ABSTRACT
It is a tautology that education substantially improves one’s productive capacity, thus enhancing economic “well-being.” Whether the economic growth of nations is caused by higher (tertiary) education or mass attainment in primary education is a subject on which opinions differ in terms of magnitude of effects. Nevertheless, empirical findings show that education at the primary and secondary levels has a multitude of positive development effects. It improves labor productivity, reduces fertility, and improves health and nutrition. Moreover, improvement in female literacy is especially conducive to educational attainment by children and reduced population growth rates. These commonsense and well-known development benefits of education have, however, been traditionally ignored by South Asian governments in choosing their spending priorities.
