QUALITY AND COST OF EDUCATION IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Irfan Ahmad Sofi and Mohammed Shakeel

Abstract

This paper studies fundamental reasons behind the shift in students’ interest from government institutions to private institutions in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and compare it with the rest of India. In addition to that, we study average expenditure per student for different levels of education across government and private institutions. Besides, we investigate whether the people of Jammu and Kashmir are at par with the rest of India in terms of basic computer knowledge. The study is based on the National Sample Survey Organization’s 71st survey, 2014. Data suggests that the availability of government institutions is relatively higher in J&K than the rest of India. However, students still prefer private institutions due to lack of quality in government institutions. Students across all India too cite the same as one of the reasons why they prefer private institutions. Further, the data shows that average expenditure in J&K is higher for lower levels of education, and lower for college education and diploma courses. The average expenditure per student in J&K’s government institutions is systematically higher than that at all India level, for most of the categories of education.

Keyword: Expenditure, Cost, Survey, Education, Private and Government.