Why Learning Matters for Countries

By showing that learning really matters to them, countries can realize education’s full promise. Beyond being a basic human right, education—done right— improves social outcomes in many spheres of life. For individuals and families, education boosts human capital, improves economic opportunities, promotes health, and expands the ability to make effective choices. For societies, education expands economic opportunities, promotes social mobility, and makes institutions function more effectively. In measuring these benefits, research has only recently focused on the distinction between schooling and learning. But the evidence confirms the intuition that these benefits often depend on the skills that students acquire, not just the number of years in the classroom. Economies with higher skills grow faster than those with schooling but mediocre skills; higher literacy predicts better financial knowledge and better health, beyond the effects of schooling; and poor children are more likely to rise in the income distribution when they grow up in communities with better learning outcomes.

Taking learning seriously won’t be easy. It’s hard enough to work through the technical challenges of figuring out what will promote learning at the level of the student and school in any context, let alone tackle the political and technical challenges of working at scale. Many countries struggling with the learning crisis may be tempted to continue with business as usual. After all, they may reason, development will eventually improve learning outcomes: as households escape poverty and schools take advantage of better facilities, more materials, and better-trained teachers, better learning outcomes should follow.

But waiting out the learning crisis isn’t a winning strategy. Even though national income and learning are somewhat correlated at lower levels of development, higher incomes do not invariably lead to better learning outcomes. And to the extent that development does bring better learning and skills, it is partly because development has been accompanied by a willingness to tackle the political impasses and governance challenges that hamper learning. Ultimately, then, those challenges are not avoidable. Furthermore, there’s no need to wait for learning. At every level of income, there are countries that not only score better than others on international assessments, but also— and more important—show from the quality of their education systems and their policy making that they are committed to learning.

The future of work will place a premium on learning. Rapid technological change has led to major shifts in the nature of work, leading some to declare this a new era—the Second Machine Age or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In the extreme versions of this vision, all but a few jobs could disappear, decreasing the value of skills for most people. But the seismic changes predicted have yet to permeate the high-income countries, let alone the low- and middle-income ones. More important, no matter how the demand for skills changes in the future, people will require a solid foundation of basic skills and knowledge. If anything, rapid change will increase the returns to learning how to learn, which requires foundational skills that allow individuals to size up new situations, adapt their thinking, and know where to go for information and how to make sense of it.

Countries have already made a tremendous start by getting so many children and youth into school. Now it’s time to realize education’s promise by accelerating learning. A real education—one that encourages learning—is a tool for promoting both shared prosperity and poverty elimination. That type of education will benefit many: children and families whose positive schooling experience restores their faith in government and society rather than eroding it; youth who have skills employers are seeking; teachers who can respond to their professional calling rather than to political demands; adult workers who have learned how to learn, preparing them for unforeseeable economic and social changes; and citizens who have the values and reasoning abilities to contribute to civic life and social cohesion.