In 1995 the Republic of Korea (ROK) was officially admitted to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This organisation groups together industrially developed countries of the world. Recently, the World Bank has also released a study of China that predicts that China is going to become the second biggest economy in the next fifteen years if its economic growth follows the pattern of the last fifteen years. ROK is the only country from among the developing countries to join the ranks of the developed industrialised countries in the last thirty years. However, it is still a small country compared to China. Hence when China completes its transformation into an industrialised country the whole world will be affected. How did South Korea achieve such an accelerated transition to prosperity? What measures were adopted by the Chinese leadership that has allowed China to grow so rapidly? There are many factors that have been cited to explain Korea's miracle, and rapid Chinese growth. However, In the following we will highlight the role that education, science and research and development (R&D) have played in their success.