PEOPLE
DEVELOPMENT
POLICIES
PATRICIO H. ESTOYA JR. , PhD, DPA
Professor
The process of development involves the
interaction of money, materials, machines
and people. Out of such factor combinations,
roads and bridges are constructed, houses
and buildings are built, crops and animals are
raised, schools and hospitals are erected, and
other social and economic infrastructures are
formed.
Said resources of development provide
considerable influence in the attainment of
desirable but realistic level of growth in the
economy. However, there are countries - and
they are many - that have been gifted with
very rich natural resources. And yet until now
they have remained poor and
underdeveloped. The reasons are that they
have no sufficient money and modern
technology to explore and develop their idle
rich natural resources.
On the other hand, there are few
countries that are endowed with very
limited natural resources and that they
were deficient in capital. But they were
able to transform their poor economies
into prosperity and abundance.
The human resource is still the most
important factor in economic development.
Money, machines, and materials are useless if
these are not properly used and allocated. It is
not uncommon to see peoples in poor
countries squander their resources. Their
attitudes, values, and institutions are not
favorable to their development.
Likewise, their education and training are
not relevant to the needs of their economies.
Unfortunately, many of these defects were
grafted into their cultures by their former
colonial masters for obvious reasons. They
liked them to remain poor and submissive so
that they could perpetuate their power and
economic interests.
The key therefore to real economic
development is the suitable improvement of
the skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and
institutions of the people. This can be done
through the long process of education and
training.
INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE
The economic growth of rich countries like that
of the United States and those of Western Europe
has not been due only to physical and financial
capital but also due to human capital. In fact, the
latter has greater influence on the economic success
of the aforementioned countries. They have good
scientists, business managers, public administrators,
educators, workers, employess and farmers. they are
efficient becuase they have the right knowledge and
skills.
However, aside from these positive
qualities, the more important factor is their
attitude and values which are conducive to
economic development. For instance, there is
less corruption, favoritism, tardiness, and
other negative work attitudes.
MISEDUCATION AND
WRONG VALUES
Many times it has been said that a nation
is as good as its people. If the people are
great, then their country is also great. If the
people are lazy and corrupt, then their
country is weak and unstable. It has been
observed that the peoples in the less
developed countries do not have the right
kind of education and training.
However, aside from misplaced education,
the more serious defect is the wrong attitude
and values of young people. They prefer
white-collar jobs or prestigious college
degrees. They have a natural dislike for
courses like poultry, piggery, fishery,
agronomy or forestry.
THE RIGHT KIND OF
EDUCATION
The resources of the less developed
countries are scarce. Needless to say that
such resources should be used wisely in
pursuing the development objectives of any
developing country. Education constitutes the
biggest expenditure in the national budgets
of said countries, except for the dictatorial
ones.
Investment in people should therefore
mean spending enough money for the right
education. It is a kind education which
accelerates economic development; one that
improves the quality of life of the great
masses. Moreover, the kind of education that
vigorously stresses the development of
human, social, and cultural values are the
essential elements which make a nation great.
STRATEGIES FOR
DEVELOPING PEOPLE
Developing economies have two basic
problems: one is the shortage of technical and
skilled manpower, and the other is the surplus
labor in all sectors of the economy, especially
in agriculture.
OBJECTIVES OF MANPOWER
ANALYSIS
Countries vary in their human resource
needs and problems. There is therefore a
need among government planners and top
political leaders to evaluate carefully their
particular human resource situation. Such
process is called "manpower analysis."
Frederick Harbison, a known resource
development expert, stated the objectives of
manpower analysis:
1. To identify the main critical shortages of
skilled manpower in every major sector of
the economy, and to analyze the reasons for
such shortages;
2. To identify the surpluses, both skilled and
unskilled labor, and to analyze the reasons
for such surpluses; and
3. To set forward targets for human resource
development based on realistic expectations
of growth.
The success or accuracy of manpower
analysis is based on the wise judgement of
the planners and on the availability of
sufficient and reliable statistics. In most less
developed countries, complete and accurate
statistics are not always available. For this
reason, it has become difficult to calculate
exactly the number of people who are needed
in every job at some future time.
