Education in developing countr
Education in developing countrEducation can be defined as all forms of human learning or more narrowly as the process that occurs in specialized institutions called “schools”. It is unquestionably the most important form of human resource development, economists have agreed to the idea that education has an important role on economic growth. In many developing countries, there has been increasing concern on education.
Thailand is a country that has experienced great economic growth in the past few years fueled by cheap labor industries. With the Asian crisis, that growth has slowed down quite dramatically, and some say it is the result of the country's lack of educated workers.
It is no question that much of Africa is still under development, and education is one of its biggest hurdles towards economic growth. Although the percentage of children in school has risen from 25% in 1960 to over 60% now, the number of children not in school is still continuously rising.
The two journals from The Economist both agreed that education is the first step towards development and economic growth. Both the World Bank and the IMF has demanded an increase in education spending as part of its relief effort to some of these developing countries. It is up to the countries themselves to spend their budgets on more important things like education, rather than the military.
South-East Asia
In the article "South-East Asia's learning difficulties" published by The Economist on August 16, 1997. It defined the problem facing Thailand at that time. Thailand has been successful during the 1990's with economic growth provided by its cheap labor. These labor-intensive industries are responsible for producing clothes, shoes and other goods for exporting to the West. As the Asian crisis sets in, the government began to realize the problem facing the country, the lack of qualified workers. Over the year, the country has been concentrating on its labor-intensive industries but failing to address the need of skilled workers by these industries. In fact all these years Thailand has only experienced economic growth, but not development.
Foreign companies are reluctant to invest in Thailand because they did not have workers who were qualified unless they are send aboard for training. That involved extra costs and the fear of losing them to a market eager to hire them away. The fear of investors can have a great effect on a country's economy, and development.
But money, or the lack of it, is another big reason for Thailand's educational failings. Public and private expenditure on education, at less than 4% of GDP, is the lowest in the region. Nor is it likely to rise much in the near future, even though the government has promised that education will be spared the budgetary cuts required by the IMF as part of the rescue package.
All this will have a big effect on the quality of its schooling systems, with...
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