Education in Developing Countries

Education in developing countries is a critical factor for economic growth and social mobility, essential for individuals and nations to compete in the global marketplace. It encompasses not only basic literacy but also vocational training, higher education, and professional development, tailored to the diverse needs of the population. While the gap in educational attainment is narrowing, significant barriers remain, particularly for adults living in poverty, who often face psychological challenges and social stigma that hinder their participation in formal education programs.

The role of education extends beyond mere job preparation; it aims to foster successful citizenship and community engagement. Educational initiatives must also address the socio-economic conditions that perpetuate poverty, requiring flexible and inclusive approaches that consider the unique contexts of developing nations. Furthermore, effective adult education programs should not only focus on job-related skills but also improve self-esteem and social capabilities among participants. Ultimately, education serves as a foundational element for sustainable development and is vital for equipping individuals with the skills necessary to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.

Published in: 2021

By: Wienclaw, Ruth A.

Subject Terms

Education in Developing Countries

Education is seen by virtually every social observer as essential to the success of developing countries in the global marketplace. Education helps the individuals within developing nations become better able to obtain jobs that will help them become upwardly mobile and helps the nations themselves obtain the human capital needed to be competitive in the postindustrial age. The education needed for developing countries comprises much more than basic literacy skills and general education, however. Also needed are vocational programs, job-related skills training, higher education, and professional education, as well as the skills that will make them successful citizens of their community, nation, and world. Education programs also need to be developed with the needs of all major stakeholders in mind so that developing nations can acquire the talent they need in a timely manner.

Keywords Class; Economic Development; Education; Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Gross National Product (GNP); Human Capital; Social Mobility; Social Stratification; Society; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Systems Theory

Education in Developing Countries

Overview

Citizens of the United States and other developed countries often take education for granted. Not only have most adults attended school for years, but a basic level of education is often mandated for most citizens. It is typically through education that individuals acquire the knowledge and skills that enable them to obtain jobs that will give them social status and income, or to break out of their class and move up in the social stratification of society. In the postindustrial, Information Age of the 21st century with its emphasis on science, mathematics, technology and the fast exchange of information, education is increasingly important. In addition, in today's global marketplace, competition is no longer local or even national. Increasingly, businesses need to be able to compete globally in order to survive and thrive. To be competitive in this environment, many businesses find themselves in need of employees with the knowledge and skills that support this goal.

Formal Education & Development

In many ways, the control of technology differentiates a highly developed country from one that is underdeveloped. However, another characteristic of underdeveloped or developing nations is their lower emphasis on education. It is through education that nations can typically obtain the human capital necessary to work with technology and process information that not only provides the infrastructure necessary to bring them up to the standards of more developed nations, but also that enables them to compete with these nations as well. As this infrastructure for global competitiveness becomes more complicated, it requires an increasing amount of knowledge in order sustain and improve it. Expertise in these tech areas frequently requires specialized education. Those countries with individuals who have the education and knowledge necessary to work with technology grow, develop, and are successful. Those that do not tend to continue to struggle and have little chance of succeeding globally.

Unfortunately, this situation is all too common. While education levels continue to rise around the world, in 2011 774 million adults over the age of fifteen could not read or write; women accounted for 493 million of this number. Most of these people reside in underdeveloped countries where most education is informal, occurring primarily in the family setting, religious institutions, or from community elders. Although this approach may provide one with the life skills necessary to be successful in such a society, if the society as a whole hopes to develop and become competitive in the global marketplace, more formal education is needed. Without such a level of education, however, such societies will find it difficult to adjust to rapidly changing world conditions or to be competitive in the global economy.

Expanding Global Education

However, there is some evidence that the worldwide education gap is narrowing in developing nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as countries produce more college graduates. Education remains the key to growth and success in developing countries. Even though global wealth continues to increase, poverty is still a reality in many places. For the most part, educational emphases to help people move out of poverty have focused on literacy and basic education. However, research has shown that developing countries need other educational initiatives as well, including agricultural extension, vocational education, community development, and citizenship training. Although functional literacy is essential for helping developing countries to succeed, it is only preparation for the other types of education needed for success. Particularly in urban areas, technical (e.g., electronics, metal work) and commercial (e.g., bookkeeping, administrative skills) vocational education is needed. Although some vocational programs exist in many developing nations, they are often inflexible, lengthy, and costly. To maximize its effectiveness in helping developing nations, vocational education programs need to be flexible, give individuals the job skills they need for the marketplace and provide businesses with the human capital that they need for success. In addition, these programs need to be targeted to meet the needs of those groups that will benefit the most from them, including individual workers, employers, and other stakeholders.

Applications

Education & Poverty

There is an old proverb that advises: "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." In this spirit, it is almost universally assumed that education is essential to reducing poverty in developing countries. Although education is important to help children living in poverty to have a better future, education is also important for adults living in poverty to have a better present. Further, reducing poverty is more than a matter of offering those living in poverty more and better opportunities. They need to be taught how to take advantage of those opportunities and be given the social and work skills necessary to be successful in carrying them out. However, the reality of adult education for those living in poverty is more complicated than one might assume at first. Teaching those in poverty is more than a simple matter of giving them job skills. Education at this level must also address concerns of self esteem, social relationships, and psychological obstacles. Historically, however, adult education programs to help those in poverty have had poor results in helping them better their living conditions.

