My reflection on the article: Does Education Pay Off? Subjective Expectations on Education in Rural India by Annemie Maertens

The article “Does Education Pay off? Subjective Expectations on Education in Rural India” by Annemie Maertens, published in the February 26, 2011 vol xlvi no 9, Economic & Political Weekly is very insightful. The paper presents the first results of a study conducted on subjective expectations that parents have about the costs and returns to education.

The study is done by using a detailed child-level dataset from the three villages of Dokur (Mahbubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh), Kalman and Shirapur (Sholapur district, Maharashtra).

 The data for the article were gathered in India during 2007-08, in collaboration with the International Crop Research Institute of the Semi-Arid Tropics.

Every parent, irrespective of their psycho-socio and economic background wanted a safe and secure future for their children. Education is perceived, across the social demarcations as the means of securing long term welfare of the children. This study attempted to understand the perception of rural parents in the light of the ‘costs and returns’ on education.

In order to achieve its objective, the researcher conceptualized a framework through which the analysis has to be carried out. The interesting derivation the study have brought up is that the decision maker regarding the education of an individual who is below 26 years is mainly the father (in some cases mother/uncle) which is commonly practice in the three villages. The study also highlighted that the level of knowledge of the decision makers are considerably low. The level of ignorance of the decision maker increases with the increase of the level of the educational attained. This ignorance also carried along some social attributes as the level ignorance among the lower caste, the STs etc. are found to be more severe. Besides, one of the most significant findings the study have made is that the ideal age of marriage for a girl is 18 and for a man is 23 which is common in all the three villages encompassing the socio-religious barriers.

What can we learned from the study:

The findings of the study bring into the limelight several significant issues which the practitioner should be aware of.

Ø  Social custom had a significant influence on the educational investment in the rural sector. As the study has pointed out, the ideal age of marriage for a girl is 18 years. This is the social perception which has been inculcated in the minds of the people. This ideal age implies that the possibility of a girl pursuing higher studies is relatively low as compare to that of the men counterpart. This also resulted in reluctance from the parents to invest more on girls’ education.

Ø  The social custom has a directly influenced the perception (psychological aspect) of a person and vice-versa. In this case, due the social custom of ideal age of marriage, parents are reluctant to invest in girls’ education because their fruits of their investment will be reaped by people other than themselves. Besides, the custom had put undue pressure on the parents to the extent that there will be stereotypes by not marrying their daughter off in the ideal age. Also there has been a fear that dowry increases with the increase in the age of the women.

Ø  The psycho-socio interplay needs to be effectively dealt with to improve the condition of the education.

Ø  The reason behind the high rate of drop out in the country may be determine by some phenomena which cannot be solved at the school boundary. For instance, the concept of ideal age for marriage which hinders the educational attainment of the individual needs to be dealt with at the societal level.

The study has put forward insightful findings which can broaden the domain of our approach. It has open up different dimensions for a practitioner to explore more on the psycho-social interplay which directly or indirectly influences the outcome of one’s education.