Gary Becker’s concept of human capital Becker made people the central focus of economics. The second in our series on big economic ideas…Why do families in rich countries have fewer children? Why do companies in poor countries often provide meals for their workers? Why has each new generation spent more time in school than the one that came before? Why have earnings of highly skilled workers risen even as their numbers have also increased? Why should universities charge tuition fees?…

Effort, not ability, may explain the gap between American and Chinese pupils When greenbacks are on offer, American schoolchildren seem to try harder. Whether a teenager grasps calculus is not obviously an issue of geopolitical importance. Yet since the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2000, the poor performance of…

In Vietnam, the Best Education Can Lead to Worse Job Prospects  Nguyen Van Duc graduated two years ago with a bachelor’s degree in economics from one of Vietnam’s best universities. Today, he earns about $250 a month as a motorbike taxi driver in Hanoi. Duc, whose parents took second jobs so he could be the only one of three children to attend college, is among thousands of Vietnamese college graduates who can’t land jobs in their chosen field, even though the nation’s unemployment rate is just 2.3 percent. “In university, we only received heavy theoretical training and a lot of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology with communist party history,” the 25-year-old said. While Vietnam’s schools equip students with basic skills for low-wage assembly-line work, its colleges and universities are failing to prepare youth for more complex work. As wages rise and basic manufacturing leaves for less expensive countries, that may threaten the government’s ambition to attain middle-income status, defined by the World Bank as per capita income of more than $4,000, or almost twice the current rate…

Experts Analyzing Pilot Reforms of China’s Gaokao  Since its inception in the early 1950s, China’s Gaokao has served as the essential litmus test for high school students hoping to matriculate to higher education. In recent years, Chinese education officials have been working to develop and pilot the most significant reforms of the assessment system since its inception.  The reforms, first piloted in Shanghai and Zhejiang Provinces, aimed at giving students more latitude in choosing subjects to study in high school and broadening their educational experiences by offering a wider range of subject tests on the Gaokao.  However, a recent analysis of the reforms found that many schools, fearing low scores if they were not equipped to appropriately prepare students in the broader range of subject areas, only offered the traditional core classes. Schools who did broaden their curricular offerings had to expand staffing by as much as 30 percent.  The reality of college and university selection criteria, long based on how high a student scores on the traditional core subjects, also served as a limiting factor for students looking to broaden their subject selections…

Reading habits of Shanghai primary school students On average they read 8.42 books a year, according to a report released by PsyLife, an educational assessment consulting institution…

‘China’s biggest problem’ – huge numbers dropping out of school  The scale of youngsters in rural areas failing to complete a high school education may hamper efforts to create a more skilled workforce and modernise economy, experts say…

Mongolia Education Sector Fact Sheet

Generate future graduates (Hasilkan graduan masa depan)  The Higher Education Ministry will present the Education 4.0 framework to the Cabinet, by the middle of September… Also present, World Bank Education Specialist, Francisco Marmolejo…

Higher Education Ministry to address new challenges faced by tertiary studies  The Higher Education Ministry will present ways to address new challenges faced by institutions of higher learning to the Cabinet by next month…At the same press conference, World Bank lead education specialist Francisco Marmolejo said it was encouraging to see Malaysia being one step ahead, adding that the framework’s narrative was not only needed for the future but today…

Education framework for institutions created for fourth industrial revolution  World Bank Global Solutions Group on Tertiary Education lead Francisco Marmolejo said the blueprint “is good” because it was created after analysing the future needs of the job market…

Gender asymmetries: Impacts of an early‐stage school intervention in the Philippines