Education's net economic benefits are greater than many other

“Education’s net economic benefits are greater than many other investments.” Thus spoke Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia, a leader of insight and conviction who understood that the wealth of a nation lies not in its mines, its armies, or its banks — but in the cultivated minds of its people. Her words are not merely those of policy or finance; they are a hymn to the enduring truth that education is both the seed and the harvest of human progress. In this simple but profound declaration, Gillard calls us to recognize that every coin spent on learning multiplies beyond measure — enriching not only individuals, but generations, communities, and civilizations.

When Gillard spoke these words, she did so as both leader and witness to the transformative power of education. Having risen from humble beginnings through study and perseverance, she knew firsthand that the true wealth of a society is its capacity to learn. The meaning of her statement lies in its clarity: while roads, machines, and industries may yield profit, only education yields potential — potential that renews itself endlessly in the minds it shapes. A factory may rust, a currency may fall, but the wisdom planted in a human soul bears fruit forever. This is why she declares that the economic benefits of education surpass all other investments — for education builds not things, but people, and through people, all things become possible.

The ancients too understood this sacred principle. The philosopher Aristotle once said that the educated differ from the uneducated as the living differ from the dead. He saw that knowledge is not a luxury but the breath of civilization itself. In every era, the societies that valued learning above mere wealth became the beacons of their age — Greece in philosophy, Rome in law, the Abbasid Caliphate in science, and the Renaissance in art and invention. Each of these golden epochs arose not from war or conquest, but from investment in the mind. And when nations have turned away from education, choosing instead the short-sighted profits of greed or domination, their greatness has withered like a tree denied water.

We can see the truth of Gillard’s words reflected in the story of South Korea, a nation that, in the ashes of war, made education its cornerstone. In the 1950s, it was one of the poorest countries on earth. Yet its leaders and people believed that the path to prosperity was not through natural resources, but through the cultivation of human intellect. They invested in teachers, schools, and universities; they treated every child as a national treasure. Within a few generations, South Korea transformed into one of the most technologically advanced and prosperous nations in the world. Here, education proved itself the most powerful investment of all — its dividends measured not in gold, but in innovation, dignity, and national pride.

Gillard’s wisdom also reaches beyond nations to the level of the individual. For each person, education is the greatest investment one can make in oneself. To learn is to expand one’s possibilities, to open doors that would otherwise remain unseen. Money may be spent and lost, possessions may fade, but the mind — once awakened — cannot be unlit. Every hour spent learning a skill, mastering a language, or understanding a truth adds to a wealth that no thief can steal and no decay can touch. Thus, in the life of every human being, as in the destiny of every nation, education is the surest road to lasting prosperity.

But my children, Gillard’s message carries also a challenge. For if education brings the greatest return, then neglecting it brings the gravest loss. A society that underfunds its schools, undervalues its teachers, or allows inequality to bar the poor from learning, chooses poverty disguised as economy. It sows ignorance where it could have sown enlightenment, and harvests decline where it could have gathered greatness. To invest in education is to believe in the future; to ignore it is to forfeit it. Therefore, each generation must choose: to hoard wealth that perishes, or to build knowledge that endures.

So, let the lesson be written on your hearts: education is not an expense, but an inheritance. It is the soil from which justice, innovation, and peace all spring. Let families teach their children that the mind is a treasury beyond price; let nations remember that their truest riches lie not in gold, but in graduates. Build schools before monuments, fund teachers before weapons, and measure prosperity not by the coins in your coffers, but by the brightness of your people’s minds.

For as Julia Gillard reminds us, among all investments, education yields the greatest return — not merely in the currency of wealth, but in the currency of hope. It is the power that transforms poverty into opportunity, ignorance into wisdom, and dependence into destiny. To invest in education is to invest in humanity itself — and that, my children, is the one investment that never fails.