Education and social mobility

This paper investigates the role that childbearing plays in the failure of teenage girls to complete their schooling in South Africa. Of women aged 20-34, only 33% who gave birth as teenagers had matriculated from Grade 12, compared to 57% of other women. The paper analysed nationally-representative panel data from the National Income Dynamics Study. It focuses on 671 young women aged 15-18 in 2008 who were re-contacted in 2010. Girls’ risk of becoming a mother during these two years was largely unrelated to their home circumstances. Only girls from households in the top 20% of the income distribution were less likely to give birth. What was more important was whether they were already 1+ grades behind at school. While having a baby usually halts girls’ schooling, girls who became mothers were already relatively unlikely to pass the matriculation exam. Moreover, although their socioeconomic background affects the attainment of younger girls, it is unimportant in this age group Thus, even though teenage childbearing limits young women’s life chances in South Africa, it appears to play a limited role in the reproduction of social disadvantage. However, one cannot infer that secondary schooling in South Africa is meritocratic: Lam et al. propose the more depressing conclusion that school attainment is no more than a lottery.

In this paper, we explore the impacts that education expansion and increased levels in educational homogamy have had on couples’ isolated illiteracy rates, defined as the proportion of illiterates in union that are married to an illiterate partner. First, we develop the methodology to decompose isolated literacy rates into two main components: the educational distribution of the spouses and the level of homogamy. Second, we use harmonized international census microdata from IPUMS and Demographic Health Survey data for 73 countries and 217 samples to investigate which of the two components is more important in shaping the level of isolated illiteracy. Our results indicate that the expansion of education has been more powerful than the increases in the tendency toward homogamy in its impact on isolated illiteracy rates. As the percentage of illiterates decreases over time, an increasingly large proportion of them marry literate individuals, showing that opportunities for intermarriage among illiterates expand d espite the strengthening of homogamy.

Education enhance values of women’s time and open window of opportunities to work outside home. Having young children who need care lower the chance of married and single mothers' participation in economically productive activities, but education significantly can flip-flop the scenario. This paper aims to test the hypothesis of employment and wage return to education and fertility in Northeast India. Data representative of Northeast India from India Human Development Survey (IHDS 2004-05) is used in the study and for econometric analysis Heckman two step models is employed. It is found that most women are educated only up to high school level. Majorities (71 percent) of the women are not working and 70 percent reported as working are self employed. Average annual income of working women in NE India is Rs. 52,577. Educational attainment and age are significant determinants of women’s wage. Mean income of women with one child are found to be higher than with two or more children. Earning of urban women who have better employment opportunities are significantly higher than their rural counterparts.

In India, elementary education is fundamental right, through 86th constitutional amendment in 2002. Since then India is striving to achieve universal elementary education through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA. The school enrolment in EAG states is lower than national average. Government of EAG states have challenge of keeping pace of educational investment with higher number of children due to high fertility, achieving 100 percent enrolment and improving quality of education. The paper looks into quantitative assessment of educational progress at various educational grades and number of pupils using alternative assumptions on enrolment and drop-out rates in different grades. Results depict the highest probability of completing primary level found in Orissa and lowest in Bihar. The highest number of droppers during the primary education is found among Bihar. It may be observed that (e1) is greater than e0 for almost all the EAG states.

Education is meant to provide an equal opportunity for development to its pupil despite of their socio- cultural disparities. Education policy of the second most populous country with largest population of school going children believes in it as a ‘catalyst to resolve various existing socio-cultural and economic problems’. Revisit to the notion of education as a tool for equality, compels us to critically look into the system of education at first place on which we are relying to resolve the historical difference, present concerns and thus related future consequences. The present paper attempts to investigate the level of inclusion of poor (based on Wealth Index) and backward communities in elementary education among various states. The situational analysis advances with the help of multiple data sources with the aim of presenting the issue in toto. Logistic regression analysis shows that some of the factors such as wealth index, types of residence, caste do affect the educational status of disadvantaged children even in the well-to-do states. 'No interest' in studies came out to be the most common response for dropping off the school.
Key Words: Elementary Education, Wealth Index, Backward Communities

