Education and Economic Development : Comparative Study between Latin America and East Asia

In the 1980's among the developing countries, some made a better performance of economic development and took off, but others faced the economic crisis and political instability, resulting in "Lost Decade", particularly in most countries of Latin America. In these countries, the budget amount for education and the educational expenditure per capita have fallen down, and some countries have lower enrollment on Secondary education on account of high drop-out rate and repeaters, and poor teaching quality in Primary education. On the other hand, all the High Performing Asian Countries (HPAES) have spent much on education, Particularly on Primary and Secondary education. Several indicators and figures of the comparative data show that the East Asia had an experience of "Virtuous Cycle" while Latin America did "Vicious Cycle" in terms of Macro-economic Management and Educational Performance. The main target of the study is to research for the possibility of the sustainable economic development through the educational performance, mainly focused on the public expenditure on education to identify the efficiency and effectiveness of the education. Several comparative tools were used, such as the diagnosis and evaluation of the educational activities, the comparative analysis and the identification of the reasons of the difference between the both Regions in 1980's. We can suggest the following points from the results of the comparative analysis: 1) The improvement of the teacher is vital for good education as well as reducing the drop-out. 2) Changes in labor demand strongly affect the educational system. The emphasis on demand-side consideration is important and should be improved. 3) Lessons from the Asian experience show that Latin America should put more importance on the Secondary education (including the vocational education) as well as the Primary education in order to meet the demand of the industry Japan will make the international cooperation of educational sector reform in Latin America for 21 Century by providing the assistance like the institutional building and decentralization according to the stage of the educational performance of the country, shown in the comparative analysis of my study. Japan will also do more intellectual cooperation to the Region under the globalization of the sector