In the article Agency Warns About Decline in Access to Education, the author Patrick Blum analyses the ongoing trend of decline in education in the most developed countries and the existing diversity of educational programs that lead further to unequal access to education. The author refers to annual publication Education at a Glance that investigates the education and its issues. The author's key points are that the countries have different approach to education and due to that students graduate with vague skills whereas on the other side, in some countries, high-school graduates have good milestones for many skills and this causes unbalance latter in a professional career. Furthermore, as the governments cannot see the immediate financial benefits from investing in education, they decrease investments in education due to the recent financial crisis leading to unequal access to education. The most important issue is that education is still inaccessible to lower socio-economical structures and these groups are the ones who suffer the most.
Ángel Gurría states, "In relative terms, the children of low-educated families became increasingly excluded from the potential benefits that the expansion in education provided to most of the population" (Blum 2). The magical cycle that links education to poverty and low social status still exist. It seems that the governments do not distribute the money equally and children whose families are of lower education level are likely to receive poor quality of education. This is a glom image of a society where middle-class and upper-middle class have a chance to advance in their education and working class is left on the margins of the society.
When the governments need to take money from some department, they take it from the education. "One of those was the United States, which cut by 3 percent. Others were Russia, which cut by 5 percent; Estonia, by 10 percent; Hungary, by 12 percent; and Iceland and Italy, both by 11 percent" (Blum 4). The interesting thing is that these countries are the ones that still feel the effects of transition and global crisis. Decreased investment in education has a long term consequence on every country and the investment in education and the usage of skilled professionals can help every county to rise from crisis and increase its productivity.
Work cited:
Blum, Patrick. Agency Warns About Decline in Access to Education. International Education. 28. September 2014. Print.
