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India has the second largest higher education system in terms of institutions worldwide, despite having only 26.3% Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), including vocational education. It aspires to achieve a target of 50% GER by 2035. It means it would require a larger number of higher education institutions (HEIs), public and private, in addition to huge fiscal resources. At present about 75% of the HEIs are privately managed with about 66% of student enrolment. Though there is no provision of for-profit higher education institutions in India, many non-profit private HEIs are actually working as for-profit. They are growing fast and are visible too. Therefore, it is high time now to think seriously about the pros and cons, causes and consequences of for-profit and nonprofit private HEIs in India. India provides a big market for non-profit and for-profit higher education to domestic and foreign stakeholders. Already 160 foreign universities are working in collaboration with public or private limited companies in India. This essay provides an analysis of issues related to for-profit and nonprofit HEIs, including desirability, size, funding, transparency, accountability, quality, feasibility and sustainability, government policies, regulation, foreign collaborations, private investments, and incentives. The methodology adopted is analytical, comparative, and empirical.

The Global Partnership for Education's (GPE) interest in broader education workforce issues is situated within the context of the partnership's current strategic plan (GPE 2025), which recognizes "quality teaching" as a priority area within a wider system transformation agenda. GPE's work includes providing technical support in this area for the benefit of country operations, including the development and/or dissemination of tools and guidelines. Some GPE partner countries have shown particular interest in diagnostic or analytical tools to better understand the scope of their challenges related to quality teaching and the broader education workforce. Guidance in diagnosing the challenges of the education workforce and leveraging its potential for strengthened teaching and learning would be useful especially for those involved in preparing education sector plans or strategies, or specific programs aimed at improving teaching and learning. This paper: (1) Analyzes the guidance that prominent existing international frameworks and tools can provide for diagnosing challenges and strengths related to teachers and the broader education workforce. Special attention is given to tools dealing with teachers, teaching and learning and/or related policies and management, and for which several country applications have been reported. Challenges concerning the implementation and use of these tools are also explored tentatively through a set of interviews with professionals involved in their application and/or monitoring; (2) Attempts to identify the main gaps and challenges that remain to be addressed as regards the contents, methodology and implementation of future education workforce diagnostics; and (3) Suggests possible directions and considerations for the development of future education workforce diagnostic tools.

Climate change and natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitical shocks have increasingly disrupted school education around the world in recent years. Whether leading to school closures, school destructions or repeated interruptions in students' learning experiences, these external shocks have translated into lost learning opportunities for students. In this context, education systems face heightened pressure to become ever more resilient, enhance the efficiency of public spending and address emerging learning gaps. This working paper highlights key education strategies for helping students catch up on lost learning opportunities and bridge learning gaps, based on a review of research and policy evidence from OECD and non-OECD countries. It examines a range of academic strategies to address learning gaps, including: (1) adapting instructional strategies and pedagogies to individual needs; (2) extending and adapting the time of instruction; and (3) providing curricular flexibility and enabling fluid learning pathways within the school system. It provides research evidence on the effectiveness of such strategies, together with examples of their large-scale implementation and cost-effectiveness considerations. While this paper presents programmes of general interest for all countries, a separate policy brief targets learning recovery strategies for students in Ukraine.

The World Bank's focus on foundational skills requires that issues of language and Language of Instruction be brought to the forefront of education policy discussions. Poor Language of Instruction policies harm learning, access, equity, cost-effectiveness, and inclusion. Yet nearly 37% of students in low- and middle-income countries are taught in a language they do not understand. Massive learning improvements are feasible by teaching in a small number of additional languages. The World Bank's first Policy Approach Paper on Language of Instruction offers an indication of the work that will be undertaken to support countries in introducing reforms that will result in more resilient, equitable, and effective systems by promoting teaching in the languages that students and teachers speak and understand best. [The report was edited by John Steinhardt.]

Many developing countries use employment guarantee programs to combat poverty. This paper examines the consequences of such employment guarantee programs for the human capital accumulation of children. It exploits the phased roll-out of India's flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) to study the effects on enrollment in schools and child labor. Introduction of MGNREGA results in lower relative school enrollment in treated districts. The authors find that the drop in enrollment is driven by primary school children. Children in higher grades are just as likely to attend school under MGNREGA, but their school performance deteriorates. Using nationally representative employment data, they find evidence indicating an increase in child labor highlighting the unintentional perverse effects of the employment guarantee schemes for Human capital.

