ABSTRACT
Education is widely considered to be the most important form of human capital, with human health as the second most important form (Schultz, 1999). Formal education or general intellectual achievement is obtained primarily in elementary and secondary schools and in colleges and universities. Although the creation of useful skills for work has frequently focused only on formal schooling, there is growing recognition that useful skill creation starts early, before an individual’s formal schooling, and continues after formal schooling ends: lifelong learning, especially in developed countries (Heckman, 1999). Early childhood activities and experiences that are shaped by a child’s family and community are very important to the formation of early ability, motivation and social adaptability. Ability and learning seem to be dynamic complemen tary processes over time for children (ibid.). Post-schooling forms of learning occur in learning-by-doing (for example, apprenticeships, on-the-job training) and informal settings. Although some of this learning is difficult to measure, it has the potential to grow in importance over the next two decades with the rapid advances in communication and information technologies, the dramatic fall in the real cost of services from these technologies and the prospects for rapid global adoption (World Bank, 1999).
