capital investment cannot be repaired or are repaired in ways which provokes
subsequent breakdown, corrosive and poisonous chemicals are released into the
environment through ignorance as well as intention. Thus their exist growing needs for
both specialised assistance to increase the pool of technically and scientifically
competent personnel and for the extension of scientific literacy to a greater proportion
of populations which depend on the benefits that they can deliver.
Carnoy (1992) has analysed the contribution that scientific and technological training
can make to development in a series case studies which draw on Asian experience. He
identifies four areas in which contributions may be critical. The first of these concerns
changes in the world economic order which mean that more than ever before growth is
dependent on knowledge and information which has a scientific character. Production
in advanced countries, and those developing countries growing most rapidly is
becoming increasingly related to the information processing technologies. Flexible,
post-Fordist manufacturing strategies require technical competence and responsive
innovation at the production unit level and intensify the sophisticated human resource
inputs needed. It appears to be the case that those countries that have invested
effectively in utilising information based technologies, and have the educational base to
provide human resources to apply them, have reaped economic benefits as the high and
sustained growth rates of the Asian Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) suggest.
In most NICs the state has been developmentalist and has supported strategic planning
and invested heavily in "catching up" technologies. This is the second area and is
characterised by labour discipline, mass educational access, and special emphasis on
science and technology in education and training and in public policy on development.
The third and fourth areas identify the consolidation of institutional frameworks for
research and training and the special role that higher education may play.
There may be lessons from the experience of Asian NICs for other countries, though,
for the reasons identified above, some caution is needed in translating policy
conclusions across economies and cultures. Castell's argument that acquiring new
technology will only be effective if there is in the country a process of endogenous
technological development that can receive, support and use the know how being
transferred is convincing and lends support to the view that assistance to this end is a
priority in those countries with the infrastructural conditions that make this a feasible
objective. In conclusion there are four dimensions we can draw from a discussion of
issues arising from scientific and technological change.
First, basic scientific and technological literacy is a prerequisite for adapting to changes
in production technologies and consumption patterns that are affecting the populations
of all countries. IEA and other data (see below) suggests that science is not taught
effectively to large proportions of the school populations of many countries, and
suggest that the needs of the majority, who usually follow non-specialised curricula