Remedial Class Struggle

[Bill Rosenberg]

>Yoshie wrote
>
>> The ruling class argument that 'post-industrial' economy (or
>> whatever) needs 'more + more educated workforce,' what with
>> computers and other tech fetishes, is merely an ideology. This is
>> an argument that is designed to blame the
>> unemployed/underemployed/low-wage workers for their alleged
>> 'education' deficit. This ideology also serves to make workers
>> accept that they--not employers--are responsible for job training.
>

What I take to be a reasonably explicit agenda regarding the place
of education in the international capitalist economic order, appears
as the work programme of the APEC Human Resources Development Work
Group, which was agreed on by APEC leaders in Beijing in 1995:

* a quality basic education for all
* regional labour market analysis
* increasing the supply and quality of managers, entrepreneurs and 
training in the areas cental to economic growth
* reducing skill deficiencies and unemployment by designing 
appropriate training programmes
* improving the quality of curricula, teaching methods and materials
* improving access to skill acquisition in the bloc
* preparing individuals and organisations for rapid economic and 
technological change
* trade and investment facilitation and liberalisation

The emphasis is on "basic education", which I take to mean at lower 
levels. Anything above that level emphasises skills directly relevant 
to business and its economic ends. "Skills" rather than education are 
emphasised, except perhaps to "prepare individuals for rapid economic 
and technological change". I would take "improving the quality of 
curricula, teaching methods and materials" to mean finding ways to 
reduce the skilled labour content of education - distance education 
over the Internet etc, but perhaps I'm too cynical!

Bill

Bill Rosenberg, w.rosenberg at csc.canterbury.ac.nz