Emerging market parents ahead in education help

One of the biggest gaps in knowledge when analysing the education system of emerging economies has been the opinions of parents, who have the biggest influence on youngsters. Despite some cultural stereotypes, there has been a dearth of real data on the subject – until now.

A comprehensive worldwide study has been undertaken by the Varkey Foundation to examine the fears, hopes and opinions of more than 27,000 parents in as many as 28 different countries, and has revealed that the view of education in emerging markets is quite different from those of parents in the West. Parents in the emerging world spend far more time assisting their kids with education than is the case in the developed world.

62% of Indian parents spend a minimum of seven hours every week helping their children, as do around 50% of parents in Vietnam and 39% in Colombia. It is a very different story in European nations such as the UK and France, where just 11% of parents will help for at least seven hours a week, and the number falls to as low as just 5% in Finland.

32% of parents in the UK think that it is important for their child to have a university education, a low figure compared to parents in Brazil, Colombia, India and Mexico, where 90% of parents think that it is important. However, in some emerging markets such as Mexico, Peru and Uganda, the figure falls to below one in five.