Higher education in West Bengal: a comparative analysis of NSS Report 517 - Status of Education and Vocational Training in India, 2004-05

Abstract

For a middle income state, WB’s share of the population with ‘at least higher secondary education’ is very low. However its share of the population with ‘a graduate degree or above’ is relatively much higher. The difference in performance is due to the very high probability of opting for under-graduate education after finishing higher secondary. This high probability is underpinned by an exceedingly high preference, across both geography and gender, for under-graduate education vis-à-vis diploma programmes as a post-higher secondary choice. In terms of higher education attainments, WB is characterised by the sharpest rural-urban divide in our sample and rural WB with amongst the highest levels of gender discrimination. Urban WB is very different in terms of gender equity partly because the gender probability gap in opting for under-graduate education is in favour of females. Our analysis suggests that there is a strong correlation between the share of the population with ‘at least higher secondary education’ and per capita income levels. It also suggests that preference patterns within tertiary education maybe correlated with human development. A few policy recommendations are made keeping in the above.