Maneesha Shukul, Investment in Human Capital by Families

Description

ABSTRACT The family spends its resources on one of the most common goal, i.e. education of children from itsgoal complex, considering it as an Investment in human capital.This increases productive capacity of the individualyielding a stream of economic benefits over his working life. Rising expenditure on education including heavy schoolfees and private coaching fees is a common phenomenon of urban areas, taking away a large share of family’s income.To have on empirical evidence a study was conducted with the aim to find out goals set by families for education ofchildren, the facilitating practices and expenditure on education of children. A descriptive survey of parents of 130children studying in tenth, eleventh and twelfth standards was conducted through questionnaire which also containeda scale to find out education facilitating practices of parents. Majority of the fathers were businessmen, half weregraduate and the mean monthly income was Rs. 20,444/-. Nearly half of the parents had set ‘Masters Degree as goaland majority had great commitment to achieve the set goals. Three forth of parents considered education of childrenas investment in human capital. Majority of parents followed good practices for facilitating child’s education. Themean yearly expenditure on education was Rs.12, 939/-. Amongst all the items Private tuition fees, requiredmaximum expenditure. Almost all the respondents always managed expenditure from their regular income. ANOVAshowed variation in practices with education of father, family income and class of study. Expenditure varied with classof study. The study indicates that families must make adequate provision for heavy expenditure of education ofchildren