Mothers and schooling is a topical area of investigation to address the issues in and around poverty and empowerment contexts. The methodology adopted was interpretive and qualitative data was collected from 10 mothers in resettlement colony in Hastsal, Delhi. Major tools used for the study are interviews and observation. Though there are various quantitative studies are done in the field in different geographical location than India which suggests more important role played by mothers in educational achievement and schooling of children but this study is specially looking at perception of a category of mothers regarding elementary schooling in India. These mothers are characterized as urban poor, migrated with poor literacy backgrounds. The theme for this work has been adopted from work done by Sacker et al. (2002) where the relationship between family social class and parental involvement has been discussed through a hypothetical conceptual framework. Major findings include, mothers perceive education as a tool for intergenerational class mobility and eligibility for highly paid employment but for girls, it is a tool for self empowerment and opportunity to deal with the outside world. Mothers perceive parents-teachers and government are pillars in determining quality education to children.

This paper is divided into three sections; first section is concerned with establishing whether there is disparity in access to higher education or not. In this section we find that SC/ST among the social groups and Muslims among the religious groups are most backward; the second section we see whether this disparity exist even when we consider the enrolment ratio based on eligibility. This section is concerned with the debate on whether disparity across social or religious groups is because of disparities in school education or not. Some paper authors envisages that the existing disparity is not significant if one considers enrolment in higher education with respect to the eligible students. Our findings do not support this version. First reservation regarding this is how we define eligibility. Here eligibility has been defined in two ways; those enrolled in higher secondary and are in the age group 16-18 and those having education level of higher secondary in the age group 18-22. The result confirms disparity in access to higher education irrespective of the definition we consider. The third section is concerned with whether the existing disparity is because of economic factor ie deprivation is the main reason behind the inequality in access to higher education or this is because of institutional factors and m

The Researchers experience in population education and family welfare allowing drawing from experience and collecting literature for the importance of family welfare issues is limited. Population education is a new issue in studying population problems and family structure in the World. To use population education in the strategic plans to attain human welfare, through evaluation of the population problems.
Therefore, the study examines origin and development of population education approaches. It also examines the definitions, concepts and contents of population education. Population education and family welfare are reviewed and critical evaluated in this study along the following subjects:
- The role of Population Education the Process of Family Welfare,
- Assessment of the advantage and disadvantage, the role of
population education on the family welfare.

Present world population growth is unprecedented. As a result through the late sixties and early seventies the term Population Education was virtually synonymous with in-school population education.
Population education should, therefore, stress the interrelationship between population dynamics both determinants and consequences of population planning, be viewed as a part of total social and economi

The expansion of primary education in India over the last decade has been phenomenal. Quality of primary education in India has been a major cause of concern. Navi Mumbai is a planned city adjacent to Mumbai - a financial capital of India. The student’s educational outcome and academic success is greatly influenced by the three factors namely type of school (public or private), class size and teachers. A sample of 20% schools was selected from 3 types (Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Zilha Parishad and private) of school management in Navi Mumbai. This study examines the academic achievement of 11,484 students studying in 24 primary schools (class 1 – class 7) having 281 teachers. The academic performance of students, class size, student teacher ratio and number of trained and untrained teachers was collected from primary schools in Navi Mumbai. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple classification analysis (MCA) were used to analyse the data. The study showed that despite better infrastructure and other facilities in private schools, the quality of education was better in public schools. Academic performance of students was significantly influenced by class size (low, medium, high), trained teachers (more, less).

The right to education is a fundamental principle championed in the international community’s goal, Education for All (EFA). This educational policy promises to expand access to education to all children by the year 2015. The current paper uses two of the EFA goals (Universal Primary Education (UPE) and equal gender parity) as a framework to assess patterns of school participation in Sierra Leone among children of official school going age. The country’s 2003/04 Integrated and Household Survey and 2008 Demographic and Household Survey are analysed. Results show that Sierra Leone will not attain UPE. Ever attendance at school is positively associated with age of the child; the opposite is true of net attendance. Differences between sexes only emerge at secondary school. Inequalities in access are most pronounced between the richest and poorest households, followed by rural and urban areas, then by sex. Future policies should encourage entry into school at the official age and make more effort to target poor and rural children.