Incentives and Education

I was always fascinated by the concept since the day I read about it. People respond to incentives. It is easy to end it with a full-stop there acknowledging the veracity of the fact and accepting it as gospel truth. It is only when you bump into the dividing line between the good and the no-so-good incentives that you feel the need to question. More than anything, the unease stems from the dehumanized, asocial and antiseptic worldview that economics as a discipline resorts to sometimes.

One particular occasion when I was incensed was when I read Mankiw’s views on education in the chapter on earnings. So why do people study and why do they spend so much on education?

There has to be an incentive.

And my book said the incentive was money. That was harrowing. I remember venting out my ire and discontentment on a page in my diary. Isn’t it cheapening of the entire concept of education by relating it with pecuniary objectives of profit maximization?

On one side, I found myself philosophizing on the ‘purpose’ of education in Dr. Gabriel’s English class and here the discipline I loved spelled out ‘purposes’ like those. It all seemed to imply that:

I was studying economics so that I could earn for myself tomorrow, and that if the prospects of earning for an economist were nil, I would not be studying economics.

What the hell!

I was critical of this view on education (although I read about the human capital view which chimed with my thoughts) until the following happened.

The first day, my friend Geetika and I went looking for kids to teach, we spotted a construction site with a lot of migrant laborer families residing there along with of course, a lot of their (non-enrolled) kids.

We called them out in the park, made them sit for some ice-breaking éclair session. I perfunctorily asked them their names and then raised a question.

“ Batao, humhe parhna kyon chahiye?”, I asked in an innocent voice pressing them to think for themselves.

A little girl (whose name escapes my memory right now) rose and answered in a squeaky voice,
“Kyunki, parhne se ‘payysa’ milta hai”
The way she stressed on the word ‘payysa’ in her native accent, it struck a chord.

I found bells ringing. She was not enrolled in a school and surely Mankiw couldn’t have whispered that into her ear or crossed her dreams last night.

The phenomenon was universal. I learnt vital lessons.

1. Just because I thought in a certain way did not imply that the world too thought on similar lines. In short, my personal views could be illustrative but not exhaustive.

2. It isn’t an economist’s business to judge about the morality of rationality. In fact rationality itself as Hume remarked is a ‘slave of passions’.

3. ‘Tis true that had it not been for incomes, some people indeed might not have gone to school and also that this is a well known fact.

So if education is sought for such bright incentives as seeking higher future incomes, does this imply that the poor in our country are irrational?
Why does the government have to entice the poor with mid-day meals and scrapping school fees under the RTE? Isn’t wage an organic incentive already?

Perhaps, the answer to the question no. 1 is YES. The little girl can earn more in the future even in present discounted terms that she could earn today as a domestic help in a 'kothi'.

But the hard truth is that ‘FUTURE’ is a vague term and that earning in the present is always more lucrative than tomorrow’s since that ‘tomorrow’ is so uncertain. Do you know the reason why people are lax about sustainable development despite such awareness campaigns and why the Copenhagen summit was a fiasco? I have found it. It is because sustainable development concerns concern for ‘future’ generations and future, as I said is so vague a term.

The solution in my view is that the incentive in all such cases has to concern THE INDIVIDUAL HIMSELF (since self-interest rules) and that too in the PRESENT, to be effective.
Development has to concern the present generation first to be sustainable. Education has to lure people today, to be universal.

The incentives in education, I believe have to be somewhat like Kerala, where kids get to carry bags of rice and wheat home from school for use of the entire family. Education in short promises income in kind today apart from income in cash tomorrow.

Aren’t those truly intelligently-crafted-incentives.

ARE EXAMINATIONS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HUMAN BEINGS ???

We were texting each other late at 12 in the night. I was anxious to know about her visit to the slum at Majnu Ka Tilla that morning. Aleesha had talked to me on the subject a few days back. She had seen a poor lady sitting for alms for quite a few days where she went for her morning walk. There was something unusual about the lady, perhaps her composure that touched my friend and she decided to go up to her and talk. The lady narrated a poignant tale of disease, hardship and life in penury.

There was more to come. The poor lady never asked for alms, she just sat there and waited for some strangers to come by. On subsequent early morning meetings, she told my friend about the world she hailed from, how hard it was and how her family lived from hand to mouth. My friend decided to visit the slum she lived at – Majnu Ka Tilla near Vidhan Sabha. I had recently recovered from something called ‘acute gastroenteritis with hepatitis’ and was advised against venturing into unhygienic surroundings. Aleesha decided to tell me about the visit later. Together with Priyanka and Gaurav, two of our ultra sweet friends always ready to help, she personally went to the place hoping to get a feel of the ground situation to help the people.

It was late April – our exams were starting 12th May – University exams, the first ones we were going to take at the undergrad level. Texting was taxing since there was loads to talk about, so Aleesha called. As always, she had well thought of the entire situation and was charting out an action plan to help the people – calling on some NGOs, getting their kids to the college and organizing classes, writing to the government, googling about already existing schemes and the ilk. I patiently told her it was April already, we could always do this job later after exams.

“In June?”

“But we will go home in June or will be busy interning, so we could definitely do it in July when the college reopens? “ I replied in a voice seeking to pacify more than answer.

“It will be too late, Jalnidh…the lady suffers from T.B. and her husband is sick with a chronic illness…Tell me, are examinations more important or human beings? It’s a question of life and death for her and that of just a few extra marks for us.”