The Delhi government in India recently launched its preschool curriculum for the city's 10,897 communitybased preschool centers. The draft National Education Policy of India, made public in June 2019, dedicates its first chapter to the importance of early childhood care and education and the need to extend the right to education to every child who is three to six years old. It is in this context that this paper urges the government to ensure that gender sensitivity is embedded in every initiative of early childhood education (ECE) in India from here onward. Based on interviews with mothers of preschool children in underresourced communities and with teachers as well as observations of government-supported preschool centers, this paper builds the current narrative of the preschool child's ecosystem; notes the lack of gender-sensitive pedagogy in this space; and makes recommendations for what a gender-transformative approach in ECE in India should entail for men and boys, girls and women, so that India can strive for a more gender-equitable society in the years to come.

In the past decade, hundreds of impact evaluation studies have measured the learning outcomes of education interventions in developing countries. The impact magnitudes are often reported in terms of "standard deviations," making them difficult to communicate to policy makers beyond education specialists. This paper proposes two approaches to demonstrate the effectiveness of learning interventions, one in "equivalent years of schooling" and another in the net present value of potential increased lifetime earnings. The results show that in a sample of low- and middle-income countries, one standard deviation gain in literacy skill is associated with between 4.7 and 6.8 additional years of schooling, depending on the estimation method. In other words, over the course of a business-as-usual school year, students learn between 0.15 and 0.21 standard deviation of literacy ability. Using that metric to translate the impact of interventions, a median structured pedagogy intervention increases learning by the equivalent of between 0.6 and 0.9 year of business-as-usual schooling. The results further show that even modest gains in standard deviations of learning--if sustained over time--may have sizeable impacts on individual earnings and poverty reduction, and that conversion into a non-education metric should help policy makers and non-specialists better understand the potential benefits of increased learning. [This paper is a product of the Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region and the World Development Report 2018 Team.]

This research was undertaken by teachers and students from 5 countries who were all working together on a Zero Waste project. The schools were in Borneo in Malaysia, Taiwan, the Punjab district of India, Jordan and the Southeast of the UK. It looks at how schools from such diverse areas of the world can work together successfully on a collaborative project and discusses the challenges and benefits of this partnership. The study aimed to show how working collaboratively with several countries can help to develop pupils' values of empathy and respect and make them aware of their responsibilities as global citizens. This report will give schools and teachers current information about work linked to climate change and the SDGs in the 5 participating countries, all of which fall into areas of the British Council's work. The data, which was collected through questionnaires and evaluations, showed surprising similarities between the schools. The enthusiasm for this work on Zero Waste and detailed answers from the students and teachers provided interesting information for this paper. The project was conducted during COVID-19, yet despite the many restrictions and home-learning taking place, the results have been very rewarding. [This paper was published by Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning in collaboration with the Development Education Research Centre (DERC). The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme is funded by the British Council and UK aid.]

This paper examines common instructional strategies in early grade mathematics interventions through a review of studies in classrooms in low- and middle-income countries. Twenty-four studies met the criteria for inclusion, and analyses reveal four sets of instructional strategies for which there is evidence from multiple contexts. Of the 24 studies, 16 involved the use of multiple representations, 10 involved the use of developmental progressions, 6 included supporting student use of explanation and justification, and 5 included integration of informal mathematics. Based on the review, we provide conclusions and recommendations for future research and policy.

This working paper will share the experience of Ashta No Kai (ANK), a grassroots nonprofit the author founded in 1998 in 10 villages in Shirur County, Maharashtra state, India, to promote the empowerment and education of women and girls in rural areas. The paper will, at first, examine the state of education in India including the Indian government's policies and programs that are attempting to address the gender gap in girls' education. Next, the barriers that girls in rural areas face to access their right to an education will be discussed followed by an introduction of various holistic, need-based, and low-cost educational interventions that ANK has initiated to address some of these impediments. Findings will then be reported from quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted, as well as case studies to gauge the impact of these interventions. Finally, the paper will propose evidence-based recommendations of integrated and sustainable strategies and approaches as guidance to policy practitioners to help promote educational outcomes and enhanced agency for adolescent girls to better navigate their world.

