Educational Quality and Labour Market Performance in Developing Countries: Some Evidence from Pakistan

vSeveral studies have shown that investment in the quality of education has a higher payoff than investment in quantity alone.1 However, in many developing countries, investment in improving educational quality is still accorded a lower priority than investment in educational quantity. Countries which commit more resources towards education are generally observed to expand their enrolment ratios while paying little attention on improving such schooling inputs as student-teacher ratio that contribute towards improvement of educational quality (Table 1).2 There is also a tendency to allocate minimal resources towards upgrading existing schools by improving quality of teaching, facilities, and curricula. Greater emphasis is placed on rapid expansion of the number of educational institutions to reach out a large proportion of population.