Education and Development - Essay Example

Education and Development Introduction In a micro level, development can be defined as "a process for enlarging people's choices" (UNESCO). These choices primarily reflect the desire to lead a long and healthy life; acquire basic knowledge; and have an access to resources essential for a decent standard of living" (UNESCO). On the other hand, on a macro level, it can be seen as "a purposeful change in a society that contributes to social and economic well being and advancement of its people without creating any disharmony" (UNESCO). It is seen that development is a dynamic process which requires empowerment of people and promotion of important changes in their lives, therefore it has educated and skilled people at its core (UNESCO). Linkages of Education and Development Education is seen to impact the economic development of a country in a variety of ways. Some researches categorize these impacts in three ways: the micro level which is the individual, the "meso" level which includes the immediate social context such as the family, the community, the school and peer group and lastly, the macro level which is the (Carlo Raffo). The effect of education to the individual, the immediate group and the society can be observed in various ways. There are several paths in which the benefit of education can channel to the intended beneficiary. It is found that education can interact with and positively affect economic and social factors such as productivity, knowledge, attitudes and values. On the "meso" level, educated families are found to exhibit these characteristics: a) Are more empowered and confident b) Have fewer children c) Have fewer of their children die in infancy d) Have healthier and better educated children e) are better equipped to enter the paid labor force, which is particularly important to the survival of female-headed households f) Enjoy higher levels of economic productivity g) Experience a longer and healthier life Source: UNESCO UNESCO has also identified three dynamically interrelated factors involved in the relationship between education and development: "the economic benefits of education; the impact of education on population growth, health, and social well-being; and the relationship between education and democratic society" (UNESCO). These serve as three paths or channels in which education can boost economic development. Many realize that the current development trend may not prove to be sustainable and as such public awareness, education and trainings are crucial in moving towards sustainability (McKeown). As a deviation to the normal concept of development, sustainable development is deemed as one "that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (United Nations General Assembly). With this definition, it is realized that education is the key to sustainability. This crucial role of education to sustainable development is established through the necessity of two major issues in sustainable development: population and resource consumption (United Nations General Assembly). The UN believes that the two things that can jeopardize sustainable development namely over population and excessive use of resources can be remedied with education (United Nations General Assembly). Female education is found to have a negative relationship with fertility rates. Specifically, the supply of children is determined by the level of education through four intervening variables: (1) age at marriage, (2) breast feeding (3) post-partum abstinence and (4) child mortality (Akmam). A study in South Asia revealed that women with education around two to five years later than uneducated women (John Cleland). With regard to child mortality, "high rates of child mortality reduce the supply of children, which in turn is likely to increase the demand for children" (Akmam). Since educated parents have higher rates of their child surviving, they do not see the need to have more children thus abating population increase (Akmam). On the other hand, educated people are observed to consume more resources than the uneducated ones with the most educated nations observed to register the highest per capita rate of consumption (United Nations General Assembly). Due to the fact that educated people have higher income, they are observed to consume more than the uneducated (United Nations General Assembly). In relation to sustainable development, education is found to "improve agricultural productivity, enhance the status of women, reduce population growth rates, enhance environmental protection, and generally raise the standard of living" (United Nations General Assembly). Although the relationship is not observed to be linear, it is observed that "literacy and numeracy allows farmers to adapt to new agricultural methods, cope with risk, and respond to market signals. Literacy also helps farmers mix and apply chemicals (e.g., fertilizers and pesticides) according to manufacturers' directions, thereby reducing the risks to the environment and human health" (United Nations General Assembly). On the "meso" or the immediate society level, "good community-based decisions - which will affect social, economic, and environmental well-being - also depend on educated citizens" (United Nations General Assembly). In terms of behavior and decision-making education is the only potent tool for achieving sustainable development. The Education for Development can be built on two approaches. The Journal of Education for Sustainable Development mentioned ESD1 and ESD2, two approaches which involves different things (Scott). ESD 1 includes promoting/facilitating changes in what we do, promoting (informed/skilled) behaviors and ways of thinking, where the need for this is clearly identified and agreed and learning for sustainable development while ESD 2 contains building capacity to think critically about [and beyond] what experts say and to test sustainable development ideas, exploring the contradictions inherent in sustainable living and learning as sustainable development (Scott). These behavioral developments are necessary so that man will be equipped to build the other aspects of development such as economic and environment. As one author commented, "by learning throughout our lives we equip ourselves to choose most advantageously as the future unfolds. This would not bring about sustainable development. Rather, it would be evidence that sustainable development was happening" (W.A.H Scott). The Nigerian Case The Nigerian Economy Nigeria has a petroleum-based economy but has long been suffering with economic political instability, corruption, poor economic management (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.) The Nigerian economy starting from its independence can be subdivided into four eras: (1) the pro-oil boom decade (1960-70); (2) the period of the oil boom (1971 1977); (3) the period of stabilisation and structural adjustment (1986 - 1993) and (4) the period of guided deregulation (1994 -1998) (A. H. Ekpo). The Nigerian economic story is one which can be described as intermittent, meaning it was truncated but was able to bounce back until the late 1990's. "In the period 1960-70, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded 3.1 per cent growth annually. During the oil boom era, roughly 1970-78, QDP grew positively by 6.2 percent annually - a remarkable growth. However, in the 1980s, GDP had negative growth rates. In the period 1988-1997 which constitutes the period of structural adjustment and economic liberalisation, the QDP responded to economic adjustment policies and grew at a positive rate of 4.0" (A. H. Ekpo). Among the economic sectors of Nigeria, it is the industry and manufacturing sectors that have exhibited a positive growth. "In the years after independence, industry and manufacturing sectors had positive growth rates except for the period 1980-1988 where industry and manufacturing grew negatively by - 3.2 per cent and - 2.9 per cent respectively" (A. H. Ekpo). The increase of the industry and manufacturing in 1978-1988 was due to massive petroleum production (A. H. Ekpo). On the other hand, its agricultural sector continues to suffer because of low commodity prices so that it had to import basic food items in 1975 (A. H. Ekpo). Nigeria has a vast wealth and natural resources but it was not able to capitalize on this so that it was called by professionals as "resource curse" (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.). Nigerian Education Nigerian education is said to evolve into a number of stage and formed by quite a number of influences such as the colonial influence, the military rule, the impact of independence and a new constitution (Mapsofworld.com). It was the Christian missionaries which introduced the western education system in the country so that in the 1990's there were fundamentally three distinct education systems in Nigeria: "the indigenous system, the Quranic school, and formal European-style educational institutions" (Mapsofworld.com). Since 1979, the constitution mandated that the states and local councils take responsibility of primary education while the state and federal authorities had the power over the post-primary education (http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com). When the first six years of education was made mandatory in Nigeria, education development took place and also giving way to upgrading of educational facilities in the country (Mapsofworld.com). Nigerian Education and Development In this paper, we will feature two researches made regarding the link between education and development in Nigeria. The first paper is one made by Musibau Adetunji Babatunde from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and of Rasak Adetunji Adefabi. The paper is entitled Long Run Relationship between Education and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Evidence from the Johansen's Cointegration Approach. It "investigates the long run relationship between education and economic growth in Nigeria between 1970 and 2003 through the application of Johansen Cointegration technique and Vector Error Correction Methodology" (Musibau Adetunji Babatunde). Particularly, it investigated two channels through which long-run economic growth in Nigeria can be impacted by human capital: "first is when human capital is a direct input in the production function" and the "second channel is when the human capital affects the technology parameter" (Musibau Adetunji Babatunde). The paper also aimed to examine "whether the human capital can act as a source of productivity growth and whether there is long run relationship between the level of schooling and economic growth for Nigeria" (Musibau Adetunji Babatunde). "The result of the Johansen cointegration test between school enrolment and output per worker indicate that there exists long run relationship between education and output per worker for Nigeria. The long run relationship is more pronounced for enrolments at the primary school level, the tertiary school level and average years of schooling. Similarly the cointegration test for the model of human capital as a factor input in the production function provide evidence of long run relationship among the series in the model. In specific terms, the trace test statistics indicate 2 cointegrating equation at the 5 per cent level