EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

STUDENTS DEVELOPMENT FIRST...............

THE perils of a runaway population are just so well known, the world over. Say Pakistan, with 280 million people at last count - is often described as a ticking time-bomb in this respect.

ECONOMIC growth is not an end itself; it is important because it allows humans / students to have better lives.
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The Developing World has a large and young population. If they are not educated and healthy, how can any country even contemplate managing and/or maintaining high growth rates?

In Pakistan, interestingly, though  house-hold level data shows that we have made significant strides over the last two or three  decades in reducing poverty, the  correlates of  poverty have not  moved in the same direction or as much.

Infant health and mortality, maternal health and mortality, child stunting and wasting numbers show very slow improvements, stagnation or even reversals in certain areas.

Some explanation for this puzzle must come from the quality angle that has been mentioned here.

Every government of the past, for the last three or so decades at least, has said that human development was a top priority for them. Our outcomes do not show that this could have been the case.

Were these governments not able to make and implement policies to reflect their priorities?

The meagre resources that we spend on education and health as percentage of GDP gives us a good idea of actual prioritization. We have been 'promising' to raise education spending to four per cent of GDP for decades now but it is still struck at around 2pc to 2.5 pc.

Part of the explanation comes from the model of development that almost all these governments  have been using to think about development.

Economic growth measured through GDP growth is central to this model of development.

Economic growth comes automatically through markets or some process of trickle-down   and is supposed to take care of human development. Employment. jobs. education and health outcomes, social welfare and protection from vulnerability  are not candidates for primary goals.

The World students Society thanks author and researcher Dr. Faisal Bari, a senior research fellow at the Institute of  development and Economic Alternatives.