Questions and Explorations on the Attributes of Education as an Economic Sector

Overview & Synopsis

The concept of education as a social activity for training people is clear. In the past few years, connections between education and the economy have become increasingly close along with the development of the market economy. This is indeed a good thing, but it has also given rise to some misunderstanding. Some say education possesses the attributes of an industry ("chanye"), and others simply merge education with the economy, or even propose that education should be commodified. When discussing education, some fail to grasp the essential characteristics of education but qualify and dress up some educational attributes as something akin to "industry," argue that education possesses industrial attributes, and even propose the commodification of education. If the concepts of "industry" and "education" are examined from the different angles of economics, statistics, and pedagogics, respectively, and we conduct comprehensive analyses instead of mixing up various concepts, clear understanding of these concepts might be achieved. In order to have a clear understanding on the attributes of education as an economic sector, this article explores these questions: (1) How should one understand the attributes of education as an economic sector? (2) How does education promote economic growth? and (3) How great is the contribution of education consumption to economic growth? (Contains 6 notes.)