among the series in the model. In addition, the cointegration test for the model in which the human capital affects the technology parameter revealed a long run relationship among the series in the model" (Musibau Adetunji Babatunde). In conclusion, "the result revealed that a well educated labor force possessed a positive and significant impact on economic growth through factor accumulation and on the evolution of total factor productivity. A good performance of an economy in terms of per capita growth may therefore be attributed to a well-developed human capital base" (Musibau Adetunji Babatunde). Another study related to this topic was done in 2007 by Enamiroro Patrick Oghuvbu. A small deviation of this paper from the previous one is the inclusion of poverty in the topic. Specifically, the paper looks at the negative relationship between education and poverty, thus triggering economic development. Also compared the previous one, this study is less mathematical but is a more detailed study of the government policies in and objective for education. The paper first discussed the goals of Nigerian education and then went on discussing the causes of poverty (Oghuvbu). The author noted that "The major role of education is manpower development. Apart from this, the manpower developed must be able to help solve major issues our country faces. As a result education must be relevant to these issues, not separated from them" (Oghuvbu). He also noted that "From 1983 to 2002, education in Nigeria has been too successful in doing what society has expected it to do. Forty-three years of independence society tend to keep pressure on the schools to do more and better from year to year without corresponding increase in financial and managerial investment in education. Scientifically, when weakness appear, the response is to increase the resources, change the methodology or increase the effort" (Oghuvbu). In the end, he concluded that "The achievement of national objectives of education could led to national growth and development. Basically, national growth and development led to the death of 'national poverty' in any nation" (Oghuvbu). In another article, it was mentioned that the health of the Nigerian nation depends on its education. "The role of education in the development of a society has been vastly documented in academic journals, and we do not intend to revisit it here. This section will concentrate on the need for Nigerian leaders to pay close attention to the needs of the educational sector, and treat it as a public-health issue, because the sociopolitical and economic development of a nation and (or her health) is, in many ways, determined by the quality and level of educational attainment of the population. Political leaders should take politics out of education, as the continued neglect of this sector would lead to social paralysis. The youth should be given the appropriate quality academic training and an environment that would enable them to reach their full potential" (Dike). The author mentioned that what bothers Nigeria is its slow down in the educational system particularly the military misrule. He therefore asks that this educational paralysis be remedied by the current government (Dike). Both theories and empirical studies have suggested that education can create long-term economic development to a developing country such as what happened in Nigeria in some special years when the government was able to take of care of its educational system. However, a study of this link can have variety of paths to be considered such as the issues of fertility and population decline with an increase in education and productivity. Nevertheless, these paths reveal that education has an enormous impact so pervasive that it remains to be a powerful arm in establishing sustainable development. Works Cited A. H. Ekpo, 0. J. Umoh. http://www.onlinenigeria.com. 28 May 2009 . Akmam, Wardatul. "Women's Education and Fertility Rates in Developing Countries, With Special Reference to Bangladesh." Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics (2002): 138-143. Carlo Raffo, Alan Dyson, Helen Gunter, Dave Hall, Lisa Jones. A review of research on the links between education and poverty. Publication. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2007. Dike, Victor. "http://www.afbis.com." 5 February 2002. 28 May 2009 . http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com. 29 May 2009 . John Cleland, Jejeebhoy Shireen. "In Girl's Schooling, Autonomy and Fertility Change in South Asia." Maternal Schooling and Fertility: Evidence from Censuses and Surveys. Ed. Alaka M. Basu Roger Jeffery. Thousand Oaks, C.A: Sage Publications, 1996. 72-106. Mapsofworld.com. http://www.mapsofworld. 29 May 2009 . McKeown, Rosalyn. "http://www.esdtoolkit.org." May 2002. 28 May 2009 . Musibau Adetunji Babatunde, Rasak Adetunji Adefabi. Long Run Relationship between Education and Economic Growth in Nigeria: Evidence from the Johansen's Cointegration Approach. Presentation Paper. Dakar, 2005. Oghuvbu, Enamiroro Patrick. "Education, Poverty and Development in Nigeria:The Way Forward in the 21st Century." J. Soc. Sci., (2007): 19-24. Scott, Paul Vare and William. "Learning for a Change:Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development." Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 1 (2007): 191-198. UNESCO. "Relationship between Literacy,." Module. n.d. United Nations General Assembly. "http://www.un.org." 11 December 1987. 28 May 2009 . W.A.H Scott, S.R. Gough. Sustainable Development and Learning: Framing the issues. London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org. 23 May 2009. 28 May 2009 . Read More