This study examines whether education acts as a "cane" or "backbone" for national development in developing countries. The researchers analyze trends in educational achievement, exports, and remittances in Bangladesh, India, Britain, and the US from 1998-2018. While educational achievement increased substantially in Bangladesh and India, their exports remained dependent on labor-intensive goods and remittances. In contrast, Britain and the US maintained dominance in technology-intensive exports despite stagnant education gains. This suggests education functions as a "cane" or tool, not a backbone, for developing countries to achieve independent development, as their education systems have not prepared them for the fourth industrial revolution.

1. Can education as an International Commodity be
the backbone or cane of a nation in the era of
fourth industrial revolution? - A Comparative
study
Published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 159.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120184
Gazi Mahabubul Alam
East West University
Md. Abdur Rahman Forhad
East West University
Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET)
Ismi Arif Ismail
University Purta Malaysia
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2. Motivation
Human Capital Theory
education is a tool or cane for national development
(Becker, 1964; Becker & Woessmann, 2009; Blaug, 1974)
Proverb
education is the backbone of a country ⇒ national development
Cane versus backbone
Research Question
Does education act as cane or backbone for national development?
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3. Organization of the Presentation
Motivation
Literature Review and Conceptional Framework
Research Problems
Data and Methodology
Findings and Discussions
Conclusions
Limitations and scopes for future researches
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4. Conceptional Framework and Literature Review
1. Can education be defined as a commodity?
2. Paradigm transformation of education in development context
3. Role of education in paradigm transformation of Industrial
Revolution
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5. Can education be an international commodity?
Education versus Schooling
Education is a development of human resource, of growing
knowledge and skills, of making them more capable of thriving in
their communities.
Education ⇒ knowledge
Schooling is means of delivering this knowledge
Commodity implies a good or service that can be bought and sold or
exchanged for products of similar value.
Commodification usually implies the standardized of an item measured in
terms of a scale
Can we really measure knowledge using a standard scale? ⇒ NO.
Knowledge is exchangeable, but is not always for sale
Whose knowledge is suitable for whom?
would be a concern
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6. Paradigm transformation in education
1. Education as a context
Socrates on knowledge and virtue.
‘The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.’
Plato on social justice.
each individual develops his or her ability to the fullest
knowledge of one’s own job, self-knowledge, and knowledge of the
idea of the Good.
Ibn Sina on the context of humanity, society, knowledge and ethics.
truth, goodness, nature, meaning of knowledge and human nature
2. Education as a regional or domestic context
the objective is to produce educated citizens
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7. Paradigm transformation in education
3. Education as a family context
During 1100s, 45,000 surnames exist
innovate or produce knowledge that mainly come from family-based
profession
Smith (Metal worker), Cooper (repairer), Waller (craftsman working
with stone or brick), Kemp (champion wrestler), Taylor (tailor),
Harold (leader), Duke (leader), Fisher (fisherman), Bacon (pork
butcher).
family-based profession converted to university
machine-related families ⇒ machine grants Univ ⇒ Engg. Univ.
families with agriculture ⇒ Land grants Univ ⇒ Agricultural Univ.
families with leadership ⇒ man as man Univ ⇒ Conventional Univ.
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8. Paradigm transformation in education
Successful education combines knowledge and practice
Knowledge
to acquire knowledge -
individuals make an effort
Practice
knowledge-seeking individuals are
attached with family-based experts
Examples: University of Bologna (Italy), University of Oxford (UK),
Al-Azhar University (Egypt), University of Hohenheim (Germany),
Taxes A&M University (USA), and MIT (USA)
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9. Paradigm Transformation-Development
Global Development
1. Agricultural Development
2. Colonization
3. Industrial Revolution
Industrial Development
1. First Industrial Revolution
harnessing steam power to mechanize production
2. Second Industrial Revolution
electricity use for mass production
3. Third Industrial Revolution
Electronics and IT for automation in production process
4. Fourth Industrial Revolution
fusion of technology or technology driving change: AI, Block-chain,
Virtual Reality, Biotechnlogy harnesss cellular, Robotics. 3D Printing,
IoT
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10. Paradigm Transformation-Development
1. Aggriculturization
Dickens (2019) and Marginson (2019)- Only two factors: Natural
Resource and Human Resources (labor)
regions with an abundance of natural resources can produce more
with their labor ⇒ are become more richer
Example: more than 37% of total global production were from
Subcontinent (Lawson, 2014)
2. Colonization
Sage
natural
resource
control using
weapon
richer
Example: Subcontinent was attracted by Portuguese, Dutch, and
East India Company
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11. Paradigm Transformation-Industrial Development
3. Industrialization
Using electronic and technology to automate the production (Cordon and
Neary, 1982)
countries
succeeded with
this automation
richer
countries equipped with industrialization ⇒ become more richer
Fourth Industrial Revolution
technology driving revolution
characterized by the fusion of the digital, biological, and physical
technology
Countries equipped with FIR technology can control over another country.
