Educational policy for national development

Abstract

At one time education was considered an extravagant and wasteful process which was useful and necessary only for the ruling minority. Historically one finds a close relationship between school and leisure, between school and the ruling authority and between school and monopoly. This attitude has gradually changed and education is now looked upon as a productive process, an investment and utilization of human capital. Education has become, therefore, one of the rights of all citizens, an integral part of economic development, of political and social progress, each of which makes use of the other for the realization of its objectives. The relationship between education and development is controversial. Comprehensive education accelerates national development plans which, in turn, raise the standard of education. Adversely, iUkeracy and absence of awareness create backwardness and hinder the execution of comprehensive development plans. Denison 1 refers to phenomena of economic development and technological progress that have taken place in the United States, U.S.S.R. and Japan, to the enormous progress of education in these countries, and he concludes that more than three-fifths of the actual income is due to the effect of rising educational standards on increasing the capacity of production, and that 23 per cent of the average of the annual growth in the United States arises from the continuous increase of the educational level of manpower. The planning committee in the Soviet Union has stated that the