A critical approach to the relationship between education and economics

Although education basically seems as the process of desired behavioral change, it is also an ideological process for the sake of the continuity of existing political, economic and the societal system. Education is an important issue as it both provides the continuity of the societal system and personal development and social development by the way of production of new information and knowldge, skills, attitude and values gained by the individuals. One of the areas that education has a dialectical relationship with is economy. Education contributes to the economic production process by the production of new knowledge, using of the knowledge and spreading of it. On the other hand, education is affected by the dynamics of economics as a superstructure side. Today, especially under the deteriorating conditions of capitalism, education has been experiencing the effects of capitalism on societal system and serves for the sake of wealthy people in the subject of reproduction of the existing societal inequalities. The aim of this study is to analyze the dialectical relationship between education and economy under the dimensions of human capital, inequalities, demand for education, supply for education and education finance. This is a theoretical study and literature review was used for the study. Within this frame articles, books and national and international reports were analyzed and analysis were made within those sub-dimensions. According to the results of the study, it is seen that as a base structure, economy creates a sustaining effect on education in terms of reproduction of the existing inequalities day by day. Enrollment of the individuals in education, which is a public right, has been decreasing day by day and educational settings has been getting more advantageous for the students coming from wealthy families. In terms of the results, primary suggestion of the study is the removal of income inequality in Turkey. Moreover, more financial support has to be provided especially for the students coming from poor families at the level of entrance and in the process of education. When education is considered as a public right, marketization of education must be prevented and public subsidies for education must be increased and educational system must be made more equal and effective. Keywords: Economy, education, economics of education, human capital theory, base and substructure theory, inequality, educational demand, educational supply, education finance, neoliberalism