ABSTRACT
Links between schools and the economy are by no means new (Easton and Klees 1992), yet in many Asian countries they have developed a new status. Attempts have been made to show how ‘new growth theory’ in economics (Romer 1994), with its focus on learning and the role of new knowledge in stimulating economic development, is linked to curriculum reforms across the Asia-Pacific region (Kennedy 2005). Yet Lin (2004, p.4) has argued that ‘new growth theory’ itself is not sufficient to explain fully how economies grow. He points specifically to the newly industrialized economies of Asia and argues that investments in education in these countries have not been greater than in other more developed countries. These views deserve further scrutiny, yet it does seem that many Asian countries have come to recognize the value of education in a new way; and not just for some students, but for all students. While this is not unique to Asia, there are two aspects of schooling that make it a distinctive move on the part of Asian governments:
1 Education has traditionally been an elitist activity in Asia and responses to the idea of mass education have been much slower than in the West.
