I was reading an article by Fraser Nelson in the Spectator this week.
It is about a link between education and GDP - the contention being that better educated countries do better economically.
Thus the recent slide in UK education standards - in comparison to the rest of the world - has had a negative effect on economic growth and as a result wages and standard of living.
I live in the Philippines where the current hysteria is over human trafficking.
Uncle Sam in his infinite wisdom is bribing the PI government into action.
These bribes have had little effect where the real problem is, but have resulted in many poor girls, guilty of simple trying to feed their families by engaging in the oldest profession, being arrested and detained in the name of human trafficking.
I wrote about this 18 months ago and little has changed.
So I was thinking about the Fraser Nelson conclusions and applying them to the Philippines.
Like so many Asian countries the education system is in part an illusion dominated by teaching even theoretical subjects by tote, and then almost inevitable corruption gets in there too.
Teachers do not welcome questions: shut up and learn is the attitude and amazingly the lesson before the exam is usually about the questions in the exam! A recent spat with the EU over seaman training is an example of all that is wrong with PI higher education.
You only have to talk to a few poor Filipinos to realize they have little concept of life outside the Philippines.
There is a standing joke among ex-pats that on a night with a big moon you point at the moon and ask a local "Which is closer the moon or your province.
" In nine cases out of ten the answer is "The moon - I can see the moon.
" The politically correct may say that is a cruel disrespectful question but whatever it is it demonstrates a total lack of comprehension of the real world.
I have spoken to many Filipinos about going overseas and they have no idea of climate, cost of living and different cultures.
Comments, when a job overseas job is mentioned, saying "I earn $750 in one month" indicate a belief that they can simple pocket that money and take it home.
When I ask about airfares, accommodation, food etc.
I get a blank look - with comments like bus to Samar only 500 peso, and food I eat just rice.
They have no concept.
And general fear of authority means they do not ask questions.
You might say that many in Europe would be the same when asked about another country.
But the big difference is they would expect something different, they would know there are different climates, they would understand the distance involved and they would certainly ask questions.
I have been asked many times how far England is from the Philippines and I say "long way - 15 hours in an airplane.
" The questioner does not get that so they nod wisely and say yes long way, "How long by bus?" I know many who meet young uneducated Filipinos who describe their mentality as childlike.
Why not they often leave school in the early teens, still barely literate and are forced into menial jobs.
Very often they have children very young which all too often results in the male disappearing into the urban slush that is metro Manila.
This leaves the girl with a child, no money and as part of a poor largely unemployed extended family.
From that inauspicious start they are wide open for abuse - the lucky ones end up in the reasonable cushy jobs in the bars of Angeles City, the unlucky ones end up in Filipino brothels or trafficked into the sex trade in Japan, Korea, Malaysia etc.
For the boys it is crime or menial work, unless of course an opportunity aboard pops up.
Without even dodgy Filipino qualifications the jobs will involve creeping out of the Philippines - inevitable with a traffickers help.
To what they will only really know when they get there.
I have been talking about the Philippines but the situation is not dissimilar in most S.
E.
Asian countries.
Human trafficking is an evil trade which our politicians keep banging on about.
I know that and I also know the way the politicians are tackling it will make very little difference.
If they really want to make inroads into trafficking start with education - and by that I do not mean dropping billions into the top of a funnel that will simply feeds corruption! But by opening American, English and German schools with, as Fraser Nelson suggests, good teachers that teach young people a curriculum that is actually useful in the real world.