2. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
2.3 Education
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
research and development, raises agricultural value-added enough to give satisfactory rates of return within the agricultural sector. In Africa (22%) and Asia (31%), but less so in Latin America (10%).
2.3 Education
Education is a factor that should not be ignored for understanding what drives economic development (United Nations 2003). Low-quality public education in most of the LAC countries is a variable that allows the cycle of poverty to continue. In UNESCO (2013) it is pointed out that
“during the decade of 2,000 most of the LAC countries achieved considerable progress in areas such as overall development, economic growth and to a lesser extent poverty reduction.” The report emphasizes that the achievements mentioned have not been a result in all countries of the region, what is certainly replicated in all countries are the internal inequalities “with social class, poverty status, and place of residence being the most common manifestations of such inequality.”
Lastly, education progress should increasingly be judged according to new criteria relating to quality, rather than the mere expansion of education. From the UNESCO (2013) study we can conclude that the achievements made so far in education are not considered to help us increase our economic development. If the quality of education remains low, there will be no reflection of improvement in the population no matter how many people you reach.
Knowles, Lorgelly, and Owen (2002) address how educational gender gaps relate to economic development. The authors point out that “In developing countries, the economic gains from educating females are greater than those from educating males.” Their results suggest that educational gender gaps impede economic development, hence gender inequality in education significantly reduces gross domestic product per capita. This study has the advantage that it focuses on developing countries, although not exclusively to LAC. The above-stated results in their
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
research give us a clear tested explanation of one of the educational factors truncating economic development in developing countries. Hence, we will test as well gender inequality in education in the LAC Region and compare our results.
James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, in 1995 argued that “educating girls has a 'catalytic effect' on every dimension of economic development, including higher productivity and faster economic growth.” This argument was proven in the Knowles, Lorgelly, and Owen (2002), and as a disclaimer this does not mean that educating boys is not important, it is important to give them both good quality education to help them grow. But it is important to recognize that when a girl is educated, this education will not just rest in her, but as she becomes a woman and forms her own family her knowledge and thrive for her family to be educated will be passed on. Knowles, Lorgelly, and Owen (2002), continue arguing that “There is evidence that female education, especially in developing countries, also produces social gains by reducing fertility and infant mortality, improving family and child health, increasing life expectancy, and increasing the quantity and quality of children's educational attainment (Schultz, 1988; Behrm Deolalikar, 1988;
Subbarao and Raney, 1995).” The previous is one of the most significant contributions to my research, because it relates female education directly to the reduction of fertility, hence reducing the birth rate.
Martin, Castro, and Juarez (1995), portray how education can give women the advantage to even deal with institutions arguing that the school experience give women competence to interact with institutions, allowing them to benefit from a diverse range of services, including family planning.
By educating girls and women, a whole set of opportunities come for them, which might make them delay the idea of starting a family and become economically productive. Hill and King (1993, 1995) present evidence that “the level of female education has a positive significant effect on gross
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
national product and also that larger gender gaps in school enrolments reduce gross national product.” Klasen (2002) demonstrates that gender inequality in education affects long-term economic growth. His results show that “gender inequality in education directly affects economic growth by lowering the average level of human capital. Also, growth is indirectly affected by the impact of gender inequality on investment and population growth”. To sum up, the above studies have shown the importance of reducing the gender education gap to promote economic development.
Adsera and Menendez (2011), find that urban, young, educated women tend to delay maternity especially when the economy is doing bad, or unemployment indexes are high in the urban area.
By postponing motherhood and investing in their education or/and working become an active part of the productive sector which will help raise the economy of their respective countries. Cochrane (1979) like Adsera and Menendez (2011), suggest that education will decrease the demand for children in women. With better education, an extended list of variables should get impacted, and birth rate being one of them should have an evident decrease in the region.
What about the type of education the LAC Region have? Stycos (1965), states that the population control issue has been overlooked due to arguments suggesting that it is only an economic or political problem that will solve itself by industrialization and education, which will result in a lower fertility rate. Another suggestion is that overpopulation constitutes just a myth encouraged by the imperialists to maintain control of the region. We see and know that the LAC region is not industrialized, this region is still stagnated in the agricultural sector. Logically in the LAC region, education is not technical, and this is an educational demand in some labor areas in the region, Jacinto (2010). Stycos (1965), raises a question concerning if the lack of technical education affects the region’s economic development? Altimir (1996), argues that one of the factors that led
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Latin America to slow its development is that it did not industrialize due to its type of education.
He believes education should be technical for it to be innovative and have hope to catch up with the developed countries. Furthermore, he states that from East Asia we could learn that increasing the number of school years and providing adequate job training of the labor force is vital.
Therefore, he suggests an education strategy with five components: First, universal access to public education at the basic level. Second, some adequate curricula for secondary education should be implemented. Third, inciting teaching and quality research at universities. Fourth, teaching and research that interacts with other segments of the national system of innovation. Finally, fifth, overall improvement of every level of education. These five components should go hand in hand with retraining programs for workers. Technical education should be something to consider in Latin America as education in every aspect is something that will dictate if a country will thrive or no.