They even control virtually
extract resources ⇒ become richer
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12. Paradigm Transformation - Industrial Development
This technology driving revolution not only allows its leading countries to
earn foreign currencies, but also allows them to control the global
development on aggriculturization, colonization, and industrialization
Some argue that developed countries have made the Fourth Industrial
Revolution successful by themselves
Some other argue that universities in developed countries play a leading
role to make the Fourth Industrial Revolution successful
To our knowledge, none of the previous studies argue how differently education
impacts on the development process in developed and developing countries.
Research Question
we examine whether education supports the development process in
developing countries to stand on their own (backbone) or to make
them to follow the other countries (dependent).
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13. Research Design and Methodology
We mainly rely on the following three scenarios:
1. What are the trends in the expansion of education?
2. What are trends of foreign income and their relationship with education?
3. Why do education and foreign income behave differently in developed and
developing countries?
Following UNESCO, we consider that the enrollment rate as quantitative
indicator and graduation rate as qualitative indicator for education
Following Bogviz et al., (2020) and Qiang et al., (2019), we mainly
consider exports earnings from high technology and exports earnings
labor-intensive productions
Representative Countries
Bangladesh and India
The Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States
Qualitative Approach
Delphi Method
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14. Data
Data Sources:
World Development Indicators
University Grant Commissions: Bangladesh and India
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Institute of International Education (IIE), UK
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), UK
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), USA
Our World Data, University of Oxford, UK
Bangladesh Bank
Asian Development Bank
Duration:
1998 to 2018
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15. Results Analysis - Educational Achievement in secondary
level
Figure 1: Secondary enrollment and completion rate in Bangladesh and India.
Educational achievement is increasing in developing countries
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16. Results Analysis - Educational Achievement in secondary
level
Figure 2: Secondary enrollment and completion rate in Great Britain and USA.
Educational achievement is almost stagnant or achieved at a desired level
Increasing rate in developing countries is higher than than developed
countries
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17. Results Analysis - Educational Achievement in Tertiary
level
Figure 3: Secondary enrollment and completion rate in Bangladesh and India.
• Educational achievement is increasing in developing countries
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18. Results Analysis - Educational Achievement in Tertiary
level
Figure 4: Tertiary enrollment and completion rate in Great Britain and USA.
• Representative developing countries almost catch USA
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19. Results Analysis - Educational Achievement in Tertiary
level
Figure 5: Tertiary enrollment and completion rate in Great Britain and USA.
Representative developing countries almost catch USA
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20. Results Analysis - Trends of foreign income from exports
earning
Developing countries have similar contribution from labor-intensive export sector despite
their improved educational achievements
Developed countries have similar contribution from technology-intensive export sector
despite their stagnant educational achievements
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21. Results Analysis - Trends of foreign income from
remittance: a case in Bangladesh
Developing countries like Bangladesh and India are highly dependent on remittance
Studies also argue that less educated people have a higher contribution to remittance than
their higher educated counterparts
the similar trends is also observed in India.
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22. Summary Findings
Educational achievement in developing countries are increasing
In some case, they are close to reach the developed countries
Does this achievement imply that the education in developing countries help to
increase higher foreign income?
NO
Despite of increasingly educational development, developing countries
are still dependent on their labor-intensive production on inputs
indicating that they are not ready for the fourth industrial revolution
Now question is: Why this could happen?
Curricula in developing countries are mostly borrowed from the case
studies designed from developed countries ⇒ Follower
universities are not aligned with theory and practice in own context
A borrowed backbone may NOT allow to stand by own
Suggesting that education acts as a tool for national development, not the
backbone!!!
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23. Take home message
We open the debate whether education in developing countries act as a
cane or a backbone for national development.
• It may act as a tool, NOT the backbone for national development
• As a follower, education in developing countries is not ready yet to
respond the fourth industrial revolution
What would be a potential solution?
Education policy should be designed on the own contexts
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24. Limitations and Avenues for future study
We attempt to reveal some observations on education achievement and foreign
income ⇒ Debate ⇒ Avenues for further research
relying only three scenarios ⇒ could be many
Data supplemented from multiple sources ⇒ requirement for consistency
Two representative countries ⇒ requirement for analysis with many
multiple groups of country: rich, middle-, upper-, lower-middle countries.
Enrollment and graduation rate ⇒ curious for other indicators
Foreign income: exports and remittance ⇒ requirement for
cluster based analysis: Arts, Business, and Science
Decomposing native versus foreign contribution in exports
region-wise analysis
might have other indicators except for the foreign income
multiple indicators
Quantitative Approach ⇒ Causal Analysis (in progress)
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25. Alam, Forhad, and Ismail Can education be a cane or backbone for national development? 25 / 26

26. Thank you!
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