You need education only if you want to enter into a knowledge economy. And believe me, it isnt as good as it sounds. It employs far less people that a country like Pakistan or India needs.
Example: India has chosen knowledge economy path - plain reason why this happened is because govt policies are archaic and have not been able to promote manufacturing like China has. Our government is obstructionist with license raj - for bribes.
While knowledge economy flourished because govt has no control over it, cannot regulate it, and because reasonable number of people are reasonably educated to sustain it. But it doesnt give employement like manufacturing and industries do. And that is a HUGE problem for India. It affects poverty reduction very very very slowly.