Making Education Work

A saying in Bangla goes lekha pora kore je gari ghora chore se – which roughly translates as those that are successful in their studies will be successful in life. Ask any parent anywhere in the world and the chances are that they will agree and will go on to tell you that education offers their children the best possible opportunity to improve their lives and get better jobs.

Education is one of the greatest assets we can give our children and can change lives dramatically for the better. In the following paragraphs I will try to outline the relationships between quality education, individual income and national economic growth. I will also talk about our efforts in strengthening this relationship in Bangladesh.

The UK government through the Department for International Development (DFID) works actively to help many countries throughout the world – including Bangladesh –ensure that children have access to quality education. By quality education, I mean a system of teaching and learning that enables children to read and write and to solve problems creatively. Look at Shampa Akhter, a girl from a very poor family in Bangladesh who went to a technical school where she learned how to operate printing machines. Shampa now earns enough from her job to support her family. Then there’s Saroj Chowdhury, also from a poor family in Hamzerbagh, Chittagang. He was already working at an age when others were at school. But he managed to get admitted to a school for working children, where he learned to be an electrician. Today Saroj is Chief Electrician at a textile mill.

Both examples show clearly the direct relationship between an individual’s capacity to earn and his or her ability to read, write and solve mathematical and other problems. As the information age has succeeded the industrial age, education has arguably become the most important asset for generating income for individuals.

Shampa and Saroj are valuable members of this country’s labour force. Education has given them additional useful skills while augmenting the labour force’s productivity. A country’s labour force is its human capital; and the better educated that labour force is, the greater is the value of the human capital. Imagine a country that has a hundred textile mills, but no electricians. Or a printing industry that has no press operators. The economy of such a country would be in a real mess. Rising primary and secondary enrolment translates into economic growth. The relationship between education and economic growth of a country not only exists, but has a great deal of power.

But that relationship also contains a stark warning. The more unequal the distribution of education, the more negative is the impact on economic growth. So, if a country cannot ensure equal access to quality education for all its children, its economic performance will suffer.

To emphasise that link, it is useful to contrast the experiences of Latin America with South East Asia. Only a fairly small proportion of the total Latin American population has completed secondary and higher education. That small minority earns a substantial high wage, because it is in such short supply. In this case, a very unequal distribution of education has led to high income inequality. But in South East Asia, equal access to education has ensured a large supply of skilled workers. And driven by the increasing productivity of a previously poor workforce, South East Asian countries have been able to grow at high and sustained rates over more than three decades. Latin American economies, meanwhile, have not grown as sufficiently. Education is not only an asset for a country but it is also a great leveller.

This relationship is at the heart of DFID’s work. We believe that equitable growth is more rapid and more sustainable than growth based on wealth and productivity confined to certain sectors or groups.

Let me go back to my first point that education should be able to equip children with certain skills. This doesn’t just happen automatically. Bangladesh has a very high enrolment rate and has achieved gender parity in enrolment. The country can be rightly proud of those achievements. But at the same time, there are many children who do not complete their education. Those that complete their primary schooling often do so without great accomplishment. This is a bottleneck that Bangladesh must address, because that is the foundation on which a child’s future education – and, consequently, his or her contribution to the country – is built.

Lekha pora, to read and to write, is key to a human being’s ability to provide for his or her family, and to contribute positively to the economy of his or her country. J K Galbraith, one of the greatest economists of our time, once said, “There is no literate society that is poor and no illiterate society that is nothing but poor”. Few other words can express so aptly the relationship between education and prosperity of individuals and of the nation as expressed in this quote and in the Bangla proverb.

The UK government is the largest contributor to Bangladesh’s Second Primary Education Development Programme. We also support BRAC’s education programme and the Underprivileged Children’s Education Programme. The UK government is proud to announce increased support to education and skills development in Bangladesh. Through a 9 year £50 million programme we will provide opportunities to develop English language skills for a wide range of learners. These will help pave the way for a more prosperous and equal Bangladesh.