Educational Progress and Economic Development in China

This paper clarifies that the development of education will not certainly promote the economic development by analyzing the situation in China.
As the development of education can enhance human capital and then raise the labor productivity, people usually take it for granted that education progress will lead to economic growth. Though it is true that human capital can be improved by education, the development of education doesn’t equal to more human capital or higher labor productivity. The education structure should be taken into account when analyzing how much human capital has been improved. China’s potential human capital has been increasing because of the development of education, but it can hardly turn into real human capital. This is because the education structure of China mismatches economic structure. Though the graduates have learned a lot in universities, they can hardly put what they’ve learned in use. A lot of potential human capital has been wasted and China’s labor productivity is still low.
In China, the development of education has not contributed much to the economic development, which may redirect collective consciousness. It also alerts us to the fact that only when education structure matches economic structure, can it promote economic development.