Abstract
The ascendance to popularity of the liberal ideologies and the concepts of political economy of education will be put forward as the root cause for an increasing subordination of education objectives to national economic goals. Through a case study of the educational development of Hong Kong, this paper will evaluate the extent to which educational planning and policy decision should be guided by economic considerations. Although the rapid economic growth of Hong Kong and the rapid expansion of its education system in the past decades took place in parallel, there is no evidence that Hong Kong’s economic success is directly brought about by its education. It will be concluded that apart from economic contributions, education has its own intrinsic values. While economic considerations are useful for planning and policymaking at a macro level, it may not be appropriate to indiscriminately apply economic principles in an intrusive way to direct the priorities of institution management and classroom teaching.
Highlights
Different people view education from different perspectives, but there could be no denying that for most, if not all, policymakers nowadays, education is a major state planning apparatus serving national economic goals
In evaluating the extent to which educational planning and policy decision ought to be guided by economic considerations, it is useful to trace the origins of the “old” or classical liberalism which had its beginnings in the seventeenth century and gradually rose to prominence until the last decades of the nineteenth century when it became challenged by welfare liberalism and the “new” or “neoliberalism”
In order to establish to what extend educational planning and policy decision should be guided by economic considerations, it will be examined 1) how applicable Human Capital Theory is to Hong Kong; and 2) how effective Hong Kong’s education is in enhancing its competitiveness
Summary
Different people view education from different perspectives, but there could be no denying that for most, if not all, policymakers nowadays, education is a major state planning apparatus serving national economic goals This phenomenon is closely associated with the rising influence of the classical liberal and neoliberal beliefs that the most effective way to govern a state is to apply market rules. These liberal philosophy and ideologies have formed the guiding principles and rationales for the organization of the western capitalist societies and their social, political and economic reproduction. In evaluating the extent to which educational planning and policy decision ought to be guided by economic considerations, it is useful to trace the origins of the “old” or classical liberalism which had its beginnings in the seventeenth century and gradually rose to prominence until the last decades of the nineteenth century when it became challenged by welfare liberalism and the “new” or “neoliberalism”
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