high-level education, manpower development and training: a key to ...

The introduction of learning, particularly through written language, enhanced humandevelopment. This was very significant knowing that before this epoch makingdevelopment, mankind had relied on the individual’s memory for human civilization. Theintroduction of writing protected knowledge from the decay and loss which it hadsuffered when knowledge was stored only in the minds of men so that when such giftedmen died, the ancient civilization was lost: it was not only the death of the gifted personsbut the loss or records stored in their memories. The knowledge kept in writing andtransferred to a new generation through education brought about increased knowledge,which helped to increase production and improvement in the standard of living. It helpedto reduce the dependence on the astrologers and magicians in explaining certain omens ofthe ancient world. In fact, the training of man helped to remove the mystical area ofknowledge. The final resultant impact of education is that it helped nations to attain theelusive state of economic development.Economic development has been defined by Okoh (1976) as a state of economicattainment of a society that allows the people to produce enough food, clothing and bettershelter. It means the elimination of yearly famine, which is commonly experienced by thedeveloping nations, and subjects them to starvation, poverty and death. It is a society ofliterate people with proper understanding of its environment devoid of superstition. It is aself sustaining economy. Economic development involves the proper utilization of anation’s resources to effectively increase productivity for the betterment and generalwelfare of the people. The achievement of a developed status involves the application ofmodern science and technology, which requires high-level manpower development,among others. To sustain the state of economic development requires new discoveriesand most of the new discoveries cannot be achieved without effective research anddevelopment, which calls for high-level manpower development.The human element in economic development is such that it must be highly skilled. Itmust have the ability to search, discover, and mobilized the result for the development ofthe nation’s natural resources. Can anyone imagine the state of a nation without theinformation technology which had reduced the world to a global village?2