India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement

Increasing evidence suggests that the level and distribution of cognitive skills is more important to economic development than absolute measures of schooling attainment, and that income and skill inequality are inextricably linked. Yet for most of the developing world no internationally comparable...

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Main Authors:	Das, Jishnu, Zajonc, Tristan
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Analysis of Education I210 Higher Education and Research Institutions I230 Human Capital Skills Occupational Choice Labor Productivity J240 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5574

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-55742021-04-23T14:02:22Z India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement Das, Jishnu Zajonc, Tristan Analysis of Education I210 Higher Education and Research Institutions I230 Human Capital Skills Occupational Choice Labor Productivity J240 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Increasing evidence suggests that the level and distribution of cognitive skills is more important to economic development than absolute measures of schooling attainment, and that income and skill inequality are inextricably linked. Yet for most of the developing world no internationally comparable estimates of cognitive skills exist. This paper uses student answers to publicly released questions from an international testing agency together with statistical methods from Item Response Theory to place secondary students from two Indian states--Orissa and Rajasthan--on a worldwide distribution of mathematics achievement. These two states fall below 43 of the 51 countries for which data exist. The bottom 5% of children rank higher than the bottom 5% in only three countries--South Africa, Ghana, and Saudi Arabia. But not all students test poorly. Inequality in the test-score distribution for both states is next only to South Africa. The combination of India's size and large variance in achievement give both the perceptions that India is shining even as Bharat, the vernacular for India, is drowning. How India's development unfolds will depend critically on how the skill distribution evolves and how low- and high-skilled workers interact in the labor market. 2012-03-30T07:33:29Z 2012-03-30T07:33:29Z 2010 Journal Article Journal of Development Economics 03043878 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5574 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article South Africa Ghana Saudi Arabia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Analysis of Education I210 Higher Education and Research Institutions I230 Human Capital Skills Occupational Choice Labor Productivity J240 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
spellingShingle	Analysis of Education I210 Higher Education and Research Institutions I230 Human Capital Skills Occupational Choice Labor Productivity J240 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Das, Jishnu Zajonc, Tristan India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
geographic_facet	South Africa Ghana Saudi Arabia
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	Increasing evidence suggests that the level and distribution of cognitive skills is more important to economic development than absolute measures of schooling attainment, and that income and skill inequality are inextricably linked. Yet for most of the developing world no internationally comparable estimates of cognitive skills exist. This paper uses student answers to publicly released questions from an international testing agency together with statistical methods from Item Response Theory to place secondary students from two Indian states--Orissa and Rajasthan--on a worldwide distribution of mathematics achievement. These two states fall below 43 of the 51 countries for which data exist. The bottom 5% of children rank higher than the bottom 5% in only three countries--South Africa, Ghana, and Saudi Arabia. But not all students test poorly. Inequality in the test-score distribution for both states is next only to South Africa. The combination of India's size and large variance in achievement give both the perceptions that India is shining even as Bharat, the vernacular for India, is drowning. How India's development unfolds will depend critically on how the skill distribution evolves and how low- and high-skilled workers interact in the labor market.
format	Journal Article
author	Das, Jishnu Zajonc, Tristan
author_facet	Das, Jishnu Zajonc, Tristan
author_sort	Das, Jishnu
title	India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_short	India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_full	India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_fullStr	India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_full_unstemmed	India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement
title_sort	india shining and bharat drowning : comparing two indian states to the worldwide distribution in mathematics achievement
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5574
_version_	1764395532992643072

India Shining and Bharat Drowning : Comparing Two Indian States to the Worldwide Distribution in Mathematics Achievement

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