However, despite such shortcomings, the
purpose of manpower analysis is to provide
an objective picture of the major human
resource problems of the economy. Once the
manpower problems have been identified
and analyzed, an appropriate strategy must
be developed to solve such problems.
Such strategy should contain the following
essential components:
Building appropriate incentives
Effective training of employed labor force
Rational development of formal education
MANPOWER PROBLEMS IN
THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The lack of job opportunities in the rural
areas have forced the rural poor to move into
the cities to look for jobs. This influx of
people has increased further the number of
unemployed in the cities.
MAJOR HUMAN RESOURCE
PROBLEMS
Harbison mentioned the major human
resource problems in the developing
countries, such as:
1. Rapid growth of population;
2. Increasing unemployment in the modern
sectors of the economy, and widespread
underemployment in the traditional
agriculture;
3. Shortage of persons with critical skills and
knowledge which are necessary for effective
national development;
4. Insufficient and underdeveloped organizations and
institutions for mobilizing human effort;
5. Lack of incentives for individuals to engage in
productive activities which are vitally important for
national development; and
6. People are suffering generally from
undernourishment.
APPROACHES TO EDUCATION
The investment of resources should be
accompanied by the application of new
technical knowledge. This should be
introduced to the masses. If only a few
privileged group can acquire the highest
standard of education and training, this has
very little effect on the social and economic
conditions of the whole nation.
SOUTH ASIAN SCHOOL
SYSTEM
Unfavorable values and institutions
hamper the development of the less
developed countries in South Asia.
Evidently, education plays a vital role in
improving the attitudes and values of people.
It is sad to note that the colonial education
which has been pervasive in the region has
even ruined the values of peoples in their
desire to improve their conditions.
RELIGION AND EDUCATION
Religious institutions played a very
dominant role in education. It was not only
in Europe that the Church became the
principal source of education during the later
part of the medeival ages but also in South
Asia.
The latter is the birthplace of the three
great world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Islam. The religious missionaries were
the more influential teachers. And even now
they even reach the remotest villages to teach
the young people and to spread their religion
to the communities.
Based on Hindu tradition, education was
principally the privileged of the highest
social class - the Brahmans. However, as the
merchants and noblemen acquired wealth,
they too demanded more education for
themselves and their children.
Spain and Portugal, two Catholic
imperialists powers, were the earliest colonial
intruders in South Asia. Their main missions
were economic exploitations and conversion
of the pagans to Christianity.
What should therefore be the proper approach to
education in the developing countries? Thomas
Balogh in his article "Education Must Come Down
To Earth," proposed the following:
1. It must transform primitive agriculture.
2. It must be integrated into the community life to
avoid the emergence of an artificial and power-
hungry elite who imitate the lifestyles of their
former colonial masters.
3. It must provide technical and administrative
inputs of developing the country. Rural
education should be given first priority
because of the importance of agriculture for
the welfare of the masses.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
School dropouts in developing countries
have recorded very high proportions,
especially in the elementary level. In the
Philippines, out of 100 pupils only 60
finished Grade 6. And those who enter high
school, only 70 percent finish the secondary
education.
COLONIAL EDUCATION
During the 50 years of American rule in the
Philippines, an American brand of education for
Filipinos was established. Its fundamental objective
was to Americanize the tastes and values of the
Filipinos. In the case of the Dutch who colonized
Indonesia, their record on education was very poor.
After the end of their rule, only very few
Indonesians finished a university degree.
It was only during the later years of
English colonial rule that the English
civilization was taught to the upper class of
the Indian society. The famous Mohandas
Gandhi was one of them. He studied law in
England. But he used his education for the
good of his people and country.
SHORTCOMINGS OF
COLONIAL EDUCATION
When the former colonies obtained their
political independence, their most severe
shortcoming was the ignorance of the
population, except the Philippines and
Ceylon. Literacy rate was low, particularly
in India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
As a colonial inheritance, training of
teachers, especially in the primary level, was
neglected. The low social status of teachers
and their low salaries hampered the
recruitment of good teachers.
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULA
EVALUATED
High school education in most South
Asian countries is below standard. The rapid
expansion of secondary schooling in said
region has further deteriorated the standard
of education.
The Indian Secondary Education Committee
evaluated the secondary schooling in the region:
Existing curriculum is narrowly conceived.
