India has more uneducated people than anywhere in the world – partly because of a preference for sons

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India has more uneducated people than anywhere in the world – partly because of a preference for sons

Despite education being offered as a fundamental right, more than 40% of India’s children drop out of elementary school.

India is home to the world’s largest population of illiterates. And part of the blame, according to a new study, may lie in the country’s preference for sons over daughters.

Despite education being offered as a fundamental right, more than 40% of India’s children drop out of elementary school – and the country has more than 287 million illiterates, 37% of the global total. Moreover, 40% children are stunted in India, which means they don’t grow to their full potential because they don’t get the necessary resources.

Part of the blame lies in the cultural preference towards the male sex, according to Adriana Kugler of Georgetown University and Santosh Kumar of Sam Houston State University who authored the working paper, published by the American non-profit, National Bureau of Economic Research.

They come to these conclusions by analysing district-level household survey from 2007-08 to examine the impact on educational outcomes and the national family health survey from 2005-06 to examine the impact of family size on weight and height of young children. Both these surveys are among the most comprehensive surveys produced in the country.

One way in which this bias manifests is in families where, when the first born is a girl, parents will continue to have more children until they have a boy. Thus, in a society that prefers sons, the first child’s sex in India becomes an indicator whether or not a second child will be planned, and of the total number of children in the household. This, in turn, decides the size of the family.

This situation does not have much effect on children’s literacy or health in a rich family. There these “extra” children tend to receive at least the minimum amount of resources needed to survive and thrive. In lower caste, rural and poor households, however, the limited resources means that an extra child takes away some resources from all the children in the family.

An extra child in the family reduces schooling, on average, by 0.1 years. Furthermore, that extra child reduces the probability of ever attending or being enrolled in school by up to 2%. Both numbers may seem small, but for the size of India’s young population, the upshot is that millions don’t go to school enough or at all.

However, the impact of an extra child “in terms of reducing enrolment and attendance double and the impact of an extra child on years of schooling increase fourfold for illiterate and poor mothers, suggesting much larger gains from reducing family size in disadvantaged households,” according to the report.

Kugler and Kumar also looked at the effect on the health of children as families became larger. But they got mixed results on the impact it had had. However, Quartz recently reported that another study by Northwestern University’s Seema Jayachandran and Harvard University’s Rohini Pande had clearly shown negative results.

The Indian first and eldest son tends to be taller than an African firstborn. If the eldest child of the family is a girl, and a son is born next, the son will still be taller in India than Africa.

For girls, however, the India-Africa height deficit is large. It is the largest for daughters with no older brothers, probably because repeated attempts to have a son takes a beating on the growth of the girls.


As is the case with any working paper, there is a chance that Kugler and Kumar’s finding may not withstand stronger scrutiny. However, Kugler remains confident. “We have done many robustness checks so the results are unlikely to change,” she told Quartz.

Pakistan floods hit more than 10,000 schools: UN

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Pakistani children displaced by floods listen to a teacher at an army-run makeshift camp in Sehwan, Sindh province, on September 21, 2010

Pakistan floods hit more than 10,000 schools: UN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's flood crisis has damaged more than 10,000 schools, affecting several million pupils and requiring massive investment in a nation struggling with literacy, the UN warned Wednesday.

Torrential rain began falling in northern Pakistan in July and the floods have since moved slowly south, wiping out villages and farmland, and affecting an area roughly the size of England.

“Five to six per cent of all schools have been damaged by the floods. This means that between 1.5 to 2.5 million students have been affected,” Umar Amal, an official with UNESCO, told a news conference.

“That number can rise and it will rise,” he said, unable to estimate how much it would cost to repair the damaged infrastructure.

The United Nations has issued a record two-billion-dollar appeal to cope the disaster, which UN agencies say affected 21 million people and and left 12 million in need of emergency food aid.

Amal said more than 9,780 government schools were damaged - 2,700 fully and 7,000 partially.

The number of private schools affected - a statistic he said was not yet available - would push the figure beyond 10,000, he said.

The UN Children's Fund has said over 10 million children have been affected by the flooding, including 2.8 million under five-year-olds.

Education standards are poor in much of Pakistan, particularly in the most impoverished, rural areas worst hit by the floods.

Primary school enrollment is around 57 per cent and government expenditure on education accounts for just 2.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.

The overall adult literacy rate is 57 per cent and Pakistan has three years to meet a Millennium Development Goal target of 88 per cent.

But many of the flood-affected areas have far worse rates - for example in rural parts of southwestern province Baluchistan female literacy can be as low as seven percent, Amal said.

“Already before the floods, they were lagging behind... If 9,000 schools are partially damaged and 2,000 schools fully damaged you need a huge investment in education to re-activate it,” he warned.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a further 5,563 schools are still being used to shelter about 567,000 people displaced in the crisis. – AFP

Teachers’ protest closes varsities across country By Mansoor Malik

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Teachers applying black bands on the arms of each other during a demonstration organized by Academic Staff Association against cut in the budget of Higher Education Commission.

Teachers’ protest closes varsities across country By Mansoor Malik

LAHORE: Public sector universities across the country suspended on Wednesday all academic activities in protest against the government’s decision to slash recurring grants and its refusal to release funds for meeting a raise in salary of employees.

