Most countries whose students are among the highest performers in international assessments of learning achievement have provided a high degree of autonomy to their local authorities and schools, especially their teachers and parents, in deciding what courses to teach and how to use funds at the school

Why Bangladesh must invest more in education?

In 1995 Gary Becker wrote “during this century education, skills and knowledge have become crucial determinants of a person’s and a nation’s productivity. One can even call the twentieth century the Age of Human Capital in the sense that the primary determinant of a country’s standard of living is how well it succeeds in developing and utilizing the skills, health, and =habits of its population”.
There are at least three mechanisms through which education affects economic growth. First, education increases the human capital inherent in the labor force, which enhances labor productivity leading towards a higher level of output ; second, education increases the innovative capacity of the economy, and fosters  new knowledge, technologies, products and processes that promote growth ; third, education facilitates the diffusion and transmission of knowledge needed to understand and process new information and to implement new technologies that promotes economic growth.  Further, international evidence suggest that rather than counting how long students have sat in school, it seems crucial to focus on how much students have learned while in school when estimating the effect of education on economic growth.
A study conducted by the Asian Development Bank demonstrated a clear causal relationship between investment policies in education and health and high performing Asian economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. These countries consistently pursued a policy of high investment and expenditures in education and health sectors that paid off in the form of high performing economy. Moreover, after the late 1990s Asian Economic and Financial crisis was over one of the key factors that helped overcome the crisis rather quickly was attributed to the presence of highly skilled and adaptive labor force that these countries created. Currently both Vietnam and Malaysia are spending over 6 per cent of GDP on education aiming at enhancing their national and regional competitiveness. The average education expenditure in OECD countries is above 6 per cent of GDP. Bangladesh has achieved steady GDP growth from 1994 to 2014 averaging 5.62 per cent, but has kept the amount of GDP allocated to education stagnated at around only 2.2 per cent, which is far lower than countries with a similar GDP per capita. The proposed budget allocation of TK. 31,605 crore for FY 2015/16 appears to be the highest allocation in recent years but it falls far short of international standards. More needs to be done to implement the new Education Policy of the incumbent government. Further, Bangladesh education chronically suffers from poor quality and low efficiency at all levels that significantly reduces the value for money spent. The 1974 Education Commission Report among others made four significant policy recommendations for modernization and restructuring the education system of the newly independent country: extending primary education to 8 years by 1983, devolve primary education to local authority, professionalize education administration and management at all levels, and spend 5 per cent of GDP for education increasing progressively to 7 per cent of GDP. Unfortunately none of these recommendations were implemented by the successive governments that ruled the country –be it autocratic or democratically elected. Thirty six years later the National Education Policy 2010 virtually made the same recommendations of extending primary education to 8 years by 2018 (further delay of 35 years, if at all implemented), spending 6 per cent of GDP and decentralization/devolution of education.
Had the 1974 Education Commission recommendations been implemented perhaps Bangladesh would have achieved a higher level socio-economic profile similar to SE Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. These countries consistently spent an average of 5-6 per cent of their GDP over the past several decades.
In Bangladesh the distribution of resources is also highly iniquitous. According to a World Bank benefit incidence analysis, the poorer households in Bangladesh are receiving more public education spending at the lower education levels (as the better off households send their children more and more to better quality private schools), but the higher education spending is directed more toward the richer population. Most countries whose students are among the highest performers in international assessments of learning achievement (viz. PISA) have provided a high degree of autonomy to their local authorities and schools, especially their teachers and parents, in deciding what courses to teach and how to use funds at the school.
This having been said, there are some clear general policies that are important. Foremost among these, the performance of a system is affected by the incentives that various actors face. That is, if the actors in the education process are rewarded extrinsically or intrinsically for producing better student performance, and if they are penalized for not producing high performance, this will improve performance. The incentives to produce high-quality education, in turn, are created by the institutions of the education system – all the rules and regulations that set rewards and penalties for the people involved in the education process.
Therefore, one might expect that institutional features have important impacts on student learning. International evidence suggests three institutional features that are part of a successful system for providing students with cognitive skills: choice and competition; decentralization and autonomy of schools; and accountability.