The aim of this study was to research the perceptions children in my school, a small rural primary school in England, have of India, the country with which we have an established international school partnership. The intention was to provide an insight into the images our children have developed over the course of our link project which began following a visit to India funded by the British Council and UK aid five years ago. The findings provide an interesting insight into what the children think about their partner country and will inform the development of similar projects in the future and encourage teachers who are considering developing international links to carefully consider their own preconceptions along with the aims of their projects. This will allow them to make informed choices about how best to approach the inclusion of resultant learning into their curriculum in a way which promotes critical global citizenship and does not simply reinforce stereotypes that may already exist. The research was originally designed to use children's drawings as a basis for semi-structured interviews with pupils in school however, due to COVID-19 restrictions, interviews have not been possible and so the data collection was adapted to take account of school closures and the remote learning provision provided by our school. As many children were learning remotely, the data was collected through the analysis of annotated children's drawings which were completed following online video input on our home learning platform. The research method was designed to access the voices of children from the entire primary age range in a child-friendly and effective way.

The global spread of COVID-19 has led to unprecedented disruptions in schooling around the world that have animated increased interest among policymakers, educators, researchers and the general public in knowing about how education systems have responded to the pandemic and how students' learning experiences have changed. The PISA Global Crises Module was developed to address this need. 62 student questionnaire items (grouped into 11 questions) and 68 school questionnaire items (grouped into 14 questions) were developed following a process that involved input from leading questionnaire development experts, PISA National Centres, as well as small-scale cognitive interview studies in three countries. While all countries were affected by the pandemic in some way, the module seeks to illuminate differential effects on student learning and well-being, and the degree of interruption or changes to education across different education systems. Governing bodies, organisations and researchers can use the instruments and the descriptions of the underlying constructs for adaptation and broader implementation.

The worldwide school closures in early 2020 led to losses in learning that will not easily be made up for even if schools quickly return to their prior performance levels. These losses will have lasting economic impacts both on the affected students and on each nation unless they are effectively remediated. While the precise learning losses are not yet known, existing research suggests that the students in grades 1-12 affected by the closures might expect some 3 percent lower income over their entire lifetimes. For nations, the lower long-term growth related to such losses might yield an average of 1.5 percent lower annual GDP for the remainder of the century. These economic losses would grow if schools are unable to re-start quickly. The economic losses will be more deeply felt by disadvantaged students. All indications are that students whose families are less able to support out-of-school learning will face larger learning losses than their more advantaged peers, which in turn will translate into deeper losses of lifetime earnings. The present value of the economic losses to nations reach huge proportions. Just returning schools to where they were in 2019 will not avoid such losses. Only making them better can. While a variety of approaches might be attempted, existing research indicates that close attention to the modified re-opening of schools offers strategies that could ameliorate the losses. Specifically, with the expected increase in video-based instruction, matching the skills of the teaching force to the new range of tasks and activities could quickly move schools to heightened performance. Additionally, because the prior disruptions are likely to increase the variations in learning levels within individual classrooms, pivoting to more individualised instruction could leave all students better off as schools resume. As schools move to re-establish their programmes even as the pandemic continues, it is natural to focus considerable attention on the mechanics and logistics of safe re-opening. But the long-term economic impacts also require serious attention, because the losses already suffered demand more than the best of currently considered re-opening approaches.

We use a panel survey of [approximately]19,000 primary-school-aged children in rural Tamil Nadu to study 'learning loss' after COVID-19-induced school closures, and the pace of recovery after schools reopened. Students tested in December 2021 (18 months after school closures) displayed learning deficits of [approximately]0.7[sigma] standard deviations in math and [approximately]0.34[sigma] standard deviations in language compared to identically-aged students in the same villages in 2019. Two-thirds of this deficit was made up within 6 months after school reopening. Further, while learning loss was regressive, the recovery was progressive. A government-run after-school remediation program contributed [approximately]24% of the cohort-level recovery, and likely aided the progressive recovery. [Financial support was provided by the RISE Programme--funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Financial support was also provided by the Asociacíon Mexicana de Cultura, A.C.]

This paper examines the digital revolution taking place in the Indian higher education sector, by (i) highlighting the drivers for change in the higher education landscape; (ii) reviewing the major initiatives undertaken by Indian authorities to facilitate lifelong learning for teachers, students, and those in employment that are in pursuit of knowledge free of cost, including the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning, the National Repository for Open Educational Resources, and SWAYAM, an indigenous information technology (IT) platform hosting MOOCs; and (iii) analysing the first generation of Indian MOOCs.