Economic development is often seen as the way to eradicate poverty. However, rather than trying to treat the problem by bringing development in the sense of improving the welfare of the poor, most theorists were merely seeking to treat the symptom by advocating economic growth through an increase in the gross national product or gross domestic product under the assumption that national wealth would eventually trickle down to positively all people within the society. It was soon found that the abjectly poor needed to be kept in the equation and their development needs directly addressed.

Educational Obstacles

Poverty is a pervasive, socioeconomic condition that has affected and continues to affect societies around the world. One of the ways that many societies try to attenuate this problem in the 21st century is to encourage adults who are living below the poverty line to participate in programs designed for poverty reduction. However, whereas mainstream adults often voluntarily participate in educational programs and courses for life-long learning, adults who live in poverty often have psychological or learning problems that prohibit such easy participation in learning programs. For example, there is some support in the literature for the theory that deprivation, the stigma attached to being poor and rejection negatively impact one's identity and sense of self to the point where individuals in poverty accept their position and class as acceptable.

In developing societies, there are two general ways in which poverty is understood: The inability to meet basic needs and the inability to participate in the everyday life of the society. For example, research data from Botswana show that most adults living in poverty are uneducated, live in rural areas, are in their middle to late adulthood, and are female heads-of-house with dependents. When combined with gender-biased inheritance issues, such factors make it difficult for even those adults wishing to escape from poverty to do so. Research has found that the most important factors mediating between poverty and the formation of an adult's identity are physical deprivation and the psychological stigma attached to being poor.

A Case Study: Poverty & Education in Botswana

Brown (2005) performed a qualitative study of poverty in Botswana to investigate the relationship between poverty and self-identity in adults, and the implications for effective adult education among the poor in developing nations. Subjects for the study were eight adults between the ages of 29 and 40 who had lived in poverty all their lives. Although attempts were made to recruit a larger sample from the chosen village, no one else would participate in the study. The subjects participated in a semi-structured interview whose questions explored the physical and psychological consequences of poverty. The interviews were conducted in Setswana (the local language), and took an average of 60 to 70 minutes.

A number of issues arose out of the interviews. First, the participants acknowledged that they were poor and that others identify them using the label "poverty." (However, not all the participants accepted this label.) Second, all the participants believed that despite being poor, their lives had meaning and had an important purpose. Third, for many of the participants, poverty meant that they did not believe in themselves, hardly left the village, and often just stayed inside their homes. Fourth, the subjects felt rejected by others and believed that other people saw them as "nobodies" because of being poor. Fifth, many of the subjects talked about experiencing discomfort, being emotionally hurt form the stigma of poverty, being deprived, and feeling helpless and inadequate.

Poverty as an Identity

The incorporation of poverty as one's identity appears to occur gradually in a three-phase process.

• The first phase - exploration - is characterized by self reflection, questioning, wondering, and denial about one's poverty. This is primarily an inward phase of self searching.

• After the exploration phase, a post-exploration turning point is reached. Individuals come to terms with the fact that they are poor and what poverty means to them. At this point, important decisions are often made, including attempts to move out of poverty. However, after repeated failures, hopelessness and acceptance of one's condition typically sets in. This is both a crucial and volatile stage in the process. Because of the previous unsuccessful attempts to escape poverty, individuals often exhibit a great deal of despair and other negative emotions. In the acceptance phase, individuals come to terms with the fact that they are poor within themselves, but feared public disclosure of this condition. This stage may also be characterized by remorse over the situation, defensiveness, and hopelessness. At this stage in the process, individuals are less likely to be willing to share their stories publicly.

• After this stage, there is another turning point as the individual learns to cope with the consequences of and realities of poverty. After this turning point, an individual may reach the stage of integration in which trust relationships may be consolidated and one may openly affirm one's poverty identity in public. Social bonds developed during this time can lead to feelings of hope. At this stage in the process, individuals are more likely to be willing to share their stories publicly.

Educating the Impoverished

The process above has many implications for the education of adults living in poverty.

• First, most adult education programs are based on the premise that adults seek assistance from others in dealing with the changes that they encounter in their lives. However, because of the stigma associated with poverty and the internalization and hopelessness frequently associated with poverty, poor adults are frequently unwilling to interact with others on a level where they can be helped. For example, as mentioned above, only eight members of the village used in this study were willing to participate in interviews. One of the issues that need to be dealt with before an educational program to help those in poverty will be effective is the bolstering of an individuals' self-esteem.

• Second, poverty tends to have a negative impact on learning. One's learning style reflects one's self image, various attitudes, emotions, habits, and preferences. However, the denial, frustration, and hopelessness that typify most individuals who are living in poverty is not conducive to learning. Before people in this situation can learn, they first need to learn that they are capable of learning and that learning helps them.

