Discussion question - Essay Example

Education and Growth In order to build a safe, healthy, and more prosperous environmentally sound world while at the same time making a contribution the progress in social, cultural and economic co-operation, education is very essential. Many people are of the opinion that the overall level of education of a particular country determines significantly in the country’s contribution to the world development. It is a common belief that the world view education as a direct contributor to economic growth of a country, and attribute education of both men and women as having a direct correlation to economic growth.

While this is true however, education does not necessarily translate into economic growth of a country, it is only a single factor to the various reasons for economic growth. Education has faced a significant expansion in the last decades across the world, with countries registering double-digit growth patterns. In the 1990s, the world, according to Easterly (73), had 99 percent enrollment for primary education. Education investment has brought little or no impact in the world economy and especially for the countries themselves.

Growth of human capital in a country does not necessarily mean that their contribution to the growth of a country. If the argument that education brings growth to a country, fresh graduates should be entitled to higher salaries than experienced workers should. However, salary increment is based on the years of experience, making this belief to be untrue. In fact, Easterner (77) is of the opinion that, the contribution of education growth and growth of a worker’s output is negligible, stating that in some African countries, this growth is actually negative.

The Gross Domestic Product per worker in is just a small percentage in most Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union countries.With time, the median growth rate of poor countries in the world has kept a declining trend overtime, indicating a poor education contribution to growth, yet education received a massive growth. Due to in direct effects of human capital, countries with higher initial human capital are likely to have a faster growth than those with low initial human capital.in case the level of human capital and physical capital are both high, there will be high returns on physical capital investment until there is a balance between the two(76-77).

In all nations worldwide, variations in the country’s growth have little contributions from variations in growth of the human capital, rising more serious concerns regarding initial schooling and subsequent growth, which is considered a reverse. A forecasted growth that would result in a higher growth in future rises than the rate of education today. People are paid more in economies where there is a rapid growth in education than in stagnant economies. “The magnitude of the relationship between initial schooling and subsequent growth is more consistent with the story of growth causing schooling rather than schooling causing growth” (Easterner 79).

Many parents force their children to attend school, and by the virtue, that schooling is not by their choice, they learn little or nothing (Banerjee, Abhijit 20-30). This, in some sense is wastage of time for such students and funds for the government that fund education at the primary level to try to meet the millennium development goals. Most of these students actually do nothing in school. If such students who happen to be in school simply because the government and sponsors require them to be there is exactly what should bring growth to an economy, then automatically no education is brought about by education.

Works CitedBanerjee, Abhijit V. Poor Economics: Barefoot Hedge-Fund Managers, Diy Doctors and the Surprising Truth About Life on $1 a Day. Penguin,2012. Print.Easterly, William R. The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2002. Print.