The writer is former Principal Social Sector Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, Manila  and is currently working with European Union funded SHARE Education Program Bangladesh. The views expressed here are his own.
His e-mail: [email protected]

Most countries whose students are among the highest performers in international assessments of learning achievement have provided a high degree of autonomy to their local authorities and schools, especially their teachers and parents, in deciding what courses to teach and how to use funds at the school

Why Bangladesh must invest more in education?

In 1995 Gary Becker wrote during this century education, skills and knowledge have become crucial determinants of a persons and a nations productivity. One can even call the twentieth century the Age of Human Capital in the sense that the primary determinant of a countrys standard of living is how well it succeeds in developing and utilizing the skills, health, and =habits of its population. There are at least three mechanisms through which education affects economic growth. First, education increases the human capital inherent in the labor force, which enhances labor productivity leading towards a higher level of output ; second, education increases the innovative capacity of the economy, and fosters new knowledge, technologies, products and processes that promote growth ; third, education facilitates the diffusion and transmission of knowledge needed to understand and process new information and to implement new technologies that promotes economic growth. Further, international evidence suggest that rather than counting how long students have sat in school, it seems crucial to focus on how much students have learned while in school when estimating the effect of education on economic growth. A study conducted by the Asian Development Bank demonstrated a clear causal relationship between investment policies in education and health and high performing Asian economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. These countries consistently pursued a policy of high investment and expenditures in education and health sectors that paid off in the form of high performing economy. Moreover, after the late 1990s Asian Economic and Financial crisis was over one of the key factors that helped overcome the crisis rather quickly was attributed to the presence of highly skilled and adaptive labor force that these countries created. Currently both Vietnam and Malaysia are spending over 6 per cent of GDP on education aiming at enhancing their national and regional competitiveness. The average education expenditure in OECD countries is above 6 per cent of GDP. Bangladesh has achieved steady GDP growth from 1994 to 2014 averaging 5.62 per cent, but has kept the amount of GDP allocated to education stagnated at around only 2.2 per cent, which is far lower than countries with a similar GDP per capita. The proposed budget allocation of TK. 31,605 crore for FY 2015/16 appears to be the highest allocation in recent years but it falls far short of international standards. More needs to be done to implement the new Education Policy of the incumbent government. Further, Bangladesh education chronically suffers from poor quality and low efficiency at all levels that significantly reduces the value for money spent. The 1974 Education Commission Report among others made four significant policy recommendations for modernization and restructuring the education system of the newly independent country: extending primary education to 8 years by 1983, devolve primary education to local authority, professionalize education administration and management at all levels, and spend 5 per cent of GDP for education increasing progressively to 7 per cent of GDP. Unfortunately none of these recommendations were implemented by the successive governments that ruled the country be it autocratic or democratically elected. Thirty six years later the National Education Policy 2010 virtually made the same recommendations of extending primary education to 8 years by 2018 (further delay of 35 years, if at all implemented), spending 6 per cent of GDP and decentralization/devolution of education. Had the 1974 Education Commission recommendations been implemented perhaps Bangladesh would have achieved a higher level socio-economic profile similar to SE Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. These countries consistently spent an average of 5-6 per cent of their GDP over the past several decades. In Bangladesh the distribution of resources is also highly iniquitous. According to a World Bank benefit incidence analysis, the poorer households in Bangladesh are receiving more public education spending at the lower education levels (as the better off households send their children more and more to better quality private schools), but the higher education spending is directed more toward the richer population. Most countries whose students are among the highest performers in international assessments of learning achievement (viz. PISA) have provided a high degree of autonomy to their local authorities and schools, especially their teachers and parents, in deciding what courses to teach and how to use funds at the school. This having been said, there are some clear general policies that are important. Foremost among these, the performance of a system is affected by the incentives that various actors face. That is, if the actors in the education process are rewarded extrinsically or intrinsically for producing better student performance, and if they are penalized for not producing high performance, this will improve performance. The incentives to produce high-quality education, in turn, are created by the institutions of the education system all the rules and regulations that set rewards and penalties for the people involved in the education process. Therefore, one might expect that institutional features have important impacts on student learning. International evidence suggests three institutional features that are part of a successful system for providing students with cognitive skills: choice and competition; decentralization and autonomy of schools; and accountability. The writer is former Principal Social Sector Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, Manila and is currently working with European Union funded SHARE Education Program Bangladesh. The views expressed here are his own. His e-mail: [email protected]