This working paper is part of the Studies in Early Transitions series emerging from "Young Lives", a 15-year longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. It explores recent trends for children growing up in Andhra Pradesh, one of India's most populous states, based on Young Lives survey data collected for a sample of 1950 young children born in 2001 plus in-depth qualitative research. The paper discusses how poverty levels and location are strongly predictive of whether children attend government or private pre-school. It highlights policy challenges stemming from weak governance of the pre-school sector, notably how the relatively-unregulated and rapidly-growing private sector offers to initiate children into formal learning, in English, from a much earlier age than normally considered to be developmentally appropriate. And it identifies how government provision could be improved and strengthened. "Young Lives" communities description is appended. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 8 footnotes.) [An earlier version of this paper was published as Working Paper 52 in "Young Lives'" own Working Paper series.]

Part of the "Studies in Early Transitions" series, this Working Paper draws on interviews and observations carried out as part of "Young Lives", a 15-year longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam based at the University of Oxford's Department of International Development. This paper focuses on the challenges of translating into practice the potential of quality early childhood care and education to transform young lives. These include building a positive equity agenda, setting clear policy objectives, raising quality standards, building the skills and motivation of teachers, and recognising where equity goals can be incompatible with a market-led private system. The paper asks which children do and do not have access to an early childhood programme, and explores children's and parents' views about the quality of what is on offer. A brief summary of data collection methods is appended. (Contains 2 boxes, 21 figures and 9 footnotes.)

The governments of India and Australia are working to enhance cooperation on training, at both official and industry level. As part of the exchange of ideas, Francesca Beddie, General Manager, Research, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, visited India in August 2009 at the invitation of the Australia-India Council. This paper explores some of the common challenges the countries face in reforming their vocational training systems. (Contains 1 box and 1 footnote.) [Support for this report was provided by the Australia-India Council.]

India demonstrates many features characteristic of private higher education in much of the world. Among these features are proportional size, with roughly 30 percent of total enrollment, and fast growth. Also rather typical is finance, which comes almost exclusively from non-government sources, principally tuition, while public higher education is mostly though decreasingly funded by government. Related to rapid growth and finance is the private sector's preponderance of commercial over academically strong institutions, bringing criticisms about quality and even fraud, including as many legally nonprofit institutions appear to be for-profit in reality. There are also religious and semi-elite private institutions but the clear majority of private enrollments lie in the non-elite and demand-absorbing sub-sector. Unsurprisingly, then, the extent and form of regulation is vigorously debated. All this is common internationally. On the other hand, though less powerfully, Indian private higher education also stands out for a number of relatively unusual configurations. Some are functions of the country's huge size. Its private sector nearly rivals that of the United States as the world's largest in absolute enrollment. Yet India's overall higher education system remains notably small in cohort enrollment--which suggests large latitude for further growth in the system overall and for the private share in particular. Another set of relatively unusual configurations relates to the political system. The world's greatest private growth is occurring in developing countries, most of which are non-democratic or problematically democratic. India is remarkably democratic. Indeed it is remarkably decentralized in its democracy, with a large role for individual states, Congress, and even the courts, and with vigorous debate among political parties. Debate over private higher education is particularly intense as deeply held socialist and state-oriented beliefs clash with the overall political-economic trend of privatization. (Contains 27 notes.) [This working paper is revised from "Commonality and Distinctiveness: Indian Private Higher Education in International Perspective," in eds. Asha Gupta, Daniel C. Levy, K.B. Powar, Private Higher Education: Global Trends and Indian Perspectives.]

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning points in children's lives--such as "graduating" from kindergarten to primary school or going through a culturally specific rite of passage--provide challenges and opportunities for learning and growth on multiple levels. This paper provides a review of the major perspectives in research on early childhood transitions and reveals the predominant areas of focus in both academic and professional studies, as well as important neglected viewpoints and study populations. Beginning with a broad and inclusive definition of the topic, the authors provide an overview of early childhood transitions research, highlighting the underlying assumptions that informed the studies. They assess concepts in the developmental theory that preceded transitions research as well as in the logic that determines how transitions are structured. More recent approaches are examined, including systems theories and the role of children as active participants in transitions. Several examples in this review show how multidisciplinary collaboration and culturally sensitive interventions can result in better participation of both parents and children in crucial early childhood transitions. Citing the need to harmonise early childhood education and care programmes with local education practices, the authors stress the value of greater transparency in the creation of policy and programming for children, in order to identify potentially limiting assumptions. Broadening and diversifying perspectives on transitions can lead to more integrated and culturally relevant rights-based early childhood programmes worldwide. A glossary and a bibliography are included. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

