1. New Volunteer Orientation Asha Seattle www.ashanet.org/seattle Asha Seattle

2. One view of India Great economic growth rate, emerging world power, nuclear state, etc. Thomas Friedman, 3 time Pulitzer Prize winner, referring to outsourcing, says –you know you're in Bangalore, you know you're in the Silicon Valley of India … when you go to play golf and the caddy on the first tee says you can either aim at the Microsoft building or the IBM building. –You know you're at Bangalore when you see the Pizza Hut advertisement says "gigabytes of taste." –“the flattening of the global economic playing field in a way that is allowing more people from more places to compete and collaborate” –In Silicon Valley today, "B to B" stands for "back to Bangalore” –India “has a huge number of educated people who speak English”. Huge demand for education –Numerous increase in colleges, especially for software

3. And the other view Unable to read and write (age >= 7) : –61% of women, 36% of men < 30% of all adults had completed schooling Fraction of children aged 6-14 out of school –1/3 rd (23 million boys, 36 million girls) * Based on National Family Health Survey, 1992-93 *

4. Where do we stand in the world? * Number of schooling years for an average adult * India ChinaS. KoreaSri Lanka Male Female

5. Did you know? Female literacy rates in India lower than in Sub-Saharan Africa According to Human Development Report, 1998, only 5 countries have higher male- female literacy gap: Bhutan, Syria, Togo, Malawi and Mozambique –No country has higher male-female literacy gap than Rajasthan

6. Schooling and Family Parents’ attitude to education –‘Is it important for a boy to be educated?’ 98% Yes –‘Is it important for a girl to be educated?’ 89% Yes –‘Should primary education be made compulsory for all children?’ 80% Yes (even the no answers are mostly on pragmatic grounds (“won’t be easy to pass as law”), not principled ones) Times of India (August 1997): “..illiterate and semi-literate parents see no reason to send their children to school”

7. Reasons for education Boys –Improves employment opportunities (87%) –Improves social status (29%) –Improves self-esteem (24%) Girls –Helps to write letters and keep accounts (50%) –Improves employment and income opportunities (40%) –Improves marriage prospects (35%) Girls’ upbringing viewed from the point of view of marriage, not many employment opportunities for adult women –Hence parental interest substantially lower for girl children Social dimension to education –Many parents say that “if other parents send their girls to school, so would we”

8. Taking a look again…. Parental motivation for schooling is high Yet education remains a problem in India What’s going on?

9. Some Reasons … Motivation for Education vs Motivation for Schooling - No matter what ‘Quality education’ is, requires adequate school facilities, responsible teachers, etc. Discouragement effect - Some parents feel education is not really achievable for them Work Vs Study –NSS data coupled with PROBE results indicate only a small minority of children work as full-time wage laborers (NSS’93: ~7% All-India rural) –Vast majority of children are family laborers, usually going the other way: children often work because they drop out of school, not vice versa –One example is that of eldest daughters, who take care of the younger kids at home (‘school jayegi, jab ye sab bade ho jayenge’)

10. Reasons continue … Cost of Education –Average cost of sending a child to school Rs. 318 per year Uniform and clothes: 159 Textbooks and stationery: 99 Private tuitions: 25 Absence of schools –% of rural population living within 1km of a primary school is high (>90%) –% of rural population living within 1km of an upper-primary school ~50% Varieties of other problems such as poor school environment, social discrimination, poor teacher-student ratio, bad education management …

11. Infant Mortality Source: UN Development Report 2005 & National Sample Survey, India & National Family & Health Survey.

12. Malnutrition India (47, 18) Sub-Saharan Africa (29, 8) Moderate & Severe Severe

13. Government Expenditure in Health Sector Mexico (17%) China GhanaSri LankaIndonesiaIndia (3%)