How education enhances human development
The notion of human development encompasses dimensions that refer directly to enhancement of human capabilities and also contexts conducive to improving such capabilities. Dimensions like leading a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, enjoying a decent standard of living, etc refer directly to human capability enhancement, whereas dimensions like participation, human security, environmental sustainability, gender equality, etc provide the contextual atmosphere conducive to such enhancement.
Education is valuable for human development for three fundamental reasons. First, education is intrinsically valuable as it contributes to cognitive development, develops knowledge dimension, and provides people with confidence and self-esteem so that they can, to paraphrase Adam Smith, interact in public without shame. Second, it is a critical element in direct enhancement of human capability—through human resources development, building up human capital for effectively contributing to the production process and economic growth. Education, therefore, provides us with the necessary skills for productive employment, earning a living, and enjoying better living standards. Third, education also influences the contextual aspect of human development, through providing people with the means to participate effectively in social and political life.
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In measuring human development—whether in terms of human development accounting or the composite index of the Human Development Index (HDI)—the role of education is clear and concrete. Educational indicators, whether they measure outcomes or represent inputs, are part of human development accounting. Thus, literacy rate, as an outcome measure, belongs to human development accounting; so does public expenditure in education, as an input measure. From a different angle, it contains both stock variables (e.g. out-of-school children) and flow variables (e.g. enrolment ratios). All these are part of human development accounting, because directly or indirectly, they contribute to education and knowledge to build up human capabilities. In the HDI, however, education's role is even more sharply focused. Educational attainment enters the HDI to reflect the knowledge dimension of it. Two indicators—mean years of schooling and the expected years of schooling—represent the educational attainment variable. A couple of observations may provide more insights into the issues concerned.
A review of educational strategies in countries that attained high human development and where education made a difference clearly indicates at least five common elements: vision and long-term strategic planning; content and orientation of education; policies; resources; and institutions. Educational attainment cannot be significant or sustained, nor can it contribute to human development enhancement, if there is an absence in vision and a lack of strategic planning. This is because education has multidimensional tangible and intangible benefits with linkages to various aspects of human lives, and its gestation period is quite long. Vision is absolutely critical in education, because education moulds personalities, outlook and mind-set of people, enhances knowledge and culture, and creates human skill and capital. All these are linked to the issue of the kind of society we want to build.
Of course, vision becomes meaningless if there are no long-term strategic planning to realise it. Part of the strategic planning also involves priority setting among various levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary education is a basic human right and there should be universal access to it, irrespective of economic or social justifications. Primary education also provides people with basic literacy and numeracy, which are prerequisite for further skill development and thus are the foundation stone for human capital formation. Furthermore, it has often been argued that the rate of return from primary education accrues over a longer period of time compared to other levels of education.
Thus, in a longer-term vision for human resource development, policies and resources must be geared towards ensuring universal primary education for all. In all countries, irrespective of income levels, both the private and social rates of return to primary education have been found to be the highest. Secondary education has been argued, both in analytical and empirical work, to contribute most to form the content and nature of any specific skill formation. If primary education is fundamental to cognitive development, secondary education is basic to skill formation. The importance of secondary education has increased as countries have embarked on export orientation to take advantage of globalisation and also to meet the new challenges presented by the new network age. And in secondary education, it is not general education but skills in science and technical areas that can make a difference.
Tertiary education is crucial for highly specialised skills, technology development, and expansion of the frontiers of knowledge. University education creates highly skilled individuals who reap the benefits through higher salaries. But it is also at the heart of creating national capacity to innovate jobs, to adapt technology to the country's needs, and to manage the risks of technological change—benefits that touch all of society.
How countries would prioritise among the three levels and what the optimal trade-offs would be would depend on the countries' own aspirations, levels of development, achievements in education and needs. The critical point is not to follow a path that represents an unbalanced priority and structure and does not take into account the linkages among the three levels. For example, if countries put all their efforts into primary education and neglect the secondary level, then after five years, pupils coming out of the primary level will find an inadequate secondary education system. Similarly, if universities are built without strengthening the secondary system, they will have empty classrooms.
If education is to make a significant contribution to human development, the content and orientation of education are critically important. In today's world, secondary and tertiary education has to be linked to meet the new challenges of the network age—in terms of taking advantage of the opportunities it provides and also to manage its risks. In fact, the process must start from the primary level. In order to achieve the target of linking education with the new challenges, it is argued that the contents and modus operandi of the education system at every level must be rethought. Some of the elements in the rethinking process would be: computer penetration and school enrolment; digital literacy and digitalisation of literacy through computerisation of schools and school-nets; digital literacy of teachers; and virtual universities.
In terms of content and orientation, education reforms have been placing new emphasis on helping people adapt to the new skill demands that come with shifting employment patterns, particularly in advanced economies. Lifelong learning or continuous training is considered a key to developing human skills in the context of rapid technological change. As countries become more sophisticated, pressures are building upon governments and firms to provide effective education and training.
In the area of education content, one burning issue is the quality of education. Low quality of education has adverse impact on several fronts. First, it disturbs the flow of education; low quality secondary education leads to low completion and then low university enrolments. Second, it produces low quality skills. And third, it destroys the potential for taking advantage of the opportunities presented by network age.
Hence, it is critical to set the right vision that is aided by long-term strategies, formulate pragmatic policies, provide resources on time, and design the correct content and orientation so education has the optimal impact on human development.
Selim Jahan is director of the Human Development Report Office and lead author of the Human Development Report.
Views expressed in this article are the authors' own.
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