Education and development the issues and the evidence - Education Research Paper
No. 06, 1993, 61 p.
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2.1 Education and economic
development
2.1.2 Education and productivity
2.1.3 Educational investment and externalities
2.1.4 Education, equity and income distribution
2.1.5 Concluding remark
There has been a long standing debate about the contribution educational investment
makes to economic growth. For a now familiar set of reasons there is no single answer
to the question "how much does has education contribute to economic growth" and
even less to the question "how much does education con tribute to development." It
would be surprising if there were. The relationships between educational investment
and economic growth are complicated by many intervening variables which interact in
different ways in different national economies at different points in time. And, of
course, definitions of the characteristics of development are not stable either. But this
does not mean that in either case we cannot reach inferences from the large volume of
studies that have been undertaken. Rather we have to recognise that what may be true
under certain circumstances may not be true under others and that the role education
plays in supporting growth and development is one which is constantly evolving.
The economic literature focuses on measurable returns to educational investment to the
individual and to society as a whole. Historical and sociological perspectives emphasise
more the interactive relationships between educational development and economic
change. At the lowest levels some measure of economic development often appears as a
pre-cursor to the development of school systems in recognisably modern forms -
infrastructural investment has to have taken place and economic surpluses are needed to
provide the resources to pay for a school system. As an education system is established
it may begin to catalyse further economic development. Thus, as Foster has pointed out
(Foster 1987:94), the significance of increased schooling as an instrument of economic
development may be highly variable over time. Expansion may have substantial
economic and developmental pay-off at some stages and not at others. Some types of
educational provision (at different levels, of different orientations, of different qualities)
may have much greater effects than others.