SUMMARY:
Summarise the impact of education on poverty and the challenges education faces
in equipping people for the new workplace.
The
impact that education has on poverty can be described as the “education
premium” which is the earnings boost associated with more education. Improved
education lowered family poverty by almost 4 percentage points. Education also
rewards it’s students with increased premiums and more incentives.
The
challenge education faces in equipping people for the new workplace is that
there is a need to combine general education with multidimensional job
training, readiness, and a quality job search. Education also has to combine
general education with training specific to both the individual and his or her
local labour market work. Another challenge education faces would be the recent
changes in the labour market of which meritocracy, where we can reliably count
on people being fairly rewarded for their improved skills, is not celebrated.
Additionally, education solely improves the quality of workers, not the quality
or the quantity of jobs. The workplace of the future is still very much
structured to produce lots of low-wage jobs which are the most abuundant
opportunities offered to the new graduates.
READER’S
RESPONSE: Do you agree with the author whether if education is only part of the
answer to poverty? Write your response with reference to the arguments in the
article, within 200 to 250 words.
I agree with the author that education is only part of the answer to poverty, because education itself is insufficient without other contributing factors in place. Firstly, education needs to be coupled with job trainings and searches in order to alleviate poverty. According to the article, strawn reports that when education is combined with multidimensional job training and a quality job search, the returns more than double. This shows that when specific job training is provided alongside education, individuals become better at working in their local labour markets and people are now aided with job searches to relieve their unemployment. Secondly, the extent to which education is useful would also depend on the situation of the economy. Quoted from the article, "they also need an economic context wherein they can realize the economic returns from their improved human capital". Education merely moves people closer to the poverty line, but if we want to push people significantly above it, we would need additional institutions that would reward people for their skills and hence, incentivize them to work towards economic returns for themselves. Lastly, reforms, regulations and institutions need to be enforced in order to supplement the insufficient but necessary anti poverty tool of education. According to studies, in the late 1990s, poverty fell to historic lows because of the introduction of welfare reforms and a significant expansion of work supports, like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the minimum-wage increase. This shows that education itself is not enough, but we also need regulations and concrete mechanisms to push people above the poverty line. Hence, I agree with the author's stand.
I agree with the author that education is only part of the answer to poverty, because education itself is insufficient without other contributing factors in place. Firstly, education needs to be coupled with job trainings and searches in order to alleviate poverty. According to the article, strawn reports that when education is combined with multidimensional job training and a quality job search, the returns more than double. This shows that when specific job training is provided alongside education, individuals become better at working in their local labour markets and people are now aided with job searches to relieve their unemployment. Secondly, the extent to which education is useful would also depend on the situation of the economy. Quoted from the article, "they also need an economic context wherein they can realize the economic returns from their improved human capital". Education merely moves people closer to the poverty line, but if we want to push people significantly above it, we would need additional institutions that would reward people for their skills and hence, incentivize them to work towards economic returns for themselves. Lastly, reforms, regulations and institutions need to be enforced in order to supplement the insufficient but necessary anti poverty tool of education. According to studies, in the late 1990s, poverty fell to historic lows because of the introduction of welfare reforms and a significant expansion of work supports, like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the minimum-wage increase. This shows that education itself is not enough, but we also need regulations and concrete mechanisms to push people above the poverty line. Hence, I agree with the author's stand.
Summary is well thought out and elaborated, provides a comprehensive overview of education's impact on poverty and highlights the changes to the workforce as well
ReplyDeleteReader response provides good insight and a strong argument to push forward the necessity for regulations and mechanisms to aid people in overcoming the poverty barrier
Done by Chua Zheng Qian 18 and Wang Ri Zhao 23