Reflection on ES1102 journey

When I was informed that I had to take this compulsory module, instead of feeling dreadful, I was rather glad that I am given another opportunity to learn and improve English under the guidance of a professor. Indeed, after the whole course, I reflected and realised that I have really learnt and benefitted a lot from this module.

From young, I have low confidence towards my ability to write and converse in English language. Being afraid of making a ridicule of myself in front of others, I hardly talk to people who speaks English and will never post on any social media websites. This module enabled me to step out of my comfort zone by posting comments on the Facebook page as well as creating a blog to post my own article. Initially, I found it uncomfortable and was very conscious of my English Language. However, as time past, I realised that I could post and comment things more comfortably and I felt more confident about my English language. I feel that having confidence is the first step to improvement. This is because with confidence, it will then encourage me to write more and improve from my mistakes.

I feel that the whole idea of posting my essay on the blog as well as commenting on my peers’ essay is really beneficial to me. Not only did I have the opportunity to receive feedback from my teacher and peers, I also can read and comment on my peers’ essay and learn from it. Through identifying their mistakes, I became more critical towards the language of my own essay.

After writing the drafts and receiving feedback from my teacher and peers, I feel more at ease to construct sentences. In the past, constructing a smooth sentence is the most difficult part in my writing. I could not phrase my ideas in proper sentences and connect my ideas, making my essay seemed disjointed and unpersuasive. As I edit my essay drafts after drafts, I realised that I can write in a way such that my ideas flow more smoothly as compared to the past. This can be attributed to the class discussing on my peer’s essay where I learnt the various ways to construct sentences. By learning the errors and correcting them, it can make a difference in my own writing.

Although I have improved a lot in terms of constructing sentences, I feel that this is not enough and more improvements are required. I realised that the sentences I constructed lacks complexity and the vocabulary that I have knowledge on are very limited. Without the guidance of Brad as well as the comments from my friends, what I can do after this module is to read up more articles especially the newspaper to learn the language and vocabulary they used. I believe that the most effective way to learn English language or any type of languages is through practicing, reading is not sufficient as we need to apply what we have learnt in order to ensure that I my learning is fruitful. What I will do is that I will continue use a blog as a platform for me to post my articles and essay.

I am very grateful to have Brad as my mentor and the feedback he gave me really helps me to improve a lot not only in terms of language but also ideas. In conclusion, I feel that learning to step out of my comfort zone is one of the fastest way to learn and to learn English well, I know that I need to speak up and practice writing more in the future.

Final Draft on Research Essay

An evaluation of the effectiveness of using education as a solution to reduce income inequality within Singapore

In Goldin’s (2009) lecture, he mentions several problems that are rising due to globalisation, one of which is that “globalisation is not inclusive” and many people are left out of its benefits, resulting in income inequality. Income inequality is the difference in wealth between households. A large income gap within households indicates that there is a large difference in income between the rich and poor families. This is undesirable as it would cause an unstable society. Statistics have shown that people in developed countries have more capability and knowledge to reap more benefits from globalisation than those in less developed countries. This is supported by Ogunsola (2005), who acknowledged that “the more developed countries reap the lion share of the benefits while the less developed bypass the benefits” of globalisation. However, income inequality can also exist within countries. This can be seen in the case of Singapore. Although Singapore is ranked as one of the top countries for the highest GDP per capita, it has a significantly high Gini coefficient of 0.463 as of 2013, indicating that large income inequality exists within Singapore.

To address the problem on large income inequality, the education of citizens is adopted by Singapore government as one of the strategies. Education is also a globally recognised tool that can benefit and allow people to escape the poverty trap. For example UNESCO (2014) which recognises education as a solution to alleviate poverty adopted a mission called “Education for All” to promote education.

I feel that equipping the younger generations with higher level of education is an effective tool that can help to reduce income inequality between households in Singapore in the long run. The importance of education to reduce income inequality can be seen easily by comparing the difference in the income level between different people with different education levels. Davie (2012) mentioned that starting salaries of diploma holders in Singapore are estimated to be around $2000 while those of degree holders are $3000. It can be said that people without these qualifications will not be able to reach salaries of those stated. Qualification represents knowledge and capability in this society and individuals who are highly educated will more likely be highly sought for by the knowledge based economy as compared to the people who have lower level of education. This shows that as long as the poor are educated and have the required knowledge, they will be able to have the opportunity to leave the poverty trap and reduce the income inequality within Singapore.

