Inadequate education contributes
to poverty
By MALUM NALU in Madang
INADEQUATE education is a major contributing factor to poverty, Madang Governor Sir Arnold Amet said.
Sir Arnold said this when giving a stirring speech at the Divine Word University graduation in Madang yesterday.
He said that for Papua New Guineans to meaningfully participate in the development process and improve the quality of their lives, they needed to be educated.
Without education, they would remain marginalised and remain consequently alienated from the entire development process.
“In the world today, inadequate education is a major contributing factor to poverty,” Sir Arnold said.
“With more than 120 million children in developing countries without access to schools and nearly 1 billion adults remaining illiterate, education is one of the most-powerful tools available to developing countries for breaking the cycle of poverty.
“Education is also an essential foundation for other development initiatives and plays an important role in promoting equity, overcoming gender bias, enhancing human potential, increasing labour mobility, promoting the health of parents and children and increasing participation in civil society,” he said.
Sir Arnold said the development of a sound education system was also crucial for economic growth as it contributed to worker productivity, improved natural resource management and better adaptation to innovations and new technologies.
“Whilst this has always been the case, the trend to a more competitive knowledge-led and technology-intensive global environment makes the imperative for training and skills development even greater,” he said.
“Education, which includes at minimum literacy and skills training, are the most important investments in human capital.
“New technological advances are of little value to countries that have very few skilled workers who know how to use them.
“Economic growth closely depends on the synergies between new knowledge and human capital, which is why large increases in education and training have accompanied major advances in technological knowledge in all countries that have achieved significant economic growth.
“The outstanding economic records of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and other Asian economies over the decades dramatically illustrate the importance of human capital to growth.”
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