Educação e desenvolvimento econômico

Resumo

In the past education was a consumer good that only the rich could obtain, but today it can be considered by government planners as an investment for future economic development. This conclusion was reached from both the multinational analysis made by McCCLELLAND as well as the analysis made within Brazil.

Those nations which educate their population at the rate of 20 persons at the secondary level and 2 persons at the university level per 1,000 inhabitants can expect to receive a return on the order of approximately 12 per cent on their investment each year.

The mistake should not be made by thinking that the direction of causationis only from education to income particularly with regard to university education. Eventhoughthe correlation between education and the income that resulted from this education was slightly greater than the relationship between income and the education that followed later, the coeficients were very close suggesting a strong intercausal relationship.

The quality of education available was not determined although an attempt was made to evaluate this variable by compariny types of courses offered with income. It was concluded that the level of education was much more closely related to income than the particular type of program.

The rate of the population enrolled in secondary and university education in Brazil was close to the rate suggested for rapid economic development, but the students are not distributed proportionally among the various states. Taking into consideration the close relationship between education and income,the low-income states may well improve their income by increasing the number of students educated. However, it will be necessary that a large portion of these students remain in the state after their education if the state is to receive the benefits from these expenditures.