Tackling South-east Asia's widening education gap

SOUTH-EAST Asia possesses immense, perhaps even unparalleled, potential for growth. That growth, however, is hampered by poor investment in technology, and ever-worsening education standards that threaten to shut out the region from global development. Until citizens, investors and public officials come together to find innovative solutions, South-east Asia will forever remain a developing region. A recalibration of the entire region's educational infrastructure is sorely overdue.

Poor spending leads to privatisation

Despite Asia's leaders continually making promises to improve their education standards, they seldom increase spending, as a result of which publicly funded institutions are slowly becoming inadequate. It is a frustrating reality in a region where public spending on education has been shown to improve development standards. South-east Asians spent about US$60 billion on private education in 2015 - far greater than neighbouring regions - showing the importance that families in the region place on education. This is fine for those who can afford prestigious institutions, but for ordinary citizens, this means spending life savings on a private education, or attending under-funded and poorly-resourced state universities.