One of the salient concerns in contemporary higher education internationally is access, which is rapidly expanding. Another salient trend is the rapid expansion of private higher education. These two salient tendencies have not been treated in scholarship as heavily intertwined. Much of the reason is that many people associate "private" with "elite," in part because of the U.S. reality of leading private universities clearly associated with elite functioning. In much of the rest of the world, suspicion of privates runs deep and there is little disposition to couple the negative connotations of private with the positive connotations of access. Yet as enrolment has been rising rapidly and keeps increasing, there are strong limitations on what can be accommodated through public higher education. Practically, either access is spurned, widely considered politically, socially, and even economically untenable or there must be explosive growth of private higher education. This is largely a matter of demand for higher education greatly outdistancing at least the public supply of higher education. Thus, much of the link between access and private higher education concerns "demand-absorbing" institutions, which is not to overlook more specialized avenues of access to other types of private institutions. At any rate private higher education has grown powerfully in recent decades and seems destined to grow further. India is a marked case of still very low cohort enrolment in higher education but with great demand and rapid private growth. (Contains 10 endnotes.) [This working paper is slightly revised from a presentation at the PROPHE Panel on Access and Private Higher Education at the 52nd CIES Annual Conference, March 20, 2008.]

The object of this paper is to analyze the concepts of "entrepreneurship" and "entrepreneurial university" in the broader context of globalization, technological innovations and the emergence of knowledge-based and technology-driven economies. Instead of epistemological and organizational forms of knowledge production and dissemination, the universities today are required to play a protagonist role by training productive intellectual resource and generation of new knowledge that could be converted into wealth or social gains. They are no longer confined to teaching "about" entrepreneurship but are actively engaged in teaching "for" entrepreneurship. Instead of preparing their students for seamless path to work, the universities are required to prepare them for uncertainties, complexities and vulnerabilities in future. Besides highlighting some of the issues at stake, an attempt is made to understand the economics, philosophy and legality behind the whole idea of entrepreneurial universities in general and in India, in particular. The idea of social entrepreneurship is also introduced in the context of India. The methodology adopted is analytical, descriptive and empirical. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The following paper highlights the political, economic, socio-cultural, ethical, philosophical, legal, and practical aspects of the far-reaching theme of international trends in private higher education, in general. It also focuses on the driving forces, causes and consequences of the emergence of private higher education in India during the last three decades, in particular. Though there has been more acceptance of private higher education institutions in India today than the "trepidation" felt at their emergence three decades ago, certain basic questions about its role remain. Is the presence of the private sector in higher education inevitable? Is it desirable? Besides focusing on certain basic issues at stake, this paper discusses at length the role of judiciary in private higher education in India. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

One of the challenges that we currently face in achieving universal education is how do we ensure that girls, who have missed the school bus or simply got off the bus too early, can still realise their right to quality basic education? This paper reviews several key education initiatives implemented in the last decade to reach out to the out-of-school children and young women in particularly difficult circumstances through condensed or short-term residential education programmes--also known as "accelerated learning" (AL) programmes. The review indicates that evidence on the ground regarding the impact of the interventions is rather mixed and fragmented. AL programs have provided a much-needed opportunity to learn in a congenial environment characterised by child-centred learning and a multi-dimensional teacher-pupil relationship. Discussions with young women and girls who participated in condensed programmes across the country are revealing--in one voice they all said the experience was valuable and it was their only window into the world of education. However, at the same time programmes are often unable to sustain their achievements through forging of effective multiple linkages with the formal education system to ensure continuous learning. The paper asserts that since the demand for such interventions is increasing, the limitations as well as the potential of AL as a strategy needs to be critically engaged within our quest for achieving universal elementary education. (Contains 8 boxes, 5 tables, and 3 footnotes.)

