This post is a summary of a report published at http://www.learningbenefits.net/ on October 2008. The title is above.
The Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning ( WBL ) was set up in 1999 at the Institute of Education in the University of London. But its researches represent a variety of disciplines, including sociology, psychology and economics.
Unsurprisingly, the research found that more highly qualified individuals generally earn more and make a bigger financial contribution to society. Education can affect virtually every aspect of our lives, as the report have shown. However, its wider benefits, are often indirect and subtle. This centre has developed new ways of thinking about these issues. The wider benefits of learning are realised through two major channels: Personal characteristics and skills, and also social interactions.
It has been estimated, for example, that a student who completes high school in the U.S. contributes with approximately of $139,000 in taxes revenue, $40,500 in public health cost savings, $26,000 saved in law-enforcement and prison costs, and $3,000 in welfare savings. But the benefits of education go far beyond this equation. Educated individuals are more likely, on average, to interact more positively in social networks, from voluntary work to local government. Education is therefore socially, as well as economically, productive, as the following finding demostrate.
People with better qualifications are more likely to have healthy lifestyles, to be fitter, and such health advantages can be transferred to the next generation at the earliest age. One more year of education has been shown to increase life expectancy in the U.S. by as much as 1.7 years. An important U.S. study estimated that a 10% point rise in the rate of high school graduation would cut the murder rate by between 14% and 27%. A 1% point increase in the graduation rate would lead to a reduction in crime of between 34,000 and 68,000 offences per year. A WBL study published in 2007 showed that children from disadvantages backgrounds who are given a good grounding in numeracy in infant school are more likely to succeed in English as well as Maths at age 11. Learning can promote societal cohesion and strengthen citizenship. Such a system can extend and deepen social networks and support the development of not only shared norms, but the values of tolerance, understanding and respect.
Other research has shown that the more students are engaged in their education, the more willing they are to play a positive role in public life. If we use the idea of human capital to include skills valued in the labor market, then identity capital can be used to describe the skills valuable in negotiating other aspects of life that matter to individuals, families, communities and nations.
The development outcomes of an educational experience may emerge during learning or soon afterwards. The wider benefits, on the other hand, emerge from a complex and lengthier processes that occur over the lifecourse, this is a dynamic process. Education is, or should be, about more than developing skills that have economic value. It is also one of the primary means of promoting individual well-being and a key 'civilising' influence on communities and nations. Our research confirms that education has wide-ranging and sizeable effects that extend well beyond the labor market. While these wider outcomes may also have knock-on economic impacts ( through reducing costs of health care and crime, for example ), it is important to remember that they enhance the quality of life, not only for individuals, but also for society.
Another key message is that the chances of children of an educational success are significantly increased if they have parents who support their learning. Developing skills of parents as the "first teacher" will therefore do a great deal to reduce inequalities.
