CGSD Working Paper No. 28 November 2005

Nirupam Bajpai, Ravindra H. Dholakia and Jeffrey D. Sachs

Abstract

We attempt to address two key questions in this paper: 1) In terms of state-wide scaling up of rural services (in Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh) in the area of primary education, what will it cost financially and in terms of human resources to scale-up these services in all the rural areas of these two states? And 2) what policy, institutional and governance reforms may be necessary so as to ensure proper service delivery? As is well known, merely setting up more schools, for instance, is not going to be enough; higher public investments in these areas needs to be accompanied by systemic reforms that will help overhaul the present service delivery system, including issues of control and oversight, for example.

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