In addition, Ji (2012) did an analysis on the education policies of countries including Japan and Korea which place a strong emphasis on equity in terms of opportunities for education. She mentioned that education policies focusing on ensuring availability of equal education for all might be a particularly useful way for countries to increase earning mobility between generations and reduce income inequality over time. Singapore, similar to Japan and Korea, also focuses on equity in education in terms of providing opportunities for all the individuals in Singapore. For example, all Singaporean are required to have compulsory primary education. To ensure that no families are denied of this opportunity, education for Singaporean students is subsidised for the needy families and every student is given a sum of money in their Edusave account annually. In addition, many different educational paths are available for the children after their primary school education to encourage the less academically inclined students to further their studies. For example, besides the conventional schools, Singapore also set up sports schools and School Of The Arts (SOTA) to encourage the students who do not do well to continue with their studies to develop their potential and pursuit their area of interest. The Singapore’s education policy is directed in such a way that the newer generations have equal opportunities in attaining at least primary school education. In addition, individuals also are encouraged to study beyond primary school. These will create a future workforce that has a higher level of education. It is believed that having highly educated workforce, the income inequality in Singapore will be reduced gradually.

The limitation of using education as a tool is that it requires a long time for the effects to be observed. Furthermore, it is impossible to eliminate income inequality in reality. I believe that income inequality can be reduced when the education level of the entire workforce increase as a whole. However this is a long process that requires decades to achieve this. This can be supported by the statistics from the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore (2013) which revealed through a span of 10 years from 2003 to 2013, the percentage of workforce that attained tertiary education increased by about 15%. This suggest that it still requires a long time for Singapore to obtain an even higher percentage of tertiary educated worker.

Currently, a phenomenon observed in Singapore’s society is that as the Singapore’s workforce gets more opportunity for education, the income gap increases. Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower of Singapore (2013) revealed that 49.9% of the workforce possessed tertiary education in 2013 as compared to 34.6% in 2003. However, within this same period, the Singapore Department of Statistics (2013) indicated that the Gini coefficient increased from 0.457 to 0.463. As the new generation of young individuals with higher qualification enters the work force and obtain a relatively higher salary than the lesser educated, it can be expected that the income inequality is going to further increase. This effect is further worsen when lower educated foreigner who demands lesser pay enter our workforce and push down the lower income bracket.

To alleviate such limitation, the government can adopt strategies like promoting further education for the less educated individuals who are already in the workforce. By doing this, each individual may become more specialised in doing their work, which can allow them to demand for higher salary. Educating this group of less educated workforce may also makes them more irreplaceable as compared to the foreigners who do not have that particular skill. By doing this, we will be able to increase or at least maintain the salary of this group of workforce who tend to have relatively lower income due to their lower education.

Sir Francis Bacon once said “Knowledge is power”. Education and knowledge are now one of the crucial keys to success and wealth in the Singapore society. I believe that education will be an effective tool to reduce income inequality in the long run when majority of the people have attained higher qualifications or knowledge in their specialisation. However, due to the different professions that exist and the different professions will be rewarded differently in terms of salary within the society, income inequality never be eliminated. But I feel that income inequality is not a major problem as long as most of the people have enough salary to earn a living.  

References

Davie, S. (2013, May 18). Is a degree really all-important?. The Straits Times. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/case-you-missed-it/story/degree-really-all-important-20130518

Department of Statistic Singapore. (2013). Key Household Income Trends, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s20.pdf.

Goldin, I. (2009, July). Navigating our global future [Video file].  Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

Ji, E. C. (2012, April 25). How can education help tackle rising income inequality?. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.sg/2012/04/how-can-education-help-tackle-rising.html?m=1.

Ministry of Manpower Singapore. (2012). Singapore Workforce, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Publications/mrsd_singapore_workforce_2012.pdf

Ministry of Manpower Singapore. (2013). Labour Force in Singapore, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_PdfLibrary/mrsd_2013LabourForce.pdf#page=21

Ogunsola, L. A. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies and the Effects of Globalization: Twenty-First Century "Digital Slavery" for Developing Countries--Myth or Reality?.  Retrieved from March 25, 2014, from Obafemi Awolowo University, http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v06n01/ogunsola_l01.htm

UNESCO. (2014). Education for the 21^st Century. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century.

Reflection on class presentation

Since young, I always feel that it is a great challenge for me to present my ideas formally in front of a group of people due to my lack of confidence in my English language ability. However, I am aware that presenting skills is very important in today’s society, this is an especially important aspect for my intended future career, teaching.

