Economics of Quality Education and Paths Leading into and out of Quality Education: Evidence from Debre Markos University, Ethiopia

The difference in economic development among nations entirely emanates from difference in human capital development as it is the priority pathway out of poverty, diverse socio-economic and environmental crises. Although, huge investment in human capital development has long been made, mere investment will never lead to quality labor force unless paths for quality education are well substantiated. This study identifies viable paths to quality education using cross-sectional survey design by making data acquisition from 150 students selected using multistage sampling. Factor analysis and path analysis were employed to identify principal components explaining most of the variation in academic performance and to identify statistically significant paths leading into and out of quality education, respectively. Accordingly, labor market demand (unemployment), student's learning-attitude, communication skill, curriculum teaching method and learning facility are statistically significant factors, together explaining 74% of the variation in academic performance of students. Path analysis result indicated that the availability of learning facilities and macroeconomic situations (perceived unemployment and perceived employment-by-chance) is statistically significant. Thus, paradigm shifts in both internal (students and institutions) and external forces are needed. Specifically, ensuring cumulative grade point average (CGPA)-based employment as compared to chance-based employment followed by fulfillment of learning facilities will equip students for better academic results. Besides, the interaction of curriculum revision and learning facilities, and assisting students from lowincome family are necessary policy synergy interventions to realize the quest of "quality education-quality labor force for economic development" if implemented with greater inter-sector integration from micro to macro levels.