Education a priority to deal with globalization: World Bank expert
Education a priority to deal with globalization: World Bank expert
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As globalization now seems inevitable, access to better education
for all should become a priority in any developing country to
help mitigate the negative impact of it on workers, World Bank
expert Martin Rama says.
"If exposure to international trade and foreign direct
investment increases the return to education, thus widening the
earnings gap between skilled and unskilled workers, effective
education policy should be a priority," Rama said in his
presentation paper distributed during a World Bank-sponsored
teleconference on globalization on Thursday.
Speaking live from Washington, he also stressed the importance
of good macroeconomic management and sound financial regulations
coupled with labor market policies to deal with the movement.
"Higher and more evenly distributed levels of schooling would
be the key to ensure that gains from globalization are
widespread," he added.
Critics have been saying that a wave of globalization would
only make Indonesia and other developing nations poorer due to
the low competitiveness of its economy and its unskilled workers.
While it can also trigger job creation, globalization can
arguably be seen as destroying jobs.
Globalization, which means the increased penetration of
imports, exports sales, competition in service and foreign direct
investment, could, in principle, have impacts on employment and
labor earnings.
To become more competitive, countries may need to dismantle
trade barriers, abolish legal monopolies, privatize state-owned
enterprises, which all could lead to a massive increases in
unemployment.
So, the labor market is one of the main channels through which
globalization can affect developing countries.
A drastic increase in unemployment would push the numbers
living in poverty higher, something that developing countries,
including Indonesia, would want to avoid.
The country's economy, crippled by the prolonged crisis, has
so far failed to provide enough working opportunities to cope
with increasing numbers of job seekers.
As of last year, the number of unemployed reached 40.2
million.
Worse still, it is expected that the number of drop-out
students would also rise by an average of about 1.7 million per
year, with 53 percent ending up as job seekers.
By 2004, a staggering 45 million unemployed would flood the
market.