This class presentation not only gives me an opportunity to present my essay and receive feedback from my teacher and peers, it also gives me the opportunity to observe how my peers present and learn from their presentation. Through my friend’s presentation, it also led me to reflect on my own presentation. I realised that in a presentation, depending on who is the audience, I need to explain some terminologies well. For example, in my presentation, I introduces “Gini-coefficient” without explaining the meaning of it. Also, I also learnt that I need to engage my audience more by having more eye contact with the audience.

I feel that it is good to introduce this class presentation aspect to the future batch of students taking this module. Although most of us dreaded giving presentations, it is undeniable that this opportunity valuable as we can learn how to present formally and receive feedbacks on our presenting skills. This skills is definitely useful to prepare ourselves for presentations in other modules which we will be graded in both the content and delivery.

If this class presentation is to be made compulsory for the future batch of students, I would suggest that it can be placed earlier in the semester where the students are still less tied down by other modules and they will have more time to prepare. In addition, since it is supposed to be a learning process for the students, it will be better if it remains ungraded so that students can treat it as a learning process rather than preparing it just for the grades.

I am very motivated by the TED talk, instead of hiding from what we fear, we should grab hold of all the opportunities and face our fear. Fake that we can do it until we really can do it without fear. This really motivates me to speak up more so that I can be a better speaker in the future.

The evaluation of the effectiveness of using education as a solution to reduce income inequality within Singapore

In Goldin’s (2009) lecture, he mentions several problems that will arise due to globalisation, one of which is that “globalisation is not inclusive” and many people are left out of the benefits of globalisation, resulting in income inequality. Income inequality is the difference in wealth between households. A large income gap indicates that there will be a large group of people who are living in poverty. This is undesirable as it would cause an unstable society. Statistics have shown that people in developed countries have more capability and knowledge to reap more benefits from globalisation than those in less developed countries. This is supported by Ogunsola (2005) who acknowledged that “the more developed countries reap the lion share of the benefits while the less developed bypass the benefits” of globalisation. However, income inequality can also exist within countries. This can be seen in the case of Singapore. Although Singapore is ranked one as one of the top countries for the highest GDP per capita, it has a significantly high gini coefficient of 0.463 as of 2013, indicating that large income inequality exists within Singapore.

To address the problem on large income inequality, the education of citizens is adopted by Singapore government as one of the strategies to reduce this problem. Education is also a globally recognised tool that can benefit and allow people to escape the poverty trap. For example UNESCO (2014) which recognises education as a solution to alleviate poverty came up with a mission called “Education for All” to promote education.

I feel that education is an effective tool that can help to reduce income inequality between households in Singapore in the long run. The importance of education to reduce income inequality can be seen easily by comparing the difference in the income level between different people with different education levels. Davie (2012) mentioned in her article in the Straits Times that starting salaries of diploma holders are estimated to be around $2000 while those of degree holders $3000. It can be said that people without these qualifications will not be able to reach salaries of those stated then. Qualification represents knowledge and capability in this society and individuals who are highly educated will be highly sought for by the knowledge based economy. This shows that as long as the poor are educated and have the required knowledge, they will be able to have the opportunity to leave the poverty trap and reduce the income inequality within Singapore.

In addition, Ji (2012) did an analysis on the education policies of countries including Japan and Korea which place a strong emphasis on equity in terms of opportunities for education. She mentioned that education policies focusing on ensuring availability of equal education for all might be a particularly useful way for countries to increase earning mobility between generations and reduce income inequality over time. Singapore, similar to Japan and Korea, also focuses on equity in education in terms of providing opportunities for all the individuals in Singapore. For example, all Singaporean are required to have compulsory primary education. To ensure that no families are denied of this opportunity, education for Singaporean students is subsidised for the needy families and every student is given a sum of money in their Edusave account annually. In addition, many different educational paths are available for the children after their primary school education to encourage the less academically inclined students to further their studies. For example, there are Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams to encourage the students that did not do well to continue with their studies after primary school. The Singapore’s education policy is directed in such a way that the newer generations have equal opportunities to obtain at least primary school education and the individuals are encouraged to study beyond the compulsory primary school education, this will create a future workforce that has a higher level of education. It is believed that having highly educated workforce, the income inequality in Singapore will be reduced gradually.

