WHAT KIND OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING AND INTELLECTUAL ASSETS?

PAUL ATKINSON

Sciences – Po, Paris

I worked for many years macro policy but also science technology in industry which is home of the knowledge economy from a work point of view and I would like to situate Turkey in the international and specially in European context, I have three key messages to deliver;

1. Focus first and foremost on basic education for all
2. Knowledge economy depends heavily on a small number of highly skilled people especially in science and technology. Mobilize capable people and insure that higher education system develops them effectively.
3. Encourage mobility of highly skilled people especially science and technology. Cross sector with economies and internationally.

Turning to basic education, good literacy and good numeracy of the population at large are the absolute foundation of the knowledge economy; routine tasks in knowledge economy require them. They are taken for granted in ordinary jobs; there are preconditions for more advance education training enhanced the scope for people to realize their potential. Good basic education is also been at the root of most if not all major economic success stories that I can think of, to situate Turkey internationally I call your attention to major study undertaken by the OECD and participating governments the program for international student assessment, this is a survey of knowledge and skills of 15 year olds. More then 250 thousand students in 41 countries took part in a test assessing their skills in mathematics, reading, science and problem solving which are the basics of the knowledge economy; here we have the snap shot of the main results. The vertical height of the bar reflects for each country the share of students with basic skills at the age level in question and also a capacity to use them at least to some degree effectively. The overall picture is that Turkey has work to do, it compares favorably with Latin America but it generally lacks most OECD countries as well as the Eastern European countries.

How to respond, I am not an educationist but I can offer some comments on resource allocation issues.

1. Targeting resource is where they are needed obviously makes sense. In Turkey the results from the Piza studies suggest that student, that resources should be allocated towards low performing schools rather then well performing students, there are different types of programs.

1. Inadequacy in teacher supply, point that has been echoed before, in the study principles in Turkey report that shortage of mathematics teachers hinders teaching in an unusually high percentage of schools.

1. Investing in early childhood education pays returns. The study found reasonable correlations between the performance of 15 year olds and those students who had benefited from formal education we call preschool at ages 3, 4 and 5 or so.

I stress basic education for all, does that mean you can neglect the high end of the education spectrum? I think the answer is no, the knowledge economy requires attention to all parts of the education pipeline and especially science and technology. Highly skilled people contribute disproportionately that the main drivers of important advances in productivity growth economy wide and while science and technology are not everything they are often at the root of innovation. The knowledge economy requires highly skilled and trained science and technology people, you can see that in advanced countries something of the order of 30% of the jobs out there involve in one way or another science and technology perhaps more importantly the growth in these jobs in most countries is above average for job growth in OECD economies so that is the future and that is where the jobs are going. In many countries there are concerns about impending shortages of skilled, scientific and engineering talent. This data don’t allow us to situate Turkey internationally but we can provide comparisons for researchers are much smaller in technical group but their core to science and technology and their indicative of development of the knowledge economy, in Turkey their growth rate was higher then average but the overall level remains quite low by international standards. That is the need for catch-up with Europe suggested by the Piza results at the level of basic education is also evident at the professional level. How to respond, for one insure high quality teaching at all levels to enhance both performance and student enjoyment, evidence suggests again I think at Echo here that mathematics and science teachers with academic degrees produce students who perform better and that certified teachers outperform those were not. Adapt university curricula to modern needs and this really means improving the interface with the rest of the economy. it means shorter programs, greater emphasis on multi disciplinarity and facilitating commercialization of research and third, make greater effort to mobilize women, this is half your resource space. There are under representative scientific fields in most countries and finally find ways to support in terms of both funding and mentoring doctorates and post-doctorates, these people do a lot of the basic work in the science area, they are mostly young adults, they need financial support and they need the benefit of supervision from experienced colleagues.

Turning now to do mobility of highly skilled, it is important to minimize ivory towers where specialized people spend long periods in quasy isolation from practical matters. Movement of skilled people makes a major contribution to the diffusion of knowledge and innovation, which is central to knowledge economy. Such movement should also be seen as important in the context of providing education and training and that is for that reason that I included in this presentation today. Education in training should continue throughout one’s life and courier, they should not be seen as limited to formal student years. Movement should be encouraged between sectors especially between universities and public research organizations on the one hand to the business sector on the other hand. This contributes to diffusion and practical application of scientific advances while it also keeps specials in touch with the practical realities of the business world. Movements also highly desirable internationally, to date the main flows internationally have been from Asia to OECD countries and especially North America but also within the EU. Many Asian countries in particular have been very successful using international mobility in this way, sending young adults abroad for university and post graduate work often for work experience and seeing them return home a skilled professionals and experienced business people. Turkey should be aiming to profit in a similar way. How to respond;

1. Insure flexible labor market that doesn’t panelize movement in particular avoid restrictions to prevent scientist and other researchers, research specialists from participating in business sector.

1. Insure an environment conducive to research, innovation and entrepreneurship and I can mention such things as financing, high quality facilities at universities, similarly research labs, and scope for commercializing new ideas. In this regard intellectual property rights and assistance for protecting them and managing them s quite important and wider economic environment should be conducive to starting new businesses and the growth of successful ones.

I am leaving great deal unsaid here; I have great deal of sympathy for president Klaus’s remarks about the importance of overall market economy and also for many Lord Howell’s comments.

1. Carrier opportunities are essential both to attract foreign talent and to retain homegrown talent if you don’t have carrier opportunities people will not stay.

Finally more technical point in the EU degrees up to the PhD levels are increasingly being harmonized, this is intended to facilitate cross border recognition of qualifications and to facilitate international mobility. Turkey should align itself with these efforts.

That I guess takes me to 2024 question, partly reflecting on that question plus some of the discussions this morning, there was a lot of talk about leap frogging which I would be quite worried about that it sounds like it takes short cuts where short cuts are not possible. I think there is a lot of scope for catching up rapidly, a lot of the Asian countries have done so, 2024 I think you can make a lot of progress whether you’ll be there at that stage or not I don’t know.

Thank you.

Question (Ömer Kaymakcan): TÜYAP teknoloji murahhas üyesiyim. Benim sorum Sayın Csepeli ve Atkinson’a olacak. O yüzden İngilizce soracağım. Are there any negative results of using ICT technologies in education especially at younger ages and at kindergarten levels, I hear from some teachers that students use calculators to calculate 2 x 2 and also we notice some social activities between students they just become friends with the machines not with their peers. Are there any negative results and if there are how can we overcome them?