1. What reasons would you give for the rather sizable school dropout rates in developing countries? What might be done to lower these rates?
2. It is often asserted that educational systems in developing countries, especially in rural areas, are unsuited to the real social and economic needs of development. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain your reasoning.
3. How would you explain the fact that relative costs of and returns to higher education are so much higher in developing than in developed countries?
4. What is the supposed rationale for subsidizing higher education in many developing countries? Do you think that it is a legitimate rationale from an economic viewpoint? Explain your answer.
5. What do we mean by the economics of education? To what extent do you think educational planning and policy decisions ought to be guided by economic considerations? Explain, giving hypothetical or actual examples.
6. What is meant by the statement "The demand for education is a ‘derived demand' for high-paying modern-sector job opportunities"?
7. Distinguish carefully between private and social benefits and costs of education. What economic factors give rise to the wide divergence between private and social benefit-to-cost valuations in most developing countries? Should governments attempt through their educational and economicpolicies to narrow the gap between private and social valuations? Explain.
8. Describe and comment on each of the following education-development relationships:
a. Education and economic growth: Does education promote growth? How?
b. Education, inequality, and poverty: Do educational systems typical of most developing countries tend to reduce, exacerbate, or have no effect on inequality and poverty? Explain with specific reference to a country with which you are familiar or investigate.
c. Education and migration: Does education stimulate rural-urban migration? Why?
d. Education and fertility: Does the education of women tend to reduce their fertility? Why?
e. Education and rural development: Do most formal educational systems in developing countries contribute substantially to the promotion of rural development? Explain.
f. Education and the brain drain: What factorscause the international migration of high-leveleducated workers from developing to developed countries? What do we mean by the internal brain drain? Explain, giving examples.
9. Governments can influence the character, quality,and content of their educational systems by manipulating important economic and noneconomicfactors or variables both outside of and within educational systems. What are some of these external and internal factors, and how can governmentpolicies make education more relevant to the realmeaning of development?
10. What makes for (a) a good and fair health systemand (b) a good and fair education system?
11. What are the consequences of gender bias inhealth and education? Can a large gap betweenmale and female literacy affect development?Why?
12. What is the human capital approach to health andeducation? What do you think are its most important strengths and weaknesses?
13. What are the strategies being discussed to addressthe problem of child labor? What are the strengthsand weaknesses of these approaches?
14. What are the relationships between health and education, on the one hand, and productivity andincomes, on the other?
15. What can government do to make health systems more equitable?