Importance of Education to a Country’s Development

Question : Outline the importance of education to a countrys development. Answer : Introduction Development of an economy is highly essential and there are various important areas that accounts for positive level of contribution to an economys development. Education is one such factor that can play a pivotal role in the overall development of an economy. Education contributes in a number of ways towards achieving enhanced performance level of the entire economy. The possibility of attaining sustainable economic development can be ensured by way of efficient education system within the economy. Education accounts for contribution towards the overall economic development as it ensures the skilled and professional human capital that can contribute their efforts in bringing economic growth (Porter, Smith and Fagg, 2007). This report is aimed at analysing the role and contribution made by education in the overall development of an economy. The role of education is analysed by looking at the positive contribution it made to the growth of an economy. Based on the findings from the analysis, it will be summarised in the conclusion section of this report. Role of Education in Economic Development An analysis of the role of education in the entire economic development in the existing literature indicates that there is significant level of benefits that could be achieved from efficient education system. The important ways in which education helps in contributing towards the development of an economy are briefly summarised as follows: Education Contributes towards Better Citizenship: This has been the most significant contribution of education, as it accounts for better development of people as the citizen of the country. This is mainly in the sense that educated people have better knowledge and understanding of the socio-economic scenario of the country. They have better level of awareness of factors that contributes towards economic development such as conservation of energy, protection of resources that are scarce in nature etc. This signifies that educated people accounts for a direct level of contribution to the wellbeing of the entire economy (Pillay, 2010). Education Develops an Understanding of the Role of Voting: People become aware of the importance of voting only by having access to highly efficient education system in the economy. Voting has been an important activity that is essential for the smooth and efficient functioning of an economy. This is mainly because the selection of leaders is performed through voting, and it is therefore essential for the people to know about voting. The knowledge about it can be gained positively by way of education, and this signifies that education is essential part from the point of view of enhancing the knowledge of people at large (Samuel, 2013). Education Helps in Getting Employed: This is another important contribution of education system in an economy, as it accounts for positive level of contribution towards overall economic development. Businesses including multinational corporations need highly skilled and talented people and this can be positively accomplished by way of well educated system in the society. The educational system allows for the development of necessary skills and abilities which can be utilised by people in getting employed in corporations. Unemployment is a big economic problem, and this can be efficiently addressed through a highly efficient educational system within the society (Forde, McMahon, McPhee and Patrick, 2006). Education Helps in Enhancing Lifestyle of People: Lifestyle conditions of people can be enhanced through the application of highly efficient educational system. This is mainly because the standard of living gets enhanced which in turn attracts foreign nation companies within their economy. This accounts for positive level of contribution towards the growth and development of the economy, as foreign country companies accounts for significant level of taxes and revenues to the host country government. As a result, educational system is considered as highly essential in achieving development of the economic systems of an economy (Kennedy and Lee, 2007). Educational System Brings in Revenue for Local Government: The benefits of educational system to the performance of an economy can also be identified from the fact that it accounts for significant level of revenue to the local government. However, educational system needs to be highly efficient in order to ensure its positive level of contribution towards the economys performance. The contribution of educational system can be achieved in economys development from highly efficient education system in the economy. Such efficient education system would attract foreign national student and they in turn account for the overall development and growth of the economy. As in respect to Australia, there are many international students that come every year in order to pursue higher education. This leads to the positive level of contribution towards the performance of the entire economy (Pillay, 2010). Education Helps in Raising Productivity and Promotes Creativity: Education is also highly useful in terms of raising productivity levels and also in achieving higher level of creativity within people. This is mainly because education enhances creativity by way of promoting entrepreneurship within educated people. In addition to this, education plays a very crucial role in securing economic and social progress and in improving income distribution. This has been a crucial factor that contributes towards the development of individuals and ultimately towards entire economic performance. The capacity of labour to produce gets enhanced as a result of improved accessibility to the education and this improvement in their productivity level is therefore a major factor accounting for overall growth of the economy. Reduction in Poverty and Unemployment: This is another significant advantage of education system as it positively accounts for the contribution towards the reduction in important indicators of economic performance such as poverty and unemployment conditions. Poverty is regarded as a major threat to the performance of an economy. Similarly, unemployment situation indicates the growth of an economy is adverse and the unemployed people accounts for eating up majority of the resources. For the economy to prosper, it is essential that the unemployment levels and also the poverty levels should be reduced as much as possible. Education system has a critical role to play in this respect, as it accounts for positive development of individuals skills and abilities and also in making them eligible to get better access to work. The resulting impact is improved level of individuals development and ultimately the entire economys development (Thakur and Patel, 2010). The entire analysis as carried out above has indicated various important ways in which educational systems contributes towards improved level of economic performance. The analysis leads to identification that the value of education is achieved from the highly complex relations between the potential of human capacity to produce more economic output and the ability to innovate using their learning. Education allows for the basic development of understanding within people with regard to the most common things that accounts for direct level of contribution towards the development of economic performance. It not only ensures the enhancement of skills and abilities within them, but there has also been the availability of higher opportunities within them to produce more. This improvement in their productivity levels is an important contributing factor for such rise in the performance level of the entire economic conditions (Pring, Hayward, Hodgson, Johnson, Keep, Oancea, Rees, Spours and Wi lde, 2012). The analysis also indicated that there has been the development of moral understanding within people to conserve scarce resources. This particular ability is developed through their accessibility to educational system. However, these are the indirect benefits that could be achieved from the educational systems within the society. The analysis also indicated about the direct benefits that have a direct level of contribution towards efficient economic performance. This is mainly in terms of reduction in the poverty levels and also in the unemployment levels within the society. The positive contribution of efficient educational system to an economys performance is identified from the fact that it accounts for rise in the governmental income by way of international students subscribing to such highly educational systems across international boundaries. This has been an important source of income to government across local economy, and the resulting impact is better over economic developm ent. Conclusion In this report, a critical evaluation has been carried out with respect to the role and importance of educational systems towards ensuring the development of an economy and the performance of analysis indicated that there can be significant level of improvements that could be achieved in respect to entire economys performance from highly efficient educational systems. There are significant number of benefits that have been identified from having an efficient educational system within the economy such as reduction in the level of unemployment and poverty rates, increase in the revenue of government in terms of taxation liability on multinational companies, revenue from international students that subscribe for higher education within the economy, improvement in common understanding within people to become responsible performance and make preservation of the scarce resources and education is also identified as beneficial in developing an understanding of the importance of voting within people. All these are the significant level of benefits that could be achieved from efficient educational system within the economy. References Forde, C., McMahon, M., McPhee, A.D. and Patrick, F. (2006), Professional Development, Reflection and Enquiry, SAGE. Kennedy, K.J. and Lee, J.C. (2007), The Changing Role of Schools in Asian Societies: Schools for the Knowledge Society, Routledge. Porter, K., Smith, P. and Fagg, R. (2007), Leadership and Management for HR Professionals, Routledge. Pring, R., Hayward, G., Hodgson, A., Johnson, J., Keep, E., Oancea, A., Rees, G., Spours, K. and Wilde, S. (2012), Education for All: The Future of Education and Training for 14-19 Year-Olds, Routledge. Pillay, P.N. (2010), Linking Higher Education and Economic Development: Implications for Africa from Three Successful Systems, African Minds. Samuel, S. (2013). Importance Of Education In A Countrys Progress [Online]. Available at: https://www.howtolearn.com/2013/03/importance-of-education-in-a-countrys-progress/ [Accessed: 16 January 2015]. Thakur, A.K. and Patel, M. (2010), Challenges of Education in 21st Century, Deep and Deep Publications.