Erin Moon
Economy
10:00
Global Education
Education comes in all forms, whether it be from the Chinese who use wooden pellets as calculators or to the Americans who have developed the worlds first nuclear bomb. Just like music and dance, education is “universal language,” understood by all and affecting all. Because of the current global education situation, it is really hard to decipher what country can call themselves the “smartest” and best education people. There are three main problems when it comes to education, enrollment, funding, and a lack of teachers.
One of the main powers of the world, Asia has been developing right along the United States. Although it is clear that the U.S still holds the most developed education system, Asia is in the run, improving their education system. “Asia Society has two primary education objectives: one focuses on teaching and learning about Asia; and the other on expanding our nation's investments in international studies at the elementary and secondary school levels.” It’s interesting to see what other countries focus on, such as Asia who devotes part of their education system to knowing where they come from and their history. Unlike the American education system where the basics are taught such as math, science, and history, Asia has a unique difference they are trying to not only educate their people but they are also working on bridging the international knowledge gap. In Asia enrollment is at around 62%, meaning that almost a third of its population and kids are not attending school. Although Asia has been trying to improve their education system by changing their curriculum, it won’t make a huge difference if kids do not attend school. Because enrollment is such a problem not only in Asia but in most poorer countries, education around the world is at a stand still. In 1998, the enrollment percentage of Asia rose to around 73%, even though that’s not an outstanding improvement, the percentage of kids not attending school is still to high. One distinct difference among education around the world is richer countries have a higher enrollment rate than those who do not have as much funding. Because the richer the country, the more money there is available to their education program, which makes it clear that those who are more developed countries will continue to their reign when it comes to their literacy rate and education level.
Another problem that is seemingly to occur more and more is the shortage of teachers. Without teachers, schooling is useless, especially without education and competent teachers. In the world today, people are more practical and realistic that morally driven. The salary of an average schooling teacher is around $31,000, a pretty small amount to support oneself and even a family. Because teacher salaries are so low paid, the incentive to becoming a teacher is low, people want to get the higher paying jobs so they abandon the education field and jump into a job that will pay more money. The society everybody lives in is driven by money, not only are Americans being forced to get higher end paying jobs but places such as France and England where education is not a main priority are being driven away from the teaching industry.