Education and human development: reality or just miracle?

As series of Human Development Reports show, people in many countries experiencing better quality of life. Steadily progress in human development is measured by many factors, among which equal chance and access to education plays one of the important roles (UNDP, 2014). And today, many countries understand the value of education in struggling with the instability and human development, and it faces new challenges that should be solved in order to construct competitive state.
UNDP describes the human development that it is “about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live” (UNDP, About Human Development, n.d.). Experiences of some countries show that education can play an essential role in constructing welfare state.

For example, in the Human Development Index, most of the top performed countries are Western (UNDP, 2014). Western nations designated as development countries by their “high level of literacy and educational provision” (Aldcroft, 1998, p. 240). These countries have common in understanding the importance of education in the modernization. Education is used as a powerful political tool in conducting ambitious state plans, not only build new abilities, competencies in new technologies and meet world demands.
On the other hand, incredible developments show East Asian countries, where in the short length of time they become highly industrialized countries. Most of them demonstrated the human development through the reforming of educational system. In fact, education plays an essential role in the process of development of East Asian countries. Aldcroft (1998) in his article “Education and development: the experience of rich and poor nations” defined several views, particularly, that The World Bank (1993) emphasized the role of education in East Asian countries’ success, Cowley (1991) believed that development was occurred due to the well-educated labor force, and also Dornbacsh & Park (1987) assumed that Korean growth mostly benefited from the highly trained workforce.
Despite the fact that researchers all over the world argue about the role of education in human development, positive findings of their studies make a huge contribution in improving education for better quality of life. Nowadays this phenomenon mostly occurs in developing countries, as our, where most authority bodies, as a subject of corruption and blind to social needs, are able to deprive a country of a source of development. The real progress of human development depends not only on expanding choice opportunities and access to education, but also on the reliability of achievements and condition for further human development (UNDP, 2014).

These words, in turn, raise following questions in my mind: Can we borrow such experiences in our country? Or, does quality education truly use as a tool for better life in Kazakhstan? 

References:

 Aldcroft, D. H. (1998). Education and development: the experience of rich and poor nations. History of Education, 27(3), 235-254.

Cowley, A. (1991). Asia's emerging economies; burning bright. The Economist. 16 November, No. 321

Dornbusch, R., Park, Y. C., Collins, S. M., & Corbo, V. (1987). Korean growth policy. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 389-454.

UNDP. (2014). Human Development Report 2014. Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience. New York: PBM Graphics.

UNDP. (n.d.). About Human Development. Retrieved from United Nationas Development Program. Human Development Reports: http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev

World Bank (1993). Adjustment in Africa: Reforms, Results and the Road Ahead. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 349