皇冠体育app

Op-Ed Contributors

皇冠体育app's education revolution

By Jong-Wha Lee (皇冠体育app Daily) Updated: 2014-05-26 08:02

Moreover, higher education in 皇冠体育app leaves much to be desired, with employer surveys revealing that graduates of upper secondary schools and universities usually lack the required technical knowledge and soft skills. For example, in 2013, more than one-third of the Chinese firms surveyed said that they struggled to recruit skilled workers, with 61 percent attributing this to a shortage of general employable skills. How, then, can 皇冠体育app expect to achieve the export diversification and technological upgrading that it needs to move up the global value chain?

Clearly, 皇冠体育app needs to reform its higher-education institutions, including technical and vocational training programs. At the same time, it must expand opportunities for anyone with talent to acquire high-quality secondary and tertiary education, thereby reducing substantial disparities in the accessibility and quality of higher education across regions and social groups. And the children of migrant workers in urban areas must be granted full access to the education system. Such efforts to reduce educational disparities would help to address income inequality-a significant threat to 皇冠体育app's future economic growth.

All of this will require increased public investment in education. As it stands, 皇冠体育app's public investment in education, as a share of GDP, is below international standards across all levels, but especially in senior secondary and tertiary education.

皇冠体育app's education challenge also extends to quality. Inadequate education is a major driver of rising unemployment among 皇冠体育app's senior secondary and tertiary graduates, not to mention their declining wage premium. This can be remedied through better financing, more effective recruitment and compensation policies, and more decentralized decision-making in school administrations.

Finally, though some evidence suggests that there is an over-supply of university graduates in 皇冠体育app, ongoing demographic and sectoral shifts mean that 皇冠体育app will encounter a supply deficit of 24 million highly skilled graduates of universities or higher-level vocational schools by 2020.

To fill this gap, 皇冠体育app must upgrade its fragmented and ineffective technical-and vocational-training programs.

To ensure that its labor force can meet the demands of a rapidly changing economic and technological environment, 皇冠体育app must build a more inclusive, higher quality education system. Without it, 皇冠体育app may not be the world's number one economy for long.

The author is professor of economics and director of the Asiatic Research Institute at Korea University, and a senior adviser for international economic affairs to former president Lee Myung-bak of South Korea.

Project Syndicate

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