As part of our exam-driven GP Tuition programme, our GP tutors will cover a specific GP issue in detail and provide numerous perspectives to illustrate how you can answer related questions effectively and analytically.
For this month, we will be discussing the topic on Education, in which we look into interesting issues such as the different perspectives and impacts of Education. These blog articles are meant to widen our readers’ perspectives and to promotes comprehensive learning in the areas of Education, so that readers can formulate effective and qualitative arguments in GP essays. Read on to refine your understanding on the issue of Education.
Education plays a large role in the economy. It prepares workers for the workforce, promotes a larger middle class which will be beneficial to the country’s economic growth and will in turn create more job opportunities, making the standard of living better, and reducing the number of people stuck in the poverty cycle. Continue reading to find out more!
With Education, more people are educated and hence are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary for them to contribute to the workforce, in turn making the workforce more efficient and productive since less time needs to be spent on teaching workers and giving them time to gain the skills needed. Less errors are made and thus there is less wastage, the business has more capital, thus are more able to hire more people, the educated citizens are presented with more job opportunities, and thus are more likely to be able to get out of the poverty cycle and see an improvement in the standard of living since they are able to earn more and are able to at least get a salary to sustain themselves. As economic potential rises, more people are able to escape from the poverty cycle, creating a middle class of consumers, which then benefits the global economy.
The CFTC reports that the key to economic security is education and that “no country has ever achieved rapid and continuous economic growth without at least a 40 percent literacy rate.”
Education provides students with a platform to learn and grow, to foster creativity in solving problems which are found in our daily lives. It allows them to work on their problem solving skills, and to think outside of the box so that the problems can be solved the simplest way, so that less effort and resources are needed. This promotes productivity since manpower is not being wasted. In addition, with the right skills, which can be picked up in school, the worker will be more than competent in doing their work such that the workforce is efficient and productive.
This article is the final segment of a 5 part series covering Education. To ensure seamless reading, you may wish to start from the first segment of ‘How is Education important?’.
There are debates over whether Education plays a part in promoting economic prosperity of a country. One school of thought is that Education does play a part in promoting economic prosperity of a country while another school of thought is that it plays a small part in doing so. This essay is more inclined to the view that education is plays a big part in the economic prosperity of a country.
Education plays a part in promoting economic prosperity of a country as it helps to promote gender equality. UNESCO has found that in developing countries, women and girls who receive education are physically and economically more secure than those who did not. In addition, recent studies have shown that the more educated mothers are, the lower the maternal death rates and the better the health of their child will be. It is estimated that 12 million fewer children would suffer from malnutrition-related stunting annually if their mothers completed secondary education. Thus, with more educated women in developing countries, they are more likely to contribute more to the workforce by joining it or by having educated and healthy babies who will grow up and be part of the efficient workforce.
Also, education promotes a decrease in the amount of people stuck in the poverty cycle. With education, people are more likely to find better jobs and thus get a wage and hence have some sort of spending power, which they will then use to purchase things from the domestic market, contributing to the cash flow, and encouraging businesses to set up shops there or to hire more workers to produce even more, in turn creating more jobs, more people being hired and earning money, more people being able to and are buying things, setting up a cycle for economic growth. Julie Strawn of the Center for Law and Social Policy found that a year of schooling raised the earnings of welfare recipients by 7 percent, hence proving that education will get workers better jobs, and a higher pay.
In conclusion, education does promote economic prosperity as with education, more workers are able to join the workforce as highly skilled labour where they can contribute to the workforce by bringing in innovative ideas, by being resourceful and by doing the work efficiently so that the company remains productive, and is spending less on wastage, thus having more to spare on getting more workers to decrease unemployment and increase economic growth.
Albeit a huge role Education plays on the economy, it also has as large effects on other areas such as individual, social and political aspects of our lives. Read on to find out more about how else Education is important.
Education is a big reason for why people feel empowered and are able to lead enriching lives. It provides opportunities for individuals to know what is best for them, what they should fight for, and what are their rights. For example, providing education to poor and marginalised children young people often means that they are more likely to participate in meetings of local political bodies managing resources such as education, health and water.
Education promotes a civic and order society because people learn through the education system, to learn to differentiate between right and wrong, as well as the consequences for doing wrong and the rewards of doing what is right, so that they are more inclined to doing what is right. In a policy brief from 2011 titled “The Impacts of Education on Crime, Health and Mortality, and Civic Participation,” which was authored by Western economics professor and CIBC Center Director Lance Lochner. It is estimated that increasing the high school graduation rate in the United States in 1990 would have resulted in nearly 100,000 fewer crimes.
Education provides a platform for people to form opinions and ideas of what is best for them and their country instead of following what is the norm blindly. This is evident in the research from sub-Saharan Africa, which cited in the report, that even primary schooling promotes citizen endorsement of democracy and rejection of non-democratic alternatives. In the 18 countries of the study, people of voting age with a primary education were 1.5 times more likely to support democracy than people with no education, rising to three times more likely for someone with secondary education.
Countries such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore have achieved tremendous economic growth due to their focus on Education as a means to attain economic prosperity. How far do you agree to this notion?