People Development Policies

The process of development involves the interactions of money, materials, machines, and people. 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. The key therefore to real economic development is the suitable improvement of the skills, knowledge, attitude, values, and institutions of the people. This can be done through the long process of education and training. It is a kind of education which rationalizes attitudes and values towards economic development within the framework of local conditions and needs. It should not be an imported Western brand of education. It should not be one that develops students to adore foreign heroes, traditions and products. 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 labour in all sectors of the economy, especially in agriculture. Two basic problems have been the focus of the strategy for human resource development. Hence the objectives are to develop the right skills and to provide productive employment for the surplus labour.

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:

Investments in People
The economic growth of rich countries like that 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, employees and farmers. They are efficient because 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, favouritism, tardiness, and other negative work attitudes.

1. To identify the main critical shortages of skilled 2. 3.

manpower in every major sector of the economy, and to analyse the reasons for such shortages; To identify the surpluses, both skilled and unskilled labour, and to analyse the reasons for such surpluses; and To set forward targets for human resource development based on realistic expectations of growth. The success or accuracy of manpower analysis is based on wise judgement of the planners on the availability of sufficient and reliable statistics. The purpose of manpower analysis is to provide an objective picture of the human resource problems of the economy. Once the manpower problems have been identified and analysed, 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 labour force -Rational development of formal education

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. It has been observed that the peoples in the less developed countries do not have the right kind of education and training. This means their knowledge and skills are not applicable to the needs of their country. Therefore, these are not functional. 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. And yet there is a demand for such training or specialization. Young people always cast a social stigma on such low-class courses.

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 unflux of people has increased further the number of unemployed in the cities. Such problem is more severe and widespread in agricultural countries where most of the people are seasonal farm workers. They have something to work only during planting and harvesting seasons. Thus, most of the time they are jobless. And so they go to the cities to look for jobs.

The right kind of education

The resources of the less developed countries are scarce. Education constitutes the biggest expenditure in the national budgets. If the huge expenditure is used for the wrong education, then it is a great waste of scarce resources. Educated people who cannot find suitable jobs are not efficiently productive. They do not contribute to the national income, and they pose a threat to political stability. Investment in people should therefore mean spending enough money for the right education; a kind of 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

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. 4.

Shortage of persons with critical skills and knowledge which are necessary for effective national development; Insufficient and underdeveloped organizations and institutions for mobilizing human effort;

1. 2.

It must transform primitive agriculture. It must be integrated into the community life to avoid the emergence of na artificial and power hungry elite who imitate the lifestyle of their former colonial masters.

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Lack of incentives for individuals to engage in productive activities which are vitally important for national development and People are suffering generally from undernourishment.

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Approaches to Education
The investment of resources should be accompanied by the application of new technical knowledge. Education, therefore, should be democratic, aside from its being vocational and technical. It should be made available to the poor masses. Education has been a passport to fame and wealth. Thus, technical and vocational education has been despised by many young people, together with their parents. By and large, people are ashamed to do manual work, especially in public. To them it I a social stigma. Most of the school dropouts live in the rural areas or agricultural communities. What they learned from their elementary education is useless. For instance, theoretical knowledge of history or literature has no economic meaning to dropouts. What they really need are skills which help them make a living right after they leave permanently their school. The school program should be designed towards this direction and not blindly imitate the prestigious school curricula of the United States or Europe.

It must provide technical and administrative inputs of developing the country. Rural education should be given first priority 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. Many school curricula of the less developed countries have been patterned after the Western model. Such model prepares the students for high school education. Thus, literature, history, arithmetic, and other cultural subjects have been stressed. These curricula are relevant only in the Western countries where school dropouts are negligible. They therefore educate their children for higher education. The young were required to read and write as a matter of policy.

Colonial Education
During the 50 years of American rule in the Philippines, an American brand of education fir Filipinos was established. Its fundamental objectives was to Americanize the tastes and values of the Filipinos. 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. India, also a former colony of England, received very little education from the English colonial officials. It was Catholic and Protestant missionaries who introduced Western education to India. The famous Mohandas Gandhi was once studied law in England. But he used his education for the good of his people and country.

South Asian School System

Unfavourable 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. The problem of restructuring the South Asian school system is a big task. It involves the elimination if miseducation, and the large-scale waste of educational resources. Colonial education is not the right kind of education for the education for the region. And yet, not a few less developed countries in the region cling to it. For instance, schools in the region use Western textbooks which have a little relevance to the economic needs of the students and to national development.

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 if teachers, especially in the primary level, was neglected. The low social status of teachers and their low salaries hampered the recruitment of good teachers. This is also stifled the interest in improving the qualification of teachers. Up to this time this is still true. During the pre-colonial era, pupils were required to memorize textbooks. Teaching has become dogmatic and authoritarian. Another colonial inheritance is the negative attitude of the educated throughout South Asia towards manual labour. Prof. Myrdal noted they tend to regard their education as a badge for not soiling their hands. Mydral further mentioned that the South Asian people are not only inadequately educated but also they are being miseducated in huge scale.

Religion and Education

Religious institutions played a very dominant role in education. 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. Buddhists, they took in boys in their monasteries for religious instruction, and training in reading, writing, and other subjects. In the case of Islam, it was introduced in South Asia from the outside. Based on its bible, the Koran, it is a religious duty to educate the young. 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. Thomas Balogh in his article Education Must Come Down to Earth. Proposed the following: