BANGKOK – February 25, 2008 – Post-basic education is facing difficult challenges as globalization drives sweeping change in the ways people live and work, and a nation’s competitiveness may hinge upon how well its government addresses these challenges, international education experts stressed.
The knowledge and information revolution that has been taking place across the globe creates a strong demand for a new type of workforce, said Bruno Laporte, manager of the World Bank Institute’s Human Development Group. As the world economy increasingly becomes knowledge-based, countries will not be able to rely on inexpensive labor to facilitate growth and investments. The new generation of workers, Mr. Laporte said, needs to be more adaptable, creative, and able to respond quickly to the changing needs of employers and industries. “This kind of information revolution has rendered some past skills obsolete, but national education systems are in general not flexible enough to adapt to this,” Mr. Laporte said. “There is now a big gap between the new workers’ skills honed through the present curriculum, and the skills and the competencies that many employers are looking for. This will have a significant impact on a country’s long-term competitiveness.”
Developing countries have thus far been able to benefit from the information revolution. The past decade has seen their fastest period of growth since 1965. But as knowledge and information continue to expand, the concept of a “one-for-a-lifetime” diploma is no longer valid. Workers need to continually update their skills. What they learned in the first few years of their lives could easily become a thing of the past by the time they graduate. National education systems, however, have been slow to respond to changes related to globalization, technology, and the labor market. The curriculum in post-basic education, learning that takes place after lower secondary school, is often too academic to prepare youngsters for the world of work. Opportunities for updating new skills are not available in many nations. Even students themselves have indicated dissatisfaction with the quality of learning they acquired at schools. Many governments are struggling to change the governance of their education system. Education policies tend to be strongly sectoral, where different education sectors (such as primary, general and vocational secondary education, tertiary etc.) are competing for public resources – making it difficult to move public resources and to have strong collaboration among the sub-sectors. Only a strong and sustained political commitment can fashion a system providing lifelong learning and encompassing all forms of formal and informal education. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly important to coordinate education policies with labor market, research and innovation policies. The role of private – public partnerships in providing education services is also increasingly important. Understanding the critical need to address these challenges, countries across Asia are gathering in Bangkok this week for a regional conference on post-basic education systems1. Titled “Education for Development and Competitiveness: Challenges and Opportunities for Post-Basic Education,” the seminar is co-hosted by the Thai Commission on Higher Education and the World Bank. “This is a rare chance for us to share post-basic education experiences and exchange ideas on how to reform our post-basic education systems,” said Dr. Sumate Yamnoon, the Secretary-General of the Thai Commission on Higher Education. “It also gives us an opportunity to form a regional network of education authorities and professionals, who will support one another as we all carry out these important and difficult reform initiatives.” More than 90 high-level education officials and administrators from 9 Asian countries2 are participating in this seminar. They will focus on the need for improvements in the quality and relevance of post-basic education, as well as the overall efficiency and flexibility of education systems and institutions. Such improvements are aimed at stimulating a country’s engagement with the global knowledge economy through improving individual skills and thus boosting economic competitiveness. While the seminar will emphasize linkages between post-basic education and the labor market, and thus economic development, participants will also discuss equity and social development issues. The six-day seminar will conclude on March 1.
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For more information on the Bank’s work in the area of education, visit:
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/for education statistics, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/education/edstats
1 Basic education is a relative term; depending on the country, it may refer to compulsory education (grade 1- 9) or primary education (grade 1-6). For the sake of simplification, post-basic education in this case covers all levels of formal education beyond grade 8. This may include upper secondary general education, vocational and technical education, and tertiary education. 2 Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam |
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