A report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) says, "One in four young people in developing countries is unable to read a sentence, which means poor quality education has left a "legacy of illiteracy" more widespread than previously believed". One out of four young people in poor countries - and one of three young women in South and West Asia - is unable to read all or even part of a sentence, according to a recent news report, which estimates 175 million youths in developing countries are illiterate. If current drifts continue, the poorest part of the young female population in developing countries won't achieve literacy until 2072, UNESCO has said in its annual Education for All Global Monitoring Report.
From the age-old times, education has been deemed one of the fundamental factors for economic emancipation, economic development, poverty alleviation, peace and stability. No country, no nation can attain sustainable economic development without providing proper education to the majority people, without whopping investment for human capital. Education enriches and upgrades people's understanding about science, technology and the modern world.
Education undoubtedly enhances people's productivity, creativity, promotes entrepreneurship and technological development. Before 19th century systematic and cumbrous investment didn't take place in human capital. Public spending on schooling, on-the-job training and skill development were quite diminutive. The revolutionary changes started during the 20th century when education, training, skill development, acquisition of knowledge about science and technology became more crucial in the fiscal policy for productivity. The 20th century was called the century of "Age of human capital". During the century, the application of science and technology to the development of new goods and more efficient methods of production, first started in Great Britain, and then gradually spread to other countries.
Education and Efficiency: There's no empiricism that a country has achieved economic development without substantial investment in education and human capital development. Various studies and analysis have shown handsome returns in various forms of human capital accretion such as basic education, research, training, learning-by-doing, on-the-job-training and aptitude building. Clearly the educational provisions within any given country represent one of the main factors of the composition and growth of that country's output and exports and constitute an important ingredient in a system's capacity to plagiarise foreign technology effectively, development of basic science, appropriate selection of technology imports and the domestic adaptation and development of technologies. Secondary and tertiary education also represents critical elements in the development of key institutions of the government, the law, and the financial system etc.
Due to successful investment in education and human capital development, four countries in East Asia, namely, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, have become "Four Miracle Countries in Asia" within the short span of time. They have reached the status quo of developed and peaceful nations not only in Asia but in the whole world. These successful countries don't have exuberant natural resources except human capital. These nations were protuberant for maintaining high growth rate and rapid industrialisation between the early 1960s and 1990s. Their unprecedented economic success stories by dint of high-skilled human capital supported by discreet government policies, have served as role models for many developing countries, especially in the South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern, African and Latin American countries that failed to develop education and human capital. Many countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia outlasted in the back rows for the last few decades due to non-development of education and human capital according to the necessity.
Education and Democracy: True democracy can't be established without humanising the majority people of any country. Ever since the idea of democracy became an objective rather than a dread or threat, esthetic political leaders have maintained that citizens must be knowledgeable so that it functions well. Political actors viewed that general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or jeopardise his free will of electing a leader or public representative. Nothing can more effectually contribute to the improvement of a country.
True-life knowledge about politics is a precarious component of citizenship, it's crucial if citizens are to discern their real interests and take effective advantage of the civic opportunities. Knowledge is a bedrock to other civic requisites and rights. In the absence of adequate information neither ache nor cause is likely to lead to decisions that replicate the real interests of the public. And democratic principles must be understood to be accepted and acted on in any meaningful way, otherwise democracy will be a travesty or a pastiche supervening many countries even in the 21st century. Analysis of the economies of some democratic, developed and peaceful countries shows that these countries have had the highest literacy rate and best quality of education in terms of science and technologies few decades ago.
Adult illiteracy: Adult illiteracy has remained obstinately high over the past decade in many developing countries around the world. In 2011, there were 774 million illiterate adults, a decline of 1.0 per cent since 2000. This figure is projected to fall only slightly to 743 million, by 2015-16. Ten countries - India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo - account for almost three-quarters of the world's illiterate adults. When it comes to education the differences between the developed and developing worlds remain egregious. When it's shown as an average number of years in school and levels of achievement, the developing world is about 100 years behind developed countries. These poorer countries still have average levels of education in the 21st century. Many western countries achieved it by the early decades of the 20th century.
Education in the context of Bangladesh: The present economic and social vignettes of Bangladesh give a crystal clear picture that the country is far abaft the developed and the emerging worlds in terms of education, science and technology, although the policy-makers of the country had been go-getting hard since its independence. Bangladesh is an overpopulated country with 165 million people and has the highest growth rate of population. As a result, the increase of literacy rate can't match the population growth. The average literacy rate of Bangladesh is 61.5% (2015). It means that 38.50% of its population that is 63.52 million people of Bangladesh are floundering in the rancorous circle of illiteracy according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
It's really bad news that 38.50 per cent people of an independent country that achieved its independence forty-six years back can't read and write in their mother language in the 21st century when majority of the countries of the developed world achieved the 100% literacy rate long time back. The literacy rate of Bangladesh is increasing at a snail's pace and the average increase is 1.5 per cent per year. If everything goes well and other things remain the same, if Bangladesh can maintain the present rate of 1.5 per cent increase, it will take more than 30 years to achieve the 99 per cent literacy rate. Well-heeled planning and programs including introduction of compulsory education are a must to eradicate illiteracy in Bangladesh.
All the citizens of the country irrespective of the rich or poor, boys or girls have the constitutional right to have education. The Article 17 of the constitution of Bangladesh says:
The State shall adopt effective measures for the purpose of -
(a) establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such a stage as may be determined by law;
(b) relating education to the needs of society and producing properly-trained and motivated citizens to serve those needs;
(c) Removing illiteracy within such time as may be determined by law.
Execution of the constitutional right to provide education for all has become the most necessity and exceedingly significant precondition for digitisation program, sustainable development, peace and progress of the country.
The Constitution of India (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21A in the Constitution providing for free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The RTE Act also provides that such children shall continue to be provided free and compulsory elementary education even after they cross 14 years of age. By introducing compulsory education India has had better literacy rate (71.2%).
Uneducated, unskilled workers, lack of technology, lack of innovation obviously hold back many countries including Bangladesh putting them in the trap of slow-moving and low-income countries for decades. Nevertheless, the challenge is now gathering momentum, and it comes from many sources. It can be found most clearly in the character and results of the development process itself. After more than three decades of rapidly expanding enrollments and hundreds of billions of dollars of educational expenditure, the plight of the average citizens in many parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America seems little improved or convalesced. Absolute poverty is chronic and pervasive. Economic disparities between the rich and the poor widen with each passing year. Unemployment and underemployment have reached staggering proportions, with the educated increasingly swelling the ranks of the unemployed.
It's highly essential that state-policy-makers of the developing countries that are much behind in education and human capital development must keep in mind that education is an engine of growth and key to development in every society. Based on its quality and quantity, they must make a swift strategy and planning to provide quality education to all citizens. Some prosaicisms are there for the national leaders of the developed economies as "jobs for today and for future"; "health for all" and many more. The epigram for the developing countries like Bangladesh may rationally and justly be "education for all"; "human capital development- the top priority". The most acceptable Chinese aphorism says "To plan 1 year, saw seeds; to plan 10 years, plant trees and to plan 100 years, develop human resources". Now the politicians, political leaders and state-policy-makers of the developing countries including Bangladesh have to decide on whether they will make investment plans through the monetary, fiscal and other educational policies for 1 year, 10 years or 100 years.
The writer is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of ICAB and a CFO of a private group of industries; email: m.jalal.hussain@gmail.com
The discourse on education in developing countries
M Jalal Hussain | Published: September 03, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: September 02, 2016 20:23:03
Share if you like