Sachs states in The Age of Sustainable Development that the most important cultural attitudes to understand in a country, under the context of effect on economic development, are “family size, educational attainment, and the role of women” (The Age of Sustainable Development, pg 121). Total fertility rate (TFR) is often used to measure and compare family sizes. TFR is the average number of children a women will have in her lifetime. As seen in figure 1, Moldova’s TFR had been decreasing pretty constantly until about 1980, where the TFR increased until ~1987; since 1987, the TFR decreased constantly until 2005, where since then it has been mostly constant around 1.2. Moldova has a similar TFR value as many high-income countries, and the recent transition from high to low TFR coincides with the rise in GDP in years since the early 2000’s. FIgure 1: tFR in Moldova Since 1960 - http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=MD In terms of educational attainment, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) gives three tests (math, reading, and science) to 15 year-olds in countries all around the world to rank the overall educational achievement in that country. As shown in figure 2, Moldova ranks quite far below the international standards in these tests, but Moldovan scores have been on the rise in the last few years, indicating a new focus on education in Moldova. The role of women in Moldova has also been rising a bit. From 2007-2011 the percent of women in counsellor positions increased 2.1%, and in 2013 women made up 19.8% of parliament (http://www.genderindex.org/country/moldova). Women have equal educational opportunities in Moldova (figure 2), and have equal property owning opportunities, but more could be done to promote women in government in Moldova. Figure 2: Moldovan performance on PISA Tests - http://www.compareyourcountry.org/pisa/country/MDA
1 Comment
Mr. Heath
2/24/2017 12:34:29 pm
Molly, this blog post has a much stronger explanation of the data than the previous; it explains what is happening with each index and points to specific dates for points and trends. I'm still left wondering so what? Why does this matter? Are these things good or bad? Does this contradict why they're still low-income country? Does it support it? This is that next stop that will really transform these blog posts.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMolly Chiang, Junior Day Student from Milton Academy Archives
May 2017
Categories |