Ershad Ali & Mike Roberts 
Education, Human Capital and Development 

This book is the seventh title in the series Readings in World Development, edited by Kartik C. Roy. In this volume he is joined by co-editors Michael A. Roberts, Academic Director at AIS St Helens, Auckland, New Zealand, and Ershad Ali, Director of the Centre for Research in International Education at the same institution. Many developing nations are poor in mineral wealth, other natural resources and in financial investment infrastructure. Their most valuable resource is a large labour force — their population. Unfortunately, because of limited economic and technical ability, they are unable to engage their labour force in productive activity. Human capital is the ability of their population to engage in productive activity. Education can be considered as an investment in increasing the efficiency of human capital in much the same way that cultivation and fertiliser add to the effectiveness of land use. It adds value to the human capital of a nation, enabling it to be more efficient and effective in producing national wealth.