Access to Knowledge

Development is about more than wealth. The U.N. believes that development is about people becoming healthier and wiser, not just wealthier.

The U.N. considers years of schooling to be the most critical measure of the ability of an individual to gain access to knowledge needed for development. The assumption is that no matter how poor the school, the longer the pupils attend, the more likely they are to learn skills that will help them earn a living.

HDI Education Measures

To form the access to knowledge component of HDI, the U.N. combines two measures of years of schooling:

Years of schooling for today’s adults. This measures the number of years that the average person aged 25 or older in a country has spent in school. Adults have spent an average of 12.2 years in school in developed countries, compared to only 7.3 years in developing countries.

Expected years of schooling for today’s youth. This measures the number of years that the U.N. forecasts an average 5-year-old will spend in school. The U.N. expects that 5-year-olds in developed countries will spend an average of 16.4 years in school; in other words, roughly half of today’s 5- year-olds will graduate from college in developed countries. On the other hand, the expected average is only 10.1 years in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mean Years of Schooling, 2018

The highest number of years of schooling is in North America, and the lowest numbers are in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Expected Years of Schooling

The highest number of expected years of schooling is in North America and Europe, and the lowest numbers are in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Other Education Indicators

Other indicators can measure regional variations in access to knowledge:

The pupil/teacher ratio is the number of enrolled students divided by the number of teachers. The fewer pupils a teacher has, the more likely that each student will receive effective instruction.

The literacy rate is the percentage of a country’s people who can read and write.

Pupil/Teacher Ratio, 2016

The lowest pupil/teacher ratios are in Europe, and the highest are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Literacy Rate, 2016

Literacy is nearly 100 percent in developed countries. The lowest rates are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Improved education is a major goal of many developing countries, but funds are scarce. Education may receive a higher percentage of GNI in developing countries, but those countries’ GNI is far lower to begin with, so they spend far less per pupil than do developed countries. Many developing countries are unable to fund free public schools, forcing parents to pay high fees for their children’s education.

Adding to the challenge of teaching and learning in developing countries, most books, newspapers, and magazines are published in developed countries, in part because more of their citizens can read and write and can afford to buy them. Developed countries dominate scientific and nonfiction publishing worldwide. (This textbook is an example.) Students in developing countries must learn technical information from books that usually are not in their native language.

Pause & Reflect 10.1.3

The United States has a lower pupil/teacher ratio than Mexico. Does that mean that the pupil/teacher ratio in the United States is more favorable or less favorable than in Mexico?