This post is a summary of three articles. The first published with the title above http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/eeg_what_research_says.pdf. The second was published at http://www.shiftingthinking.org/?page_id=58. The third was published in 2009 at https://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/stories/building-21st-century-knowledge-economies-job-growth-and-competitiveness-middle-east-%E2%80%93-high-
The research summarized in this article shows that schooling is necessary for industrial development. The form of schooling that emerged in the 19th century generates specific cognitive, behavioral and social knowledge that are critical ingredients for the way industrial societies organize: production, daily life in cities, the size and fitness of the population for work, the creation and use of knowledge. Therefore, it is documented that: schooling is a necessary but not sufficient for the spectacular feats of industrial development in the 20th century. The intricacy of the relationship between schooling and economic growth is confirmed by the technical economics literature. Economists have demonstrated that both individuals and societies gain from the investments made in schooling. That education is an essential ingredient of prosperity is at once obvious and contentious. This article offers one way of arriving at a single overarching generalization about the relationship between education and economic growth. The hypothesis is that making investments in all the elements of a school system (teachers, buildings, books, ICT, testing, etc.) and then forcing young people to attend them is a necessary but not sufficient condition for expanding the GDP. However, the argument here is that the specific cognitive, behavioral and social knowledge, that is the basic result of a specific form of schooling introduced in the 19th century, played and continues to play a crucial role in industrial development. The evidence is overwhelming. Where industry triumphed so did GDP growth. Historical estimates for the year 1900 put participation rates in primary education at under 40% in most parts of the world, except North America and Western Europe, where the rate was around 70%. The relationship between economic growth and education has been one of the central threads of economic analysis. Both Adam Smith in the 18th century and Alfred Marshall in the 19th century, addressed the question of how investments in education influence the wealth of nations. But the historical record and the evidence collected by some social scientists are less definitive regarding the link between industrial societies and economic growth. There are examples of well schooled societies, the former Soviet Union that failed to match the growth rates of Europe, Japan and U.S. Crucially it is how the specific cognitive attributes generated by schooling is used is that one of the main distinguishing features between the low growth societies and the higher growth ones. The 20th century was the education century. For the first time in human history the majority of the world's population learned to read and write. The introduction and spread of compulsory schooling made this happen. The 20th century also demonstrated that this is indispensable for economic prosperity and social well-being. For the 21th century we know is that there are signs in the world around us already that point to an even more significant role, and potential payoff from investing in learning. Taking this overall positive environment for education spending over the next twenty years, the calculations assume that education spending will gradually converge to 6% GDP. Stll, taken that education will be whole, the amount of spending is impressive and certainly means that education as a will be a very dynamic part of global, regional and local economies. There will be significant activity in areas like: teacher training; educational infrastructure like libraries, schools, etc; processes of educational management. Furthermore, it is clear that the transformation of this sector towards greater personalization and co-production, if it occurs, will entail major efforts in all parts of today's school systems. If supply side constraints emerge, such as finding a sufficient number of qualified teachers. Management methods, organizational models that alter how schools work can also be expected to strive to make the change to "best practice". Right now there is no way to tell if there will be changes in the composition of the economy or in the role of schooling, but is possible that the strong positive relationship between what people know and the wealth of society, already evident from the industrial era, could become even clearer in the future.
The late 20th century was a period of major social and economic changes. It was also a time in which there were big changes in knowledge. This period is now known as the beginning of the Knowledge Age, to distinguish it from the Industrial Age. The Knowledge Age is a new, advanced form of capitalism in which knowledge and ideas are the main source of economic growth ( more important than land, labour, or other 'tangible resource'). As a result, new kinds of workers, with new skills are required. Knowledge is now thought of being like a form of energy, as a system of networks and flows. It is produced, not by individual experts, but by 'collectising intelligence', that is groups of people with complementary expertise who collaborate for specific purpose. Knowledge Age workers need to be able to assess new information quickly. They need to be adaptable, creative and innovative, and to be able to understand things as a sytem or 'big picture' level. Most importantly, they need to think and learn for themselves. Education is, of course, about much more than simply preparing people for work. It has other important goals: for example, developing social and citizenship skills, providing equal opportunity, and building social cohesion. Expressed this way, these are 20th century goals. What might these goals look like in the 21st century context.
We can learn from several countries that took the risk of redefining their future during the last two decades. For example, in Finland, Ireland, Korea, and Singapore, innovation and the use of knowledge were critical succcess factors. Increasing the quantity and quality of knowledge in the economy made them agile in adapting to economic shift and demands, and better able to participate in international networking so they could take advantage of new information and opportunities. They raised the quality of their education system at all levels. They promoted innovation where creativity could flourish in apllied research, attracting investment to support new ideas. They made large investment in the ICT infrastructure and in using the internet for education and e-government. Also these countries have governments that people can trust. They were therefore able to implement speedy reforms, gain commitment of leadership, and coordinate key sectors, and communicate among all stakeholders.
