Can education alone solve development problems?

Resumen detallado

Renovated classrooms and technical training mean little if graduates enter an economy that lacks the capital, institutions and markets to put their skills to work.

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Renovated classrooms and technical training mean little if graduates enter an economy that lacks the capital, institutions and markets to put their skills to work.

n Oct. 27, the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry reported that school revitalization and construction programs had reached 55,451 educational institutions during 2025–2026. This is a substantial infrastructure achievement, particularly where inadequate facilities obstruct learning.

However, the figure alone cannot establish how much children's learning or development has improved. That distinction raises a broader question about Indonesia's recurring tendency to treat education as a panacea for national challenges. When weak innovation prompts calls for entrepreneurship education and low productivity prompts calls for technical training, are these interventions addressing the underlying constraints, or merely delivering outputs that governments can readily count?

Education is indispensable. Hanushek and Woessmann linked cognitive skills to economic growth, while the World Bank distinguished mere attendance from actual learning. Yet learning and the eventual application of what is learned remain separate outcomes.

My concern with this distinction stems from 24 years in industry, teaching more than 16 semester-long cohorts of entrepreneurship students and doctoral research on entrepreneurial formation in Indonesia. These experiences have led me to examine the conditions that determine whether acquired capabilities can actually be exercised. While they do not represent every Indonesian family, school, or enterprise, they provide a grounded basis for questioning conventional policy assumptions.

The foundational conditions emerge before formal schooling begins. Children observe how adults respond to disagreement, mistakes and…

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