In the Third World it is poverty that prevents people from developing their intelligence and imagination. Even the education that is available is distributed unequally, favouring young urban males. In rich countries imagination and intelligence are also threatened by mass entertainment which encourages people to spend their time passively watching television. And it is the poor who are most vulnerable to its effects. Worse still, the mass entertainment of the rich countries is now being exported to the Third World where many children can expect no more than a couple of hours of primary school a day.
Many children watch TV while parents work.
Between 1965 and 1978 spending on education rose fivefold in the industrialized countries and sevenfold in the developing world. Since then, however, despite large increases in the population of children, there has been a slowdown. Expenditure on education per head has declined in one third of African countries and in nearly two thirds of Latin American countries. In Ghana and Sri Lanka primary school attendance has dropped and drop-out rates have increased. In Jamaica and Brazil the percentage of children passing examinations has dropped sharply.