Education and Economic Transformation

Education is a basic human right and considered by many as the key tool for national development. It is assumed that the most successful economies in the world are those that invest the most in its human resources.

Understandably the world’s largest, wealthiest and most successful national economies share all of the following characteristics:
• Excellent education systems
• High levels of investment in research and development
• Strong links between industry and educational institutions
• Ability to translate research into products and services that sell.

All of the above require an educated and trained citizenry.
Regionally Trinidad and Tobago continues to have one of the largest GDPs in the Caribbean. The rich petrochemical-based economy is globally renowned for its skills and expertise in the energy sector. Although T&T has always been blessed with hydrocarbons, the ability to transform a once “plantation economy” to an exporting industrialised nation, is primarily owed to its (relatively) highly educated population.
Today, Trinidad and Tobago boasts of having the largest GDP in the English speaking Caribbean with a nominal per capita GDP of over US$17,000.

The relationship between education and sustainable development is sometimes complex.
Generally, research shows that basic education is paramount to a nation’s ability to develop and achieve economic and sustainability targets. Once targets are identified, a country will need to re-examine its education curricula at all levels, that is, preschool to tertiary education.

Higher education then connects workforce development to economic development by matching instructional programmes to the needs of a country.
In determining which education systems and programmes to implement, Government and industry stakeholders must work together to identify specific needs and hence provide work-based learning opportunities such as apprenticeship in fields identified to drive economic development.

With the world leaning more and more on knowledge-based economies, comparative advantages among nations are being derived less from natural resources or cheap labour and more from technical innovations and the competitive use of knowledge. According to the United Nations, studies also link education to economic growth as education contributes to improved productivity (which in theory should lead to higher income and economic performances). Additionally, the socioeconomic factors in economic transformation cannot be ignored.

Education contributes significantly to the establishment of the socioeconomic prerequisites for democracy. Thus, investment in education can tremendously influence democracy and the development of a civil society.

Not surprising, countries (for example, Canada, Israel, Japan, the United States, New Zealand are among the highest) which are identified as the ones that aggressively invest in education have some of the largest GDPs in the world.

Without a doubt it is the most knowledge-based countries that have seen the most amount of economic transformation, confirming and emphasising that education is indeed the main driver of sustainable economic growth and development.

Maybe the famous philosopher, Aristotle, knew this centuries ago when he said: “The fate of empires depend on the education of youth.”