ABSTRACT
We have shown throughout this book that in some parts of Asia, but particularly in East Asia, schools are being reconstructed to meet the needs of knowledge economies fuelled by the demands of an increasingly competitive international economic environment. In this part of the world the link between education and the economy is not questioned. At the same time, as economic development moves many societies in one direction, there is an equally concerted attempt to retain what has been valued in the past. Geography, however, does not tell the whole story. In development terms, Singapore is a part of this East Asian transformation and countries like Malaysia and Thailand have set policy directions that seek to emulate what is happening in the East. There is also evidence in India that the demands of the knowledge economy are also influencing thinking about schools and how they need to be regeared to contribute more productively to a highly skilled workforce that can meet economic needs (Kalam 2007). Yet economic development is uneven across the region, so that in many other parts of Asia the knowledge economy is not of direct interest. Dollar (2007), for example, refers to the ‘Rest of Developing Asia’ to describe the great bulk of countries that are not on the same economic trajectories as China and India. This economic divide has significant implications for education and throughout the book we have tried to draw these out.