It is bookish and theoretical
It is overcrowded without providing rich and
significant contents.
It makes insufficient provision for practical and
other kinds of activities for developing the whole
personality.
It does not cater to the various needs and capacities
of the students.
It is dominated too much by examinations.
It does not include technical and vocational
subjects which are necessary for training the
students to take part in the industrial and economic
development of their country.
FACTORS THAT BAR
EDUCATIONAL REFORMS
Since post-war there have been efforts to
orient teaching to practical life, to impart
useful skills, and to give more emphasis to
practical, technical, and vocational training.
But still many of the secondary schools have
not changed their curricula. They stick to the
elite-type of upper class education spawned
by former colonial administrators.
Such attitude and practice in retaining the
general, academic, and/or literary character of high
school education have been influenced by several
factors:
High school students are being prepared for college
and university and not for vocational or technical
jobs.
Teachers who can handle technical or vocational
subjects are scarce. They would rather work in the
government or private industry where salaries are
higher.
Laboratories and special teaching aids in teaching
science, and technical or vocational subjects arre
very expensive.
The weight of traditions which despise
manual work has been heavy. The educated
ones who own and manage the schools feel a
lower social status if their institutions are
merely technical or vocational schools.
COLLEGE EDUCATION
CRITICIZED
It has been noted that the educational system in
South Asia has not been responsive to the socio-
economic needs of their particular economies. The
prestigious diplomas have been preferred to the
technical and vocational courses. And yet there is a
shortage of trained personnel.
Like in high school education, owners of
colleges and universities are reluctant to
change the structures of education because of
the very high cost of technical education.
Higher education is also a kind of
investments.
Thus, it is unrealistic not to consider the
economic interest of the owners of colleges
and universities. It is more profitable for
them to increase student population in the
arts or law where the marginal cost per
student is much lower. Besides, the more
prestigious degrees are very attractive to the
young people - and their parents.
EDUCATION IN THE
PHILIPPINES
Our earliest formal education was planted by the
Spanish colonial administrators. They liked our
ancestors to be able to read and write in order to
understand better the religion which was taught to
them and to facilitate their conversion to
Christianity. Catholic schools were established.
However, only the children of the local elite were
able to study.
During the American rule which lasted for
50 years, mass education was encouraged.
Teachers arrived from the United States to
spread knowledge to the Filipinos. They
talked about democracy , government and
science.
POOR TEACHING QUALITY
Based on the findings of the Educator's
Congress held in Baguio City in 1993, teacher
education programs have only attracted the bottom
third of high school graduates who can barely
communicate in both English and Filipino. It was
different in the 1950's when the best and the
brightest students liked to be teacher.
At present, those who took teacher training
programs came from the lower brackets of high
school classes who scored only 40-60 percent in
the NCEE examinations. About 75 percent of the
teachers flunked earlier the Professional Board
Examination for teachers. Former Education
Secretary Armand Fabella said that lack of
adeqautely-trained teachers has forced those
without qualifications to teach subjects outside
their areas of competence.
LOW STANDARD OF
EDUCATION
At present, 46 percent of students who finished
Grade 6 in public elementary schools cannot read
or write in any language known in the country. At
least 33 percent of the more than 30,000 public
elementary schools in the Philippines are operating
under substandard conditions. This means school
buildings, classrooms, school sites, educational
materials, equipment, and teachers are below
standard.
Such poor state of our education is a product of
many factors. The government resources which
have been allocated to education are not enough to
produce the desirable standard of education.
Salaries of teachers are very low. These drive
away the good ones. Those who remain in the
teaching profession are exploited. For them to
survive, they are forced to engage in sidelines.
Obviously, their main concentration is how to
exist - and not how to teach.
On the part of the students, their poor
performance is related to their poverty.
Undernourished schoolchildren cannot think well.
In addition, their one-room dwellings and dirty
surroundings are not conducive to studying their
lessons. Many college students are not really
serious in their studies.
WORLD BANK
INTERFERENCE OPPOSED
The current reorientation of Philippine education
which is funded by the World Bank is to fit the
manpower requirements of the economy. A paper
presented by the PNC Research Center opposed the
transformation of education to fit the needs and
requirements of corporate employers. The paper
claimed such education results in the development
of manual dexterity taking an upper hand over the
ability to think.
