This book is about the power of education: the kind of education that simultaneously improves
the quality of life both of individuals and the wider society. It explains why education must
be viewed as a basic human right as a value in and of itself and reviews the evidence on how
education builds the human resources that individuals and nations need to be productive to
continue to learn to solve problems to be creative and to live together and with nature in
peace and harmony. When nations ensure that such an education is accessible to all throughout
their lives education becomes the engine of sustainable development - economic social moral
and cultural. The book is unique in that it covers the development of education at all levels
in all countries of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond using the latest international data
bases while blending in analyses of both quantitate and qualitative research.
