Economics of school education in Kerala

Abstract

Household expenditure on education has a crucial role in the human capital formation of a region. Similarly public expenditure on education is also pivotal in determining the educational progress. Pervious research on educational finance seldom enquired the interrelationship between household expenditure and government expenditure on school education in India as well as in Kerala. The identification of the factors that determines the household and government expenditure on education in Kerala is a matter under consideration. More specifically the major goal of the present study is to identify the determinants of household expenditure on school education in India as well as in Kerala. For this purpose, the study has used primary and secondary data. By using these data, both quantitative and qualitative methods has been used to analyse the data. From the analysis, the study found that government expenditure on education has crucial role in determining the household expenditure on school education in India as well as in Kerala. Analysis results reveal that the disparity on expenditure on education is ubiquitous with respect to various parameters such as gender, geography and income. Based on these findings the present study argues that government expenditure on education should be increased to enhance the quantity and quality of school education in India as well as in Kerala.