All academic associations under the banner of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) held demonstrations in almost all universities in the country, including Azad Kashmir. They urged the federal government to release funds to allow universities to continue their academic, research and expansion activities. It has been learnt that over 90 per cent of the universities are unable to pay the raise in salary and have been urging the government to provide additional grants. A massive cut of Rs6.8 billion in the budget has led to stoppage of almost all development projects in universities.

Officials said that the government had diverted resources from all sectors to rehabilitation of flood-affected people, but the FAPUASA officials contended the decisions to reduce grants and not to pay additional funds for the increased salary had been made much before the flood. The discontinuation of funds will also affect the National Education Policy’s goal of developing infrastructure and human resources to triple the enrolment in universities.

The FAPUASA had started protesting against the financial cut soon after the announcement of federal budget in June, but toned it down after floods. The FAPUASA president, Prof Dr Mahr Saeed Akhtar, announced that universities across the country would observe a one-hour academic boycott on Thursday. He said the federation’s executive body would hold a meeting in Islamabad on Friday and stage a demonstration in front of National Assembly on Saturday.

Prof Akhtar said that for the first time all vice-chancellors had supported the stance taken by the federation. He alleged that the government was not committed to promoting education because it was funding ‘self-projection’ initiatives and depriving the universities of their share. He said the universities needed Rs10 billion to continue academic activities and carry out development projects.

In reply a question about the constitution of a committee by the prime minister to look into the matter, Prof Akhtar said it was an exercise in futility. “It is a very simple issue and can be resolved if the federal government releases the already pledged funds to the Higher Education Commission and give additional funds to meet 50pc pay raise and 15pc medical allowance.” He said the shortage of funds would force universities to suspend faculty and human resources development projects and affect investment made in the higher education sector over the past 10 years.

The protest gained momentum after statements by the ministers of finance and education. Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh had told vice-chancellors that the funds pledged to universities and for the higher education sector would not be released. He asked the universities to raise fees to generate resources.

Education Minister Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali had accused the teachers’ community of using students to get their salary raised.

The Punjab University Academic Staff Association and Engineering University Teaching Staff Association jointly staged a demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club. Faculty members of all public sector universities in Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi, Bahawalpur, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujrat also boycotted academic activities and brought out processions.

Faculty members of the Karachi University passed a resolution demanding immediate release of funds, abolition of the Higher Education Commission and an unconditional apology from the finance minister and former HEC chairperson for making offensive remarks against public sector universities.

Teachers of Islamia University in Bahawalpur boycotted classes and observed a black day by wearing black armbands.

Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran, Punjab University’s Vice-Chancellor, said that big universities with massive infrastructure and resources might survive, but the small and new universities had no resources to generate funds.

A nine-member committee, led by the Planning Commission’s Nadeem-ul-Haq will hold a meeting on Thursday. The outcome of the meeting will determine the future course of action by the FAPUASA.

School clarifies on wall collapse

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School clarifies on wall collapse

The management of Esperanza school has clarified that it was not the school compound wall that collapsed leading to the death of a woman in Singadikunta of Banjara hills on Tuesday. Referring to a news item published in these columns, the school management said in a statement that the woman died after a wall belonging to a government land adjacent to the school collapsed.

Junior college in sorry state By Swathi.V

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Appalling: Students of Government Junior College for Boys at Malakpet are forced to sit outdoors due to the precarious condition of the college building.

Junior college in sorry state  By Swathi.V

HYDERABAD: Even as the sun blazes down on the city, the inside of the Government Junior College for Boys at Malakpet is dank, dark and all mouldy.

A half of each classroom is discarded and students huddle in the other half towards exit, hoping to escape the imminent wall-collapse. Torrential rain of this season have only increased their fears.

“Seven classrooms, five labs and the library are in a ramshackle condition. It has been raining copiously, and we are in constant fear. Rainwater streams into the classrooms too,” says Pradip (name changed), a student. For fear of collapse, some classes are even conducted outdoors.

Water seepage through walls messed up the light tubes and students struggle to read in the sparse daylight. Equipment in labs was partially damaged due to exposure to moisture. Walls developed lengthy cracks and chipped in large patches. Mosquitoes flourished inside the college with abandon. In addition, toilets are defunct and there is no water supply.

To put it in a nutshell, the 50-year-old building badly needs replacement, while the powers that be are not even willing to grant funds for repairs. This could be the status of all the government junior colleges constructed decades ago, because money for Intermediate education does not come easy. Till 15 years ago, engineers from Public Works Department would make an annual assessment of all government buildings and carry out the required repairs. Now they don't do it because funds are not available.

Board of Intermediate Education recently released a meagre Rs.3 lakh through the Social Welfare Department, but the engineers who came for inspection concluded that the funds would not suffice even the slab repairs.

According to sources, college authorities have written to the Director of Intermediate Education who directed them to request the district Collector for allocation from MPLAD funds.

The Collector in turn asked them to get permission from either of the two MPs whose funds remained unused.

“Now, it has become our responsibility to go with a begging bowl. It is in such conditions we are to improve the pass percentage of students many of who are children of migrant labourers and can't afford education in private colleges. If the college collapses, they will be forced to stop studies,” lecturers say.

As of now, only 300-plus of the 700 students admitted into the college attend classes, they say.