The limitation of using education as a tool is that it requires a long time for the effects to be observed. Income inequality can be reduced when the education level of the entire workforce increase as a whole. However this is a very long process. This can be supported by the statistics from the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore (2013) which revealed through a span of 10 years from 2003 to 2013, the percentage of workforce that attained tertiary education only increase by about 15%, suggesting that it requires a long time for Singapore to obtain a higher percentage of tertiary educated worker.

Currently, a phenomenon observed in the Singapore’s society is that as the Singapore’s workforce gets more opportunity for education, the income gap increases. Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower of Singapore (2013) revealed that 49.9% of the workforce obtained tertiary education in 2013 as compared to 34.6% in 2003. However, within this same period, the Singapore Department of Statistics (2013) indicated that the gini coefficient increases from 0.457 to 0.463. As the new generation of young individuals with higher qualification enters the work force and obtain relatively higher salary than the lesser educated, it can be expected that the income inequality is going to further increase. However, it is believed that income inequality is likely to be reduced if all the individuals in Singapore become more educated as a whole. However, this can only be achieved after many generations, which required a long time.

Another limitation lies within the education system in Singapore. Due to the limited vacancies for tertiary education, competition will always be present in Singapore’s education system, undoubtedly, individuals will continue being ranked according to their academic ability. This poses a difficulty for Singapore to obtain a workforce with majority of the individuals obtaining equal level of education and as a result difficult to achieve low level of income inequality. However, this may not be the case if the Ministry of Education in Singapore can provide more paths and opportunities for the less academically inclined group of people who may have talent in other aspects. By allowing them to pursue their area of interest, they will be able to unleash their potential and may do as well as their peers who are better at studies. With this idea in place, everyone can be given the opportunity to be successful, thus reducing the income inequality within Singapore.

Sir Francis Bacon once said “Knowledge is power”. Education and knowledge are now one of the crucial keys to success and wealth in the Singapore society. I believe that education will be an effective tool to reduce income inequality in the long run when majority of the people have attained higher qualifications.

References

Davie, S. (2013, May 18). Is a degree really all-important?. The Straits Time. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/case-you-missed-it/story/degree-really-all-important-20130518

Department of Statistic Singapore. (2013). Key Household Income Trends, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s20.pdf.

Goldin, I. (2009, July). Navigating our global future [Video file].  Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

Ji, E. C. (2012, April 25). How can education help tackle rising income inequality?. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.sg/2012/04/how-can-education-help-tackle-rising.html?m=1.

Ministry of Manpower Singapore. (2012). Singapore Workforce, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Publications/mrsd_singapore_workforce_2012.pdf

Ministry of Manpower Singapore. (2013). Labour Force in Singapore, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_PdfLibrary/mrsd_2013LabourForce.pdf#page=21

Ogunsola, L. A. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies and the Effects of Globalization: Twenty-First Century "Digital Slavery" for Developing Countries--Myth or Reality?.  Retrieved from March 25, 2014, from Obafemi Awolowo University, http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v06n01/ogunsola_l01.htm

UNESCO. (2014). Education for the 21^st Century. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century.

Reader Response (edited version)

In "Globalisation of Culture through the Media", Kraidy (2002) discusses the controversies on the effects of mass media on globalisation of culture. One group of international communication theorist believe that cultural imperialism, a phenomenon whereby Westerners propagate their culture through media, has had massive effects on global culture. However, another perspective is that global culture can be affected by all parties with power to control the media. This perspective is called "hybridisation", whereby cultures and traditions from various countries interact and reconstruct. Kraidy also questions if the media is the cause for the rising homogeneity of culture or if it only acts as a catalyst to boost such globalisation. He is supportive of the idea that the existing culture hybridity is intensified by mass media.

I agree that parties with power will be able to control what media releases to the audience. In Paddy Ashdown’s talk on “The global power shift”, he mentions massive effects on the world by “globalisation of power”. This effect can be easily seen via an analysis of the K-pop market, using Girls Generation as an example. They are supported by a strong Korean record company (SM Entertainment) that operates internationally and is able to control the media easily. This allows the artists and their work to gain fame globally. With this, I agree with Kraidy’s view that the concept of cultural imperialism is no longer applicable to the world because the world’s culture is not only shaped Westerners but by Asians as well.

I also agree with Kraidy that transnational media intensify the culturale hybrids that already exist. It is undoubted that the concept of idolisation existed way before transnational media was established. However, only when transnational media started rising, did it bring about the sudden rise of the popular culture. In “Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture”, Ho (2012) mentions that it is the spread of Korea’s entertainment media to Japan that caused a surge in the Korean Wave, even to the extent that Japanese middle age house wives, who have the social perceived role of being “supporting wife” and “devoted mother”, leave their homes and spend a lot of money just to follow their Korean idol. It is because the Internet media propagates this popular culture so fast across the globe that it actually intensifies the effects of popular culture to people of other countries other than the place of its origin.

