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Journal of Educational Planning and Administration Volume XIX Number 1 January 2005 NIEPA © National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg New Delhi 110016 ISSN 0971-3859 © NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION, 2005 Annual Subscription Within India Outside India (By Airmail) Individuals Rs. 150 US$60 Institutions Rs. 350 US $ 85 Annual Subscription commences with January and ends with October every year. Advertisement Tariff (For one issue) Full Page Rs. 2000 US$100 Half Page Rs. 1100 US$55 Bank draft may be sent to the Director, NIEPA in the name of the National Institute o f Educational PlanningNIEPA and Administration payable at New Delhi ©Very few copies of some back issues are also available. Published by the Registrar, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi - 110016 and printed by the Publication Unit, NIEPA at M/s. Prabhat Offset Press, 2622, Kucha Chellan, Darya Ganj, New Delhi - 110002. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION Vol. XIX No.l (January 2005) CONTENTS Page No. ARTICLES External Benefits of Women’s Education: Some Evidence from 5 Developing Countries R.L. Bhat and Namita Sharma Educational Employment Scenario in Electrical Engineering at Degree 31 and Diploma Levels Anil Kumar, S.K. Sengupta and Santosh Vij What Lessons can DPEP Offer? 49 R. V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar A Comparative Study of Profiles and Professional Development of 67 School Principals in Australia, Japan and the USA David Gamage RESEARCH NOTES/COMMUNICATIONSNIEPA Status of Information Technology in Private English Medium Indian Schools: 89 Lessons for School Principals Laxman Mohanty Scenario of Primary School© Attendance: A Study of Less Developed States in 111 India Aparajita Chattopadhyay, Papiya Guha, and Vijaya Durdhawale BOOK REVIEWS (See overleaf) 131 BOOK REVIEWS Centralization and Decentralization: Educational Reforms and Changing Governance in Chinese Societies (Ka Ho Mok) Tapan R. Mohanty Surviving School: Education for Refugee Children from Rwanda 1994-1996 (Bird Lindsay) S.M.I.A. Zaidi Combating Academic Fraud (M.A. Eckstein) R.P. Singh Computers in Secondary Schools in Developing Countries: Costs and Other Issues (A. Cawthera) Laxman Mohanty Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific: Concepts and Issues (David, W.O. Lee and L. Grossman) Rakesh Batabyal Let Me Learn (Christine A. Johnston) P.C. Bansal The National Acreditation System in Columbia (R.J. Revelo and A.C. Hernandez); In Pursuit of Continuing Quality in Higher Education Through Acreditation (Adriano A. Arcelo); and Accreditation in the Higher Education System in Hungary (T. Kozma) Antony Stella NIEPA School Principals: Core Actors in Educational Improvement: An Analysis of Seven Asian Countries (K. Maheswari and Blaton) Rashmi Diwan Education for Rural Development: Towards New Policy Responses (David Atchoarena and Lavinia Gasperini); and Education for Rural People Aid Agencies Workshop© R Hemlatha The Economics of Schooling and School Quality (Eric A. Hanushek, ed.) Jandhyala B.G. Tilak Journal of Educational Planning and Administration Volume XIX, No. 1, January 2005, pp. 5-29 External Benefits of Women’s Education Some Evidence from Developing Countries R. L. Bhat* Namita Sharma Abstract The significance of education in the development process is not only to be appreciated in terms o f its direct benefits but more importantly on account o f its externalities. The latter are colossal, particularly in the context o f the education of women. The role of women’s education in reducing fertility rates and infant and child mortality rates; in improving the health status of the family; in increasing the various freedoms; personality development and attitudinal and behavioural changes, has been borne out by significant evidences from across the developing world. The present paper is an attempt to assess and analyze the various external economies of women’s education with particular reference to the developing countries. After looking at some of the possible diseconomies, as well, the external economies o f women’s education turn out to be overwhelming. Introduction The conventional estimation of the rate of return to investment in education often reveals that it is invariably lower than that obtainable from investment in physical capital. This is so, because in case of education, on the returns side, only a part of the total returns i.e. quantifiable/tangible returns are taken into account. The non-inclusion of a vast multitude of external benefits, primarily NIEPAbecause of the quantifiability problem, in such calculations, grossly underestimates the rate of return to investments in education. As such, a question is raised in some quarters about the desirability of continuing with the heavy state subsidization of education, particularly at higher levels. There cannot be two opinions about the significance of the externalities of education; however, these happen to be colossal in the context of female education, in particular. Usually, when the rate of return to investment in female© education is estimated, it is the earnings outside the home, which are taken into account, without a slight consideration, that educated women, will be productive assets even when they confine themselves to household chorus. There are clear-cut evidences, which show that, the total benefits from education multiply when schools open their doors to girls and women. In addition to being more P.G. Department of Economics, University of Jammu, Jammu -180006, India. E-mail: [email protected] 6 External Benefits o f Women's Education children die in infancy; and, the children who survive are healthier and better educated. Educated women are also better equipped to enter the paid labour force, which is critical to the survival of the many female-headed households in developing countries (World Bank, 1993). Women's education is also associated with quantifiable increases in home output - in the form of better health and nutrition, more attention given to each child, and so on, despite the fact that better educated women are likely to spend less time in the home. This seeming paradox is only possible if the productivity of women at home increases as their education increases, indicating that non-market returns to schooling are positive. As such, in any economic evaluation of the costs and benefits of education, these indirect and non-market benefits are to be taken into account. Once all the benefits are recognised, investment in the education of girls may be the highest return investment available in the developing world. (Summers, 1992) The community-wide effects from education are not always separable from the non-market benefits that accrue to individuals. Using data for the United States, Haveman and Wolfe (1995) found that parents with more education have a significantly smaller chance than other parents, that their children will drop out of school, that their daughters will become unmarried teenage mothers, and that their grandchildren will become economically inactive as adults. Although parents suffer personally when their offspring fails to grow up well, the effects extend to the community as well, and substantial public programs have indeed been mounted to address these social problems. The externalities of education can be addressed to, both from the micro as well as macro perspectives. At the micro level, the indirect benefits accrue to the individual concerned herself, her current and future family, neighbours and job related persons. From the macro viewpoint, the externalities shall accrue to the community, economy and the society at large. Besides direct economic returns, the investments in education entail certain non-market benefits that include the possible contribution of education to improving social equity, strengthening national cohesiveness, reducing environmental stress through its effect on fertility and population growth, lowering crime rates, and so on. Here, one can make a distinctionNIEPA between ‘public good human capital’ which affects incomes by influencing people's knowledge about and choice of public policies and institutions, and traditional ‘marketable human capital’, which increases people's personal income. To the extent education produces ‘public good human capital’; it also contributes to the production of community wealth (Olson, 1996) The role of education in the growth and development of an economy is not to be assessed in a limited© time frame. These activities may transform the economies and make their growth more self-sustaining over a much longer period, which can extend to even a few generations. As such, it is not surprising then that nations with higher levels of female school enrolment in the past, today show higher levels of economic productivity , lower fertility, lower infant and maternal mortality, and longer life expectancy than countries that have not achieved as high enrolment levels for girls. (World Bank, 1993) R.L Bhal and Namita Sharma 7 The External Economies In the light of the aforementioned background, the main externalities of women’s education and their role at both macro as well as micro level is analysed as under: Reduction in Family Fertility and Increased Demand for Child Quality There are a number of ways by which education can decrease fertility. It may change perceptions of the costs and benefits of having children, and it also influences the age at marriage and reduces the infant mortality