Obstacles to Inclusive Primary Education: A Demand Side Perspective

The Indian economy that aspires to emerge as an economic superpower has made tardy progress on the front of universalisation of primary education. The explanation for this has normally been sought in terms of insufficient primary education infrastructure created, higher opportunity cost of education, lack of commitment on the part of the providers especially attitude of teachers, poor quality of education etc. The issue of explaining the problem from the side of demand has however not interested researchers and analysts much.A big chunk of population in India is deprived not purely because the society excludes them or the facilities are not available; the exclusion is on account of unwillingness of the deprived section to get educated as it sees no apparent benefit from the education it can dream of getting. This means that children may not be deprived of schooling by the educational system rather they themselves/their parent do not have will and positive attitude to be educated. It is imperative therefore to measure the demand for primary education by developing suitable index and come up with interventions that by making primary education productive and useful boost demand for it.