The 21st century has brought new challenges and opportunities for higher education. In the wake of the transition from elitist to mass education, universities worldwide are under pressure to enhance access and equity, on the one hand, and to maintain high standards of quality and excellence, on the other. Today the notion of equity not only implies greater access to higher education, but also opportunities for progress. In recent debates on higher education, the notions of equity and access go beyond minority to diversity. Affirmative action, too, has become race-exclusive and gender-neutral. The following paper makes an attempt to understand the nuances of a caste-based reservation policy in higher education in light of recent controversies, court verdicts, a subsequent amendment to the constitution in India; and affirmative action policies, court verdicts, and alternatives to affirmative action in certain universities in the US. The objective is to bring out commonalities and contrasts between the two countries in terms of legal, political, socio-cultural, economic, and psychological perspectives.

In this paper, we use a unique two-stage experiment that randomized access to school vouchers across both markets and students in rural India to estimate the revealed preference value of school choice. In the first step of the research design, we develop an empirical model of school choice subject to liquidity and credit constraints that is estimated using data from only the control markets. Based on this exercise, we estimate that the voucher generated welfare gains exceeding four times the average private school's annual tuition on average to the students induced into private schooling. The second step of the research design will validate the estimated welfare impacts by comparing model predictions for a simulated voucher program in control markets with the data from the treatment group. The results in this paper are based on the first step (using only control data) and this draft serves as a pre-commitment to the model estimates and predictions before examining the experimental data.

The United States has long enjoyed being on the cutting edge in its devotion to building a vibrant higher education sector. After a century of leading the world in participation rates in higher education, however, there are strong indications that America's advantage is waning. The academic research enterprise remains relatively vibrant. However, participation and degree attainment rates have leveled off and are showing signs of actual decline in a number of major states with large populations--and this seems to be more than just a bump or short-term market correction. Other competitive nations, and in particular key members of the European Union, along with China, India and other developing economies, are aggressively nurturing their higher education systems, expanding access, and better positioning themselves in the global economy. They have been trying harder, while in the US public funding for higher education has declined. The nation's international and domestic concerns lie elsewhere. In addition to outlining these reasons that America's higher education advantage is waning, this article also discusses the possible consequences. (Contains 53 notes.)

Decentralization and an increased emphasis on community and parent participation represent significant education reform trends over the past decade. These reforms take place in the context of increased emphasis within Education for All (EFA) on improving education quality and outcomes and on strengthening accountability for results. They require that substantial information be available to local and regional stakeholders, school officials, and communities in order to increase transparency, establish a basis for accountability, and provide tools for effective management at the local level. Parents, teachers, school officials, and other stakeholders must be able to assess school performance and status. A number of countries are experimenting with school-level information systems known as "school report cards" to increase accountability and transparency. These systems have different formats and purposes, ranging from strict accountability systems that measure student performance to participatory diagnostic and management tools that support school managers. Efforts are relatively novel, and substantial evaluation information is not yet available. The purpose of this report is to present the various types of school report cards and information systems currently being used and establish a typology for understanding the range of audiences and purposes for such systems, as well as the continuum of cost and sophistication involved.

"Can You Hear Me? The Right of Young Children to Participate in Decisions Affecting Them" emphasises that participation enhances children's self-esteem and confidence, promotes their overall capacities, produces better outcomes, strengthens understanding of and commitment to democratic processes and protects children more effectively. Participation provides the opportunity for developing a sense of autonomy, independence, heightened social competence and resilience. The benefits are therefore significant, and adults with both direct and indirect responsibility for children need to acquire a greater humility in recognising that they have a great deal to learn from children. But the case for listening to young children goes beyond the beneficial outcomes. It is also a matter of social injustice and human rights. All people, however young, are entitled to be participants in their own lives, to influence what happens to them, to be involved in creating their own environments, to exercise choices and to have their views respected and valued. (Contains 4 footnotes.)

There is hardly any estimate of returns to schooling in India based on national level representative data for the recent period. This paper provides estimates of the economic returns to education in India by gender, age cohort, and location (by rural-urban) for the most recent period 1993-94, and also evaluates the changes in returns over a period of time from 1983-94 using national level representative household survey data. These are the only national surveys in India that provide information on the wages and some of the labor market characteristics of individuals. The data show that the returns to education increases up to the secondary level and declines thereafter. There is evidence of substantial gender and rural-urban differences in the returns to schooling. The returns to women's education for the primary and middle levels have declined while those for secondary and college levels have increased during 1983-94. Also discussed briefly are the structure of education and the labor market in India. Includes 6 notes. (Contains 21 references and 13 tables.) (BT)