However, I do not agree with Kraidy’s view that there is no homogeneity in the culture. The reason being I feel that Kraidy has overgeneralised culture. According to ICACP report (2012), culture includes all the changes which man adds to nature, implying the existence of different categories of culture. Perhaps it might be impossible for countries to have a uniform culture, but I believe it is possible for many people in some countries to share certain cultural component. Just like how idolisation is not an effect that is seen only in Japan but a worldwide phenomenon, supporting my belief that homogeneity does exist if we look at specific type of culture.

References

ICSCP. 2012. Many Voices, One World: Towards a New More Just and More Efficient World of Information and Communication Order. London, New York and Paris: UNESCO.

Kraidy, M. (2002). Globalisation of Culture through the Media. University of Pennsylvania.

Patrick W. & Jason G. (2012). Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture. University of Tokyo, Japan. Retrieved from: masterofants.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/idols-book.pdf

How effective is education as a solution to reduce income inequality within Singapore?

Goldin mentions several problems that will arise due to globalisation. One of which is that “globalisation is not inclusive” and many people are left out from the benefits of globalisation, resulting in income inequality. Income inequality is the difference in wealth within households. It is undesirable for a society as it causes poverty. Statistics have shown that developed countries have more capability and knowledge to reap more benefits from globalisation than the less developed countries. This is supported by Ogunsola (2005) who acknowledges that “the more developed countries taking the lion share of the benefits while the less developed bypass the benefits”. However, income inequality can also exist within countries. This can be seen in the case of Singapore. Although Singapore is ranked one of the top for the highest GDP per capita and has a very high GDP of USD274.7 billion in 2012, it has a very low gini coefficient of 0.463 in 2013, indicating that large income inequality exists within Singapore.

Education is one of the strategies that Singapore government has adopted to tackle income inequality. Education is also a globally recognised tool that can benefit people and allow people to leave the poverty trap. For example UNESCO which promotes “Education for All” also recognise education as a solution to alleviate poverty.

I feel that education is an effective tool that can help to reduce income inequality within Singapore in the long run. The importance of education on income can be seen easily by comparing the difference in the income level between different people with different education level. Statistics reveal that starting salaries of diploma holders are about $2000 while degree holders around $3000. Qualification represents knowledge and capability in this society. In the knowledge based economy today, it demands more for knowledgeable workers with higher qualifications and these workers are well paid too. Hence education have the ability to enable the poor to be out of the poverty trap and reduce the income inequality.

In addition, Ji (2012) did an analysis on the education of countries including Japan, Korea which places a strong focus on equity in opportunities. She mentions that education policies focusing on equity in education might be a particularly useful way for countries to increase earning mobility between generations and reduce income inequality over time. Singapore which is similar to Japan and Korea also focus on equity in education. For example, all Singaporean children are required to have compulsory primary education. To ensure that no families are denied of this opportunity, education for Singaporean students are subsidised for the needy families and every student is given a sum of money in their Edusave account annually. Having similar strategies as these countries, it is believed that the income inequality will be reduced gradually as the population progresses to a higher level of education as a whole.

The limitation of employing education as a tool is that it requires a long time for the effect to be observed. In Singapore society today, people with lower education levels hold a significant percentage as compared to those with higher education levels. As the new generation of young individuals with higher qualification enters the work force, we will observe further increase in the income inequality. This phenomenon is currently observed in the workforce today where the Gini coefficient dropped from 0.478 in 2012 to 0.463 in 2013. Income inequality is only likely to be reduced if individuals in Singapore become more educated, however, this can only be achieved after many generations.

Another limitation lies within the education system in Singapore. As competition will always be present in Singapore’s education system, undoubtedly, individuals will continue being ranked. Individuals who do well are often provided with a lot of opportunities and the less academically inclined however, are often left with limited choices. This group of people are stereotyped by the society as a weaker group of people and will proceed to take up manual jobs when they graduate. However, this may not be the case if they are given more opportunities to pursuit areas which they are interested in. The government, specifically Ministry of Education in Singapore, can cater more paths and opportunities for this group of people to allow them to pursuit their area of interest so as to unleash their potential, rather than limit their potential. With this, everyone can be given the opportunity to be successful and so, reducing the income inequality within Singapore.

