Education is considered as the most important determinant of a person’s economic and social status. “Education is consumption as far as it satisfies cultural needs and attains cultural goals” says Schultz. Thus education is considered as consumption if it is imparted for the sole purpose of achieving cultural goals, or for providing knowledge for knowledge sake. Hayden elucidates that, education is imparted with a view to developing personality and character of the child, his capacity to lead and enjoy full life and spiritual and aesthetic value in him. According to Walsh, “consumption education is clearly not the result of ‘rational’ profit seeking calculations”. Consumption education may be illustrated thus: In the past, education was imparted solely for the purpose of meeting cultural needs; and accordingly it’s curriculum included liberal arts, classics, literature, and history, which students learned for their own sake, and to imbibe the culture imbedded in the curriculum. In other words learning in no way contributed or at least supposed to be so, to the development of skills or the productive capacity of the individual. Primary education of contemporary India, to a large extent, is analogous to this traditional education.
Both individuals and society are the beneficiaries of consumption education. In the case of former (individual or private consumption) the individual derives the psychic satisfaction from education. He values education for the sake of possessing it; and also in preference over other items such as food, shelter, clothing, medicine etc., he spends money for the same. In the case of the latter (social or public consumption) the state values education for the cultural advancement of its citizen; and in preference over other items such as agriculture, industry, health and other social welfare activities, it spends revenue on education.
In economics, a product or service is considered as consumption if it gives satisfaction or utility immediately. In economics there are two types of goods. One is free goods and another one is economic good. Economics is concerned only with economic goods because in economics goods are scarce and are capable of being apportioned or economised. Thus economics deals with economic good. Education is an economic good.
Economic goods are of two types – material and non material. Non material good is a service rendered by a person which satisfies a want. Education is one of the most important non – material good produced by economy. Education enables a person to acquire a non – material, multiple use, durable goods of great importance, both for him and for the society.
A good used by an individual to satisfy his wants is a consumer good; and good used in the process of producing other goods is a producer’s good education is both consumer’s good and a producer’s good. When one uses the acquired knowledge to enjoy or appreciate any material or non – material good, it is a consumer’s good. Needless to say that education helps the individual to enjoy free goods such as the beauties and mysteries of nature, as well as to appreciate economic goods such as art, music and literature. When one uses the acquired knowledge (in the broad sense of the term, including all things learned) to produce material or non – material goods that satisfy human wants, it is a producer’s good; and in fact teachers, physicians, mechanics, and engineers do this.
Education as consumption is education as a fundamental human right, one of the rights of every citizen in any country. Education is consumption good for those who enjoy the lectures and the home work given including reading. Education is consumption in countries where the students drop out at the primary or secondary level. Like any other normal goods, education can also be claimed as a normal consumption good, an increase in wealth will produce an increase in the amount of schooling purchased. Increased incomes are associated with higher schooling attainment as the simple result of an income effect. If this is so, schooling increases an individual’s wealth only by the consumption value of the good, since it is a non –salable asset.
Students drop out of school due to various reasons such as lack of facilities in the schools (no proper buildings, library, laboratory, teaching aids, instructional materials, teaching and evaluation, lack of infrastructure, less number of teachers, playground etc.) and non availability of well trained teachers. Generally in government schools, there are only a few teachers to handle the classes. In some schools a single teacher has to teach all the subjects for a particular class. Moreover these teachers are not well qualified and if so there are only a few teachers who can handle the classes efficiently. Due to this reason, quality of teaching is also decreasing. This being so in rural areas on one side, the schools and colleges in urban areas are also not an exception to these problems. In urban areas there are schools with better facilities than in rural areas. Even in these schools, there are teachers who are not well qualified and trained. They are not in a position to handle the latest instructional materials. For example, virtual class has not become popular in India as in other developed countries. Most of the teachers do not even have the knowledge or rather an idea about virtual class and other modern techniques of teaching. Due to the reasons stated above and for other reasons as well, even the intelligent students have to drop out of the school and even if they complete their schooling, they are not in a position to compete with students who come from good educational background.
Financial condition of the students is another reason for the drop out. The students who opt for private schools have to pay more towards tuition fee and these schools have only lower dropout rates. Many cannot join private schools due to their financial condition. Similarly, whether it is a private school or government school, students have to go for private tuition if teaching in school is not good. This is again a burden on the part of the parents. Since all the students are not financially sound, a few may go private tuition and others drop out of the school, especially the girls. This is another reason why even some of the intelligent students also have to wind up their education and go for work to support their family. Child labour is a crime too.
Secondly, students who do well in high school and in college entrance exams are likely to graduate. Students are admitted at the college level on the basis of merit. For instance, those who are in the top quarter of their class at the high school are admitted in the college with high standard like IIT’s, IIM’S and other top level institution and universities; those in middle quarter of the class at the high school with mediocre educational background have to opt for mediocre colleges and those in bottom quarter of the class are either forced to opt for other colleges with little facilities or have to stop their education with the school itself. Here also exists a disparity in the standard of education and when they complete their education and come out of the college, the last quarter of the students with less standard are not competent enough to take up a job. They are either underemployed or not employed at all. This increases the rate of unemployment in the country. This is a colossal waste both for the individual as well as for the society. This rather becomes consumption than investment. Even at the college level infrastructural facility is not good. The teaching techniques are obsolete. In certain colleges, the teachers are underpaid and for this reason, teachers do not take much effort to teach their students. Ultimately, the students fall prey to the system of education.
Hence, in order to make education more fruitful, the authorities and government should see that every institution has necessary facilities for the students to study and also the atmosphere congenial for their study. Outdated technologies should be replaced by new ones, qualified teachers should be appointed and in service and pre service training should be given to the teachers so that they will be up-to-date in their field. Above all, guidance and counseling should be given to the students both by the institution and the government about the job opportunities and the subjects they have to choose, would go a long way in deciding their future.
All these amount to mean that students who come out of the school as well as college should be competent enough in the open competition and should be able to fetch jobs as per their qualifications. Being idle without going for any job will make education consumption rather than investment.
