creating the illusion that social mobility was possible.
- Neo-Colonial processes have ensured education systems remain stunted by making them pay debt which has prevented developing countries investing in education and SAPs have forced gov to cut back on public services.
Feminsim
- Majority of illiterate population are women
- Women also have lower rates of paid employment. Boys are more likely to be educated than girls, especially where payment is required
- Education of girls has a ‘multiplier effect’ and “investing in girls’ education is one of the best investments a society can make in its own development” – WB
- “there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls and the empowerment of women” Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN
- Rosling: Highlighted that educated women have less children. Women in Bangladesh as education increased average children went from 5 to 2
UN: Sustainable Development Goals
Objective 4) Ensuring inclusive and quality education for all.
-Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development. Major progress has been made particularly for women and girls. Basic literacy skills have improved yet bolder efforts are needed to make even greater strides for achieving universal education goals. For example, the world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, but few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education.
UN: Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges
- Enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91% but 57m children remain out of school
- More than half of children that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa
- 50% of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas
- 103m youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60% are women
UN: Sustainable Development Goals: Targets for 2030
-Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes
-Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education
-Eliminate gender disparities in education
=Argues thatMassive Aid Injections are Required to promoteeducation. Estimates that to achieve SDG 4 developing countries would need to increase their expenditure by 50%, which they will not be able to afford by 2030, so a funding gap of $39 billion, which will need to be met by investors.
Strengths
- Transmits modernity
- Everyone benefits from all children being educated
- Introduction of new skills and ideas
- Increase in life chances and opportunities
- Basic human right
- Investment in “human capital”
Weaknesses
- Education is expensive
- Quality is often poor
- Poorest households suffer most - hidden costs of school
- Focus is often placed on higher levels of education – benefiting the children of wealthy elites
- Pay and training of teachers are often poor for state provided education
