Schooling for All: Can We Neglect the Demand?

Does substantial expansion of educational facilities by itself create the required demand for education? Since demand for education depends on many socio-economic, political, and religious factors, is the supply of free schooling alone adequate? Schooling for All demonstrates that there is still a substantial need to create demand for schooling among all levels of society, especially in those socio-economic groups which are yet to see the importance of education.The volume critically analyses the primary drawbacks of the Indian education system-non-enrolment, dropouts, irregular attendance, and inadequate learning. It establishes the need to strongly encourage parents to recognize the importance of education for their children’s future. Arguing that supply-side strategies-free education, midday meals, opening more schools-have not proved effective since the problem of inadequate demand is much larger, the authors delineate the measures that are required to boost the demand for education in India.