EDUCATION IS PEOPLE
DEVELOPMENT
The concept of education is total development
of people. It is not only to produce skilled workers
but also to make them creative and socially-
oriented. Our country needs good citizens - people
with proper attitudes and values, people who are
capable of transforming available scarce resources
into economic abundance for the benefits of all
members of society.
HEALTH AND EDUCATION
The performance of students in schools depends
much on their health. Children who are suffering
from undernourishment or malnutrition experience
mental and physical shortcomings. Their ability to
read, write, compute, think and reason is impaired.
The main reason for their poor health is of
course poverty, an economic situation which
is closely linked with low income due to low
agricultural productivity and
underemployment.
THE POOR PATRONIZE
QUACK DOCTORS
Based on the research of Professor Myrdal, for
hundred years the progress of medical care and
health facilities, in the modern sense in South Asia
have been slow. During the colonial administration,
only the European colonials and the local elite
received Western medical care.
People relied on their traditional medicine
combined with the native herbs and spiritual care.
Up to this time, many still go to quack doctors for
treatment. This is a widespread practice among the
poor in the rural areas where there are no doctors.
More often than not, because of extreme poverty
people have no alternative except to see the quack
doctors. It is true that government doctors give free
consultations. But medicines are not free and these
are very expensive.
HUMAN VALUES IN THE
DARK
There have been spectacular leap in science and
technology. Discoveries and inventions have been
fantastic. All these phenomenal changes have taken
place in a modern industrial society. And yet human
values have not changed favorably.
In fact, they are deteriorating in many modern
societies. For instance, crimes, immorality, racial
discriminations, labor exploitations and like are
increasing in great proportions. All these problems
are reflections of our human values - decaying
human values.
Thorstein Veblen mentioned the survival of
barbaric values in modern industrial society through
the predatory activities of money-makers. He said
that beneath the modern trappings of Western
capitalism lies its characteristics which are similar to
those of barbarian societies. He also ridiculed the
lavish expenditures of the upper social class as a sign
of success.
Likewise, J. Martin Klotsche, Chancellor Emeritus
of the University of Wisconsin, said in his 1976
commencement address:
Thus while we are the most educated in the world, yet we
appear incompetent to deal with many of the major problems
that are immediately at hand. Technologically we have moved
at the terrifying speed of a supersonic plane but in our social
behavior we are still moving at the slow pace of the oxcart.
Our technological competence is superb but we have neglected
other competencies of greater importance.
RICH PEOPLE DESTROY
THEMSELVES
Evidently, the improvement of the human
character has not kept abreast with the fast advances
in science and technology for the past 2,000 years.
For instance, it is hard to believe that the richest
countries in the world have the highest rate of
suicides.
What are the reasons for such suicides? The
list includes too much money, too much
alcohol, too many possessions, too many
drugs, and not enough love and concern by
parents.
It is inherent for people to seek happiness and
success. However, many make the mistakes of
equating happiness and success with money and
material possessions. The young are given money
and cars by their rich parents instead of love. So they
become deprived and frustrated. Adults who failed to
attain material success become hopeless and
desperate. Consequently, they commit suicide. Such
people nurture the wrong values. They only love
themselves and are obsessed with tangible wealth.
EDUCATION, VALUES, AND
DEVELOPMENT
Education, values, and development are
interdependent. The right values are learned through
education. Better and faster development can be
attained through the right values. Thus, the key to
development is proper education. Through education
values like patriotism, honesty, cooperation, thrift,
industry and other positive virtues can be infused into
the character of the people.
Education is not only classroom affair. It also
includes the good examples of parents, religious and
government officials. In other words, the whole
society – and not only the schools – becomes an
instrument of education for the people, especially the
youth who are the future of the country.
People with proper values can perform many
difficult tasks – including miracles. As the song goes,
they can reach the unreachable stars and dream the
impossible dream. In reality, this is not at all an
exaggeration. The world has many success stories
depicting the struggles of poor people against
insurmountable odds. And in the end they won their
battles against poverty and injustice. Hence, they
became prosperous, including their own countries.