Adult education for those in poverty is not simply a matter of presenting subject matter material. It is a more complex issue that involves psychosocial factors including self-esteem, depression, and other emotions. If these are not adequately dealt with, the educational program itself is likely to have indifferent effectiveness. On the other hand, the process of incorporating poverty into one's self identify seems to have a significant component of self-reflection for many people. This may be leveraged with caution to maximize participation in educational programs.

A Systems Approach

As the work by Brown indicates, adult education to reduce poverty needs to take into account more than teaching job skills or subject matter. Bhola (2005) takes the thought that poverty is a complex issue a step further and advocates taking a systems approach to education. This is a cornerstone of organizational behavior theory in which the organization is viewed as comprising multiple subsystems that interact with and affect each other. By applying systems theory to education for adults in poverty, Bhola advocates taking into account the complex and multidimensional nature of poverty, including subject matter education needs, psychological and social needs, and political realities.

Bhola also maintains that to be successful in reducing poverty, adult education needs to focus on much more than the individual level. Efforts need to be focused on the family level by stressing education and literacy for all family members; creating a culture of learning, and educating families in practical matters ranging from family planning to husbanding of resources that will allow them to successfully apply the academic and job-related education that they receive.

It has also been suggested that job-related education for adults living in poverty be part of larger development projects that are mediated by community organizations. By approaching adult education for the poor in this way, the nature of poverty as a complex system is taken into account and the approbation of the community is gained not only for the project but for the individual participating in it, thereby helping to offset some of the psychosocial problems associated with adult education in this area.

Conclusion

Although there are many differences between developing and developed nations, there is virtually no disagreement about the need for education to help developing nations become competitive in the global marketplace. Although the education gap between developed and developing nations is closing, there is still a long way to go. The educational needs of developing nations include much more than basic literacy, however. Education is needed for all levels of society to encourage social mobility of the individual and of the nation. This includes vocational education, job-related skills training, higher education, and professional education. In addition, people in developing nations need to learn skills that will make them successful citizens of their community, nation, and world.

One area where adult education is sorely needed in developing nations is among the poor. However, although adult education for the poor is essential for reducing poverty, this is a complex matter involving much more than merely reducing illiteracy or even teaching job-related skills. Poverty affects the self-esteem and self-image of those living within it. Education efforts among the poor, therefore, must focus on more than academics, but also help them gain the social and psychological skills necessary to be successful in the opportunities for which education will open doors.

Terms & Concepts

Class: A group of people or stratum within society that shares a similar level of wealth and income and that have access to the same resources, power, and perceived social worth. Social class is the stratum of the group within the society. (See also: social stratification)

Economic Development: The sustainable increase in living standards for a nation, region, or society. More than mere economic growth (i.e., a rise in output), economic development is sustainable and positively impacts the well-being of all members of the group members through such things as increased per capita income, education, health, and environmental protection. Economic development is progressive in nature and positively impacts the socioeconomic structure of a society.

Education: From a sociological perspective, education is a formal learning process in which some individuals take on the social role of teacher and others take on the social role of student.

Globalization: Globalization is the spreading of businesses or technologies across the world. This creates an interconnected, global marketplace operating outside constraints of time zone or national boundary. Although globalization means an expanded marketplace, products are typically adapted to fit the specific needs of each locality or culture to which they are marketed.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The overall value of goods and services produced by a country during a specified time period; includes consumer investments, government spending, imports and exports.

Gross National Product (GNP): The gross domestic product of a country plus the income earned by domestic residents from international investments, minus the income earned in domestic markets by foreigners abroad.

Human Capital: The individual resources of workers such as knowledge, skills, abilities; training and education; and work experience. Human capital can be used to explain the differences in wages among different individuals.

Qualitative Research: Scientific research in which observations cannot be or are not quantified (i.e., expressed in numerical form).

Social Mobility: The movement of an individual between classes in a society over a period of time.

Social Stratification: A relatively fixed hierarchical organization of a society in which entire subgroups are ranked according to social class. These divisions are marked by differences in economic rewards and power within the society and different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth. Social stratification is a system of structured social inequality.

Society: A distinct group of people who live within the same territory, share a common culture and way of life, and are relatively independent from people outside the group. Society includes systems of social interactions that govern both culture and social organization.

Socioeconomic Status (SES): The position of an individual or group on the two vectors of social and economic status and their combination. Factors contributing to socioeconomic status include (but are not limited to) income, type and prestige of occupation, place of residence, and educational attainment.

Stakeholder: A person or group that can affect or be affected by a decision or action. In marketing, stakeholders may include the organization's employees, suppliers, distributors, and stockholders.

Subject: A participant in a research study or experiment whose responses are observed, recorded, and analyzed.

Systems Theory: A cornerstone of organizational behavior theory that assumes that the organization comprises multiple subsystems and that the functioning of each affects both the functioning of the others and the organization as a whole.

Bibliography

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Education in Developing Countries

On this Page

Subject Terms

Education in Developing Countries

Education in Developing Countries

Overview

Formal Education & Development

Expanding Global Education

Applications

Education & Poverty

Educational Obstacles

A Case Study: Poverty & Education in Botswana

Poverty as an Identity

Educating the Impoverished

A Systems Approach

Conclusion

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

Suggested Reading