Sir Francis Bacon once said “Knowledge is power”. Education and knowledge is now one of the crucial key to success and wealth in the Singapore society. I believe that education will be an effective tool to reduce income inequality in the long run when majority of the people has attained higher qualifications.

Referencing

Almas Heshmati. (2003). The Relationship Between Income Inequality and Globalisation.

Government of Singapore. Department of Statistic Singapore. (2013). Key Household Income Trends, 2013. Retreived from http://www.singstat.gov.sg/publications/publications_and_papers/household_income_and_expenditure/pp-s20.pdf.

Goldin, I. (2009, July). Navigating our global future [Video file].  Retrieved from 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

Ji EunChung. (2012, April 25). Re: How can education help tackle rising income inequality?. Retrieved from http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.sg/2012/04/how-can-education-help-tackle-rising.html?m=1.

Sandra Davie. (2013). Is a degree really all-important?. The Straits Time. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/case-you-missed-it/story/degree-really-all-important-20130518

L. A. Ogunsola. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies and the Effects of Globalization: Twenty-First Century "Digital Slavery" for Developing Countries--Myth or Reality?  Retrieved from http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v06n01/ogunsola_l01.htm

UNESCO. (2014). Education for the 21^st Century. Retrieved from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century.

UUPaul R. Masson. (2001). Globalisation Facts and Figures. Retrieved from IMF Research Paper Data Base.

The essay process (first draft)

How effective is education as a solution to alleviate the income inequality between countries?

Globalisation is the process of whereby different parts of the world gets integrated. International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognises the four aspects of globalisation which includes trade and transaction, capital and investment movements, migrations and movement of people and spread of knowledge. In Goldin’s talk he mentions that “globalisation is not inclusive” and many people are left out from the benefits of globalisation. This is especially so for the countries that are less developed. In his talk he acknowledges that the area on technological development, medicine, genetic modification is flourishing. Indeed these are brought about and speed up by globalisation where ideas can be exchanged within geographical boundaries easily. However, this market is often monopolised by the rich companies in the developed countries that have more resources invested in the research of these area and have the ability to constrict a barrier to entry to these markets. The weaker countries have no knowledge and money for these developments which leads to them being trapped in the poverty cycle and can only do lowly skilled and paid jobs, resulting in the effect where the rich will richer and the poor get poorer. Education is globally recognised as a way to eradicate the income disparity between countries and even within a country. United Nation Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) also acknowledge that education is a tool to eradicate poverty. I feel that education is a effective tool in the long term basis.

Singapore is a good example to show that education is an effective tool for the growth and development of a country. Singapore the government identified that education and literacy is a key for success, in 2003, a compulsory education is introduced to prepare the children for the knowledge based economy. Singapore has progress thus far from a small fishing village to one of the globally recognised developed nation in the world. This shows the effectiveness of education to a nation. In addition there is also a general trend that people with a higher level of education can get a higher salary than the people low level of education. The average starting salary of a diploma holder in Singapore is about $2000 and a degree holder is $3000. This shows the importance of education to get a higher pay which provides the poor with opportunity to leave poverty.

In contrast, India being a less developed country have many citizens are still trapped within the poverty cycle although it is starting developing rapidly recently. These citizens are mostly uneducated. True enough, under the influence of globalisation, the Indians seemed to benefit as more of them got a job. However, due to the lack of education and knowledge they are often exploited to do manual and lowly paid jobs for the richer countries. For example, Singapore employed a lot of Indians as construction workers where they faces high risks and are lowly paid. Also, with the scholarship system, developed countries uses attractive scholarships to bonds the talents from the less developed countries to their countries, leaving behind the weaker in the less developed countries. These illustrates the importance of education. With education, the less developed people be more knowledge which will give them more options and opportunities to choose their job and not being exploited.

However, there are also limitation to education. Education is a long term process. Singapore took about 50 years to progress to what we have today. For education to be an effective tool, good educational policies and strategies are required. According to the United Nation Report, 125 million school children are still unable to read a sentence after 4 years of education. This indicated that having education is not sufficient, the policy and the teaching strategies are crucial determinant for the effectiveness of education.

Sir Francis Bacon once said “Knowledge is power”. True enough, education and knowledge is one of the crucial key to success and wealth in the society now. Hence I believe that education is an effective tool to eradicate poverty.

Referencing

UNESCO. (2014). Education for the 21^st Century. Retrieved from http://en.unesco.org/themes/education-21st-century