Policy Impacts on Qualitative and Quantitative Aspects of Indian Education ― Special Emphasis on Punjab

The book focuses on the state of education and on the levels of inequality among gender, rural–urban and social groups. Taking into account the various findings from existing literature on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of education, it uses empirical findings based on a revised methodology to draw new conclusions. This revised method was devised to define the size of population eligible for enrollment and was then employed to estimate the Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) and Gross Literacy Rate (GLR) at various completed education levels, using age-wise data from the Population Census, 2011. This methodology is based on the concept that among those eligible for enrollment/literacy, a few never get chance to enrol and others achieve various levels of literacy by remaining engaged in formal or informal education up to various ages.

The book comes up with findings that have deep significance so far as policy making is concerned towards improving the state of education in India. There are fourteen hypotheses that the book proposes based on the study and each hypothesis is accompanied with policy suggestions. Interestingly, one of the hypotheses is that arbitrariness of government policies creates more problems and, as such, before proposing a policy change the government needs to put in more effort and time in planning and come up with carefully chalked out processes. In addition to being a valuable resource for researchers working in this area, the book has huge policy implications and think tanks working towards improving education in India.

Prof Jatinder S. Bedi is the Director of Research at the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh. Apart from handling research projects at the institute, he teaches and supervises doctoral students in economics and is co-ordinator of Ph.D. Programs in Social Science at IDC, which is an approved Research Centre of Panjab University, Chandigarh. Prior to joining IDC, he worked as a fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi and also had an administrative role as Head of Operations and Secretary to the NCAER governing body for several years. He has a total of 28 years’ experience in the area of research, teaching and administration and has served various government, semi-government and autonomous organizations and in the corporate sector. He was a member of several important committees such as the Expert Group of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Ministry of Food Processing Industry Support Group for the Inter-Ministry Task Group on Mid-Term Appraisal for the Tenth Plan, Planning Commission. Apart from his work on education, he has worked in several other diverse areas such as Indian economy, manufacturing sector, micro, small, medium and large scale sector, land economics and GST and have publication in several sector specific sectors such as textiles, food processing, biodiesel and alcohol.