This post is a summary of a report published at http://anale.feaa.uaic.ro/anale/, in 2009. The complete title is, "The relationship between the level of education and the development state of a country." And was written by Cristian Popescu and Laura Diaconu.
The new theory of the economic growth underlines the fact that the education has a strong impact on the economic development from two points of view. First of all, human capital is an input in the production function, thus explaining the options for the investment in education and, secondly, the factors that involve the endogenous growth, especially the technological progress, are correlated to the human capital stock because determines technology or new knowledge. More educated countries are developing faster due to the fact that the schools enables the labor force to innovate and to adapt to the existing ones to the local production. The level of education is influencing not only the growth and the economic productivity of a country, but also an educated citizen is more able to take part in the local or regional decisions.
A World Bank study, made in 2003, shows an essential factor that has led to the growth and development of the Asian Tigers: the good allocation and the high quality of education. A good example for this is given by South Korea, where the schooling rate for the tertiary education was 16% in 1980, 39% in 1990, and 68% in 1996. Resources allocated are related to the income level but also to the budgetary priorities. While the states are developing, the necessities related to the infrastructure and to the social spending becomes less pressing, so that additional sums may be allocated to some fields, in other circumstances considered to have secondary importance, such as education, environment, etc.
We want to underline that the relationship between education and development does not have to be regarded only from the economic point of view. The development process is more complex one that, apart from the economic growth, also involves social and cultural evolution, environment protection, healthcare, etc. It is noticed that the educated persons are interacting efficiently not only inside the groups but also in front of the law, norms, etc. Such a behavior creates a harmonious environment. Understanding the democratic value, for example, recognizing the liberties and the limits of the interference between the politic and the public sector, the acceptance of the arbitrage of the democratic institutions, all these are attitudes that develop in time. They are influenced by the educational factors, formal and non-formal ones. Moreover, while national boundaries are just lines without capacity of restricting the free movement of production, the higher skilled persons will be able to take advantages easier and more efficient from the new opportunities of the global economy. Between the education and the development, there is a strong correlation, in both direction. Yet, the determinant factor of the process seems to be the educational one.
The impact of education being essential for the progress of a nation, it is necessary that the state interfere in initiating and supporting the institutions responsible for the education process, under all its facets, formal, non-formal and even informal.
