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Education in India. Discussant comments by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon University of Oxford Dec. 2006. India in international comparisons. Access to education. Access to primary registered great improvements from 1990s some mystery about official enrolment figures
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Education in India Discussant comments by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon University of Oxford Dec. 2006
Access to education • Access to primary • registered great improvements from 1990s • some mystery about official enrolment figures • ASER (2006) shows 93.4% of kids are enrolled • 12.4 million kids are out of school • However, current attendance/ retention/ completion low • Access to middle & secondary school • rising, but far from universal
Factors behind higher access • Reductions in poverty • % with positive education budget share risen • NSS Maharashtra ‘87 (30%); ‘93 (56%); 2000 (62%) • Policy interventions • DPEP (T training; books; school construction) • Operation Blackboard • Para teacher / EGS schemes • Mid day meal schemes • Increase in private schooling
Quality of education • Primary school • ASER learning achievement (outcome) • High teacher absenteeism (input) 26% absent • Secondary school • UP high school achievement • TIMSS module applied to India • Flight to private schools suggests quality premium: • Kingdon (1996; 2005); PROBE (1999); Muralidharan (2006)
Impediments to access/quality • Low return to basic education – implications for growth • Abysmally resourced schools • real T salaries consistently risen (5% pa) • Share of non-salary expenses has fallen • Lack of accountability/efficiency in public schools • shirking teachers cannot be disciplined • teacher unions strong & politically powerful • no incentives built into teacher pay (Pritchett/Murgai; Duflo/Hanna) • Teacher pay schedule is inefficient (Kingdon & Teal, 2006) • Can policy do anything about the above impediments?
convex Earnings concave Edyrs Shape of education-earnings relationship • Has potentially important implications for the poverty reducing role of education, and for economic growth • whether the positive relationship is linear, concave or convex. • Caveats • RR to primary includes return to post-primary • Does not take the cost stream into account • Not including social benefits of education
Education-earnings relationship, by state and gender (contd.)