BED PAPER V UNIT V PDF

Economic Process and Education Prepared by Himangshu Singha Roy Lecturer, DIET, Goalpara, Dudhnoi

Meaning and Definitions of Economics of Education  Economics of Education is the application of Economic principles, concepts, laws to the process of Education.  Economics of education studies human behaviour (in terms of human decisions), action(s) and reaction(s) about schooling (Babalola, 2003).  It further looks into how human behaviour affects economic development.  Economics of education is one of the branches of ordinary economics, though, it is the study of how educational managers make official or approved choices from scarce available resources which is meant for the realisation of the best possible educational outcomes.

Meaning and Definitions of Economics of Education  Economists analyse the production of education in this world where resources such as the capital invested in buildings or technology and the labour or the teacher workforce are necessarily scarce.  This scarcity of resources means that policymakers must decide:  1. How much to spend on each stage of education (i.e. what to produce);  2. How to provide educational services in a way that maximises its benefits to society (i.e. how to produce education); and  3.Who should have access to each stage of education (i.e. for whom is education provided).

Meaning and Definitions of Economics of Education  Economics of education is the study of economic issues relating to education including demand for education and financing and provision of education. The finance of education is one of the oldest and widely accepted branch of economics of education. It is an integrated study of problems related to education and economic development.

Characteristics of economics of education  The economic aspect of education indicates its input and output relationship.  The input aspect is the expenditure spent on education i.e. establishment cost and recurring cost on education.  The outcome aspects consists of volume of education which is acquired by the students in terms of quality and quantity.  It is concerned with cost of education(Input) and benefits or returns(output) from education.  It deals with the demands of education for man and supply of education.  It analyzes the relationship between cost and benefits of education.

Objectives of education  To study the financial support for education at all levels and ensure achievement of national goals and rapid development of national economy.  To make the optimum utilization of the funds spent on education at all levels.  To formulate a guideline with a high reliability and confidence about the distribution of funds between different levels or stages of education and different sectors within a level.  To make educational management and planning efficient in terms of economic growth and development.

Education for Economic Development.  The process of development in the Country is determined by a harmonious functioning of the triangular of economy, education and polity. Education is conceived as a critical participant of a triangular relationship and its process which cumulatively leads to change, development and progress in a society in a planned manner. Education and economic development of a country go side by side. Both type of development are complementary to each other and are also interdependent. Educational and economic development are the cause as well as result. Education is a major factor in economic growth and development of a country. It influences economic development.

Education for economic development its nature  Education for economic development implies that economic prosperity of the country is directly proportional to the educational development of the people.  Education influences economic development. It creates awareness for better living.  Economic status of a person is determined by education. It helps him in possessing a good earning capacity and leading a good economic life.

Role of education in economic development.  Production of material wealth.  Development of talent and virtues.  Development of human resource.  Quantitative and qualitative improvement.  Education as a productive activity.  Education as a means.

Education as development of human resource.  Human Resource Development (HRD) is the framework for helping employees develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities. Human Resource Development includes such opportunities as employee training, employee career development, performance management and development, coaching, mentoring, succession planning, key employee identification tuition assistance and organization development.

Contd…  The focus of all aspects of human resource development is on developing the most superior workforce so that the organization and individual employees can accomplish their work goals in service to customers. HRD encompasses the broad set of activities that improve the performance of the individual and teams, hence the organization.

Contd..  Education plays a dominant role as an effective instrument for large scale achievement and revolution in all spheres.  Purposeful education enables the individual to understand and study the real life situation and to develop an opportunity for creating confidence in the minds of younger generation, and provide a strong base for rational and value oriented and nation building progress

Contd..  Process of education promotes human resource development by:  providing opportunities to children to acquire and sharpen the capabilities needed for their present and future lives.  helping them to discover their capabilities and innate potentialities and use them for their personal and social benefits.  Promoting an institutional venture which will emphasize co-operation and team work, motivation, positive attitudes to the world of work and an egalitarian society.

Education for employability  Education should necessarily aimed at employability. Education system must be able to cope up with ever changing requirements of skill human resource to deal with the complex dynamics of new economic world order. Now, any product, any organization, any educated person is judged by his or her skill, competence and value in corporate world which are globally interlinked. Hence education today must evolve as a fusion product of true value of education and critical skill required to sustain economic growth. Such type of education can only strengthen the employability of pass out students and their future livelihood.

Consumer driven educational programmes  Though education is regarded as the investment that yeild indirect return to people by providing employment, higher wages and so on but education in some areas is a consumption activity that gives only mental satisfaction to a person.This is what is called as education as consumption. People nowadays study in a given discipline for the sake of pleasure or an useful need for engagement during leisure time without thinking about the economic gain.

Contd…  Significance of education as consumption good:  Learning for enjoyment.  Intense focus, mental exercise and challenges.  Mastery of skills.  Derivation of happiness in any given subject area.  Great implication for society.

Contd..  Examples of consumer driven educational programmes:  Classical languages  Fine Arts  Games and sports programme.  Cultural study  Population and environmental education.  Peace Education.  Value Education.  Continuing education

Quality of life as an outcome of education  Education and development of a country are interrelated and interconnected.The outcomes of education is itself the quality of life. Education contributes to economic development of a person which further ensures his or her quality of life. It gives one a better social standing, pride and social esteem. It enables one to make better choices in life, stimulates innovation and creativity and finally leads to a quality life.

Education as Investment  The development of human resource is cardinal objective of education in a developing economy. It is this which makes education an investment and it is the maximising of returns from this investment that determines its contribution to the development of human resource and therefore to economic and social growth. Hence education is to be treated as investment in human resources. It is education that contributes to economic growth of the nation.

Privatization of education  Privatization of education means the management of educational sector by private firms or entity with total absence of government intervention. Such institutions generate their own funds through higher fees, user charges and full of resources. These private firms believes that government can not meet the demands of education of the people. They provide wider choices to their students than those offered by conventional state run affiliated institutions to alter the design of their courses and combination to suit emerging occupational pattern. Moreover they provide all kinds of courses, which are market driven and student friendly. Thus privatization of education provides the stakeholders better choice and chance to receive accountability and value of their money spent on their children. Privatization of education is one of the most rapidly growing areas of interest in the field of education.

Public Private Partnership(PPP) in Education  One of the most significant and recent approach in the field of economic of education is public private partnership. The main rationale for developing PPP in education is to maximise the potential for expanding equitable access to schooling and for improving the outcome of education. The government contracts with a private partner to design and build an educational facility to specific requirement of public. In PPP the govt provides financing and the private partner design, construct an educational system and operates that facility for a specific time period.

Liberalization in Education  Liberalization in education refers to relaxing certain reforms and policies in the entire educational system of the country. The education system in India is not liberal. There are many reasons, one of them is that the national education industry does not want competitiveness and govt does not want to give away its control over it. Hence the higher education system in India suffers from lack of autonomy and burden of affiliation. Our national policy in terms of education is focussed more on expanding the system with no focus on quality education. Hence liberalization in education is the need of the hour to minimize the brain drain of talented students from our country.