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This article explores the notion of the duality principle, as embodied in the German dual system of Vocational Education and Training (VET), within the context of a field survey of skill shortages faced by German and Indian firms operating in India. The study finds that these firms experience problems with the quantity and quality of skills supplied and, in response to these problems, use some form of in-house training for new recruits and employees. Firms also express a willingness to cooperate in skill-development programmes and in joint funding with government. The article makes a strong case for adapting some of the critical elements of the German dual system to render Indian VET more responsive to the labour market and provide a formally structured and integrated system of skill development.

In the first decade of this century, India became one of the world's fastest growing large economies, and began to face serious skill-related shortages of workers. Its TVET system has not responded adequately to the growth in demand for semi-skilled and skilled workers. This article describes six sets of reforms that India's educational planners and policy-makers must put into place if these shortages are not to constrain India's ability to benefit from the demographic dividend.

India's Parliament passed the Right to Education Act in 2009, which entitles all children 6-14 years old to at least eight years of schooling. This paper examines the cost of achieving this right to education, and asks whether India can fill the financing gap that must be filled if the right is to be realized. The paper notes the very considerable increase in central and state government allocation implied by the Act, and finds that there will be difficulties in finding the resources, given the large fiscal deficit occasioned by the global economic crisis. However, the paper goes on to suggest a series of measures that can be taken so that the right to schooling is no more denied or delayed. (Contains 3 tables.)

Private sector growth in education is the new neo-liberal mantra. Based on data generated by a representative sample survey in eight states, six of which account for two-thirds of the children out of school in India, this paper examines the private sector in elementary education in India, and compares its characteristics with government schools. It argues that the majority of private schools at the lower end of a segmented private sector do not contribute to gender and social equity. Despite their better physical facilities their teachers are poorly paid and trained; and although their outcome and process indicators are better than for government schools, they remain unregulated and offer a poor alternative to low quality government schools. (Contains 3 tables and 5 notes.)

This paper reports on findings from a large sample survey in the states of India that account for two thirds of the children out of school. It then examines the feasibility of the central government's goals to ensure all children complete 5 years of school by 2007, and 8 years by 2010. These goals--more ambitious than the global EFA goals--are unlikely to be achieved without significant reforms by the central and state governments. It examines key reform options: in the public spending pattern; improving teacher accountability and work environment; incentives to improve demand for schooling; and the private sector. It argues that central to universalizing elementary education will be improving the level, equity and efficiency of public spending. However, even with these reforms, improving teacher accountability will still remain key to the achievement of the goals.

The global economic crisis hit the Indian economy at a time when it was riding a wave of unprecedentedly high growth. This article argues that while the global crisis has particularly impacted exports, and hence growth, and worsened the fiscal balance, India is already returning to an 8% per annum growth. The limited impact, the article argues, has been driven by the fact that both savings and investments have risen sharply in the first decade of the millennium and are likely to remain high. It is the domestic savings/investment as well as the domestic markets that are driving the growth. However, the article also highlights a series of long-term challenges that policy-makers must address if rapid growth is to be sustained and poverty sharply reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private sector growth in education is the new neo‐liberal mantra. Based on data generated by a representative sample survey in eight states, six of which account for two‐thirds of the children out of school in India, this paper examines the private sector in elementary education in India, and compares its characteristics with government schools. It argues that the majority of private schools at the lower end of a segmented private sector do not contribute to gender and social equity. Despite their better physical facilities their teachers are poorly paid and trained; and although their outcome and process indicators are better than for government schools, they remain unregulated and offer a poor alternative to low quality government schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports on findings from a large sample survey in the states of India that account for two thirds of the children out of school. It then examines the feasibility of the central government''s goals to ensure all children complete 5 years of school by 2007, and 8 years by 2010. These goals—more ambitious than the global EFA goals—are unlikely to be achieved without significant reforms by the central and state governments. It examines key reform options: in the public spending pattern; improving teacher accountability and work environment; incentives to improve demand for schooling; and the private sector. It argues that central to universalising elementary education will be improving the level, equity and efficiency of public spending. However, even with these reforms, improving teacher accountability will still remain key to the achievement of the goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: There has been an increasing “informalization” and “feminization” of the labor force in developing countries over the past few decades. One aspect of these twin phenomena is the growth of subcontracted homework in manufacturing. Homework has a dual and contradictory character: It can be the source of exploitation of workers, but under some conditions, it can foster human development and the emergence of microenterprises and promote local development. This paper draws on surveys carried out in two low-income South Asian countries—India and Pakistan—where homework is widespread. It examines the social protection needs of these women workers, and also argues for public action to promote such work as a possible new labor-intensive growth strategy in developing countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]