I realized the depth of her words and that of her soul, which stood in striking contrast with the shallowness of my thoughts.

The months passed. Its late June already. We were unable to help. I wonder what happened to the lady and if she still follows her early morning routine of coming to the ridge to beg. Perhaps Aleesha might have made an arrangement, we have been geographically dispersed for long and not quite been in touch.

Is it really?

But I still grapple with the question. Steven Levitt said numbers don’t lie – human beings and governments might. Would that number on my marksheet truly represent my worth as an economics undergrad student? Would it not conceal more than it will reveal? The true opportunity cost of preparing for the examination was huge and I had made unequivocally, an irrational choice. 

Arpan: Existing to Empower Underprivileged Girls Through Education

Arpan: Existing to Empower Underprivileged Girls Through Education

Correlation, Causation and superstitions

The chapter on correlation in my statistics course ended with a note which stayed with me for long. After learning all about the wonderful tools of regression and correlation, there I was presented with a WARNING : CORRELATION SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH CAUSATION.

Just to give you a flavour of the science I had learnt, correlation makes one capable of establishing if two variables move together in a particular direction. A positive correlation between say, population growth and pollution implies that when any one of the two variables increases, the other also increases since the variables are positively correlated. Yet this does not by itself imply that any one of them CAUSES the other. If X and Y are positively correlated, X may be causing Y, Y may be causing X or it may just be possible that both X and Y are being caused by a third exogenous variable!

A kingdom was once plagued by a pandemic that claimed a zillion lives. Tense, the king ordered a statistical enquiry. The statisticians presented the data - more the no. of doctors in the kingdom over the days, more is the occurence of the disease. The king took this relation of correlation for causation and ordered all the doctors in the kingdom to be executed!

Now lets apply the lesson - why do people believe in superstitions? A cat crossed the road before them, its a bad omen - they say out of experience. So if a sweet little pussy cat decides to cross the road just exactly when our jinxed hero steps out of his house, it makes him anticipate failure in his exam or the interview ahead. What explains this seemingly irrational and undoubtedly foolish viewpoint? Well, my theory goes thus. In the 'good' old days, it might have happened that in a good number of cases that the correlation between the 'crossing of a cat' and the 'occurence of failure' turned out to be positive, but people mistook the correlation for causation and concluded "Hence, the cat CAUSED the failure"!!!

Paul Samuelson listed something called a 'Post Hoc Fallacy' right at the beginning of his classic 'ECONOMICS'. The fallacy goes thus - If event Y follows event X, then you implicitly assume that Y was caused by X. If I sneezed before I slipped from the stairs, then the sneeze caused me to trip.

I guess our society needs to learn just a simple lesson and all the claptrap about black threads, wearing stones, reading horoscopes shall see the light of rationality.

P.S. If while reading this blog, lets say you slip off your chair ... kindly don't conclude that I caused it :P heehee :)

The Urge To Melt

QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY

Published in The Sikh Review, an international monthly from Kolkata in the issue of August, 2011 under 'The Urge to Merge' and 'Abstract of Sikh Studies', September 2011 as 'The Urge to Melt'.

Youth from minorities in most regions are faced with a choice as age bestows a host of freedoms. While identity pride is something that remains alive in their hearts, it does not quite manifest physically. As I look around, I find many Sikh friends in my friend list listing their religious preference as a Sikh but shunning off all those symbols which lie at the heart of Sikh identity. I have been grappling with questions of identity for long – what is an identity afterall, why do I need to be different, who am I, what do people mean when they say ‘I am what I am’ etc.

So, why is it that people in my community and in the minorities in general have an intrinsic desire to melt their identity into that of the crowd and get camouflaged? After reading this rare piece of fiction 'Beyong Identity' by P.S. Sandhawalia, I now feel in a better position to address questions of identity. I identify 6 reasons in my blog for such behavior.

1. One reason can be LOW SELF ESTEEM. An individual who is pining for attention among peer group and the society usually stoops to the level as seen. He/she tries to prove her worth by revealing the texture of his/her skin thus expecting adoration through some channel.

2. Second reason can be the HOLLOWNESS of the individual in the sense that when a person is say talentless and usually a fiasco academically or in a field that society tags value to, he/she in order to gain acceptance tries to do what the majority does.


3. Yet this does not quite explain why sometimes successful people may also adopt the majority identity. The possible explanation can be a LACK OF INNER COURAGE. It requires a lion’s strength to be distinct and unique and to swim against the tide. When the world talks of fashion, style and haircuts, it requires determination and grit to debate the motion. That is how the majority’s soft power works. It is an attempt to impose one’s culture, one’s viewpoint, one’s way of doing things on others in a way that the imposed gullibly accepts. As I learnt at school, it manufacturers consent – yes it manufactures it indeed by an overtly mechanical process.

4. Another thing that people often overlook in the dignity of differences. The most beautiful thing about differences is diversity which facilitates mutual enrichment and knowledge.


5. Another factor for assimilation is DISRESPECT. When an individual becomes illusioned with the core of his faith and the beliefs that hitherto carved his identity, he casually jettisons all the symbols associated with the belief as a 'bold' act of freedom and detaches himself from that community. For instance, a girl deciding to take off her burqa (remember I am not making a judgment about a faith by this example and this also does not mean that removing burqa is assimilation in the crowd and that not removing is somehow an act of courage, it may actually be the other way round, as per context).

6. Lastly, I feel that majority in this world are driven by a herd mentality. It’s a herd of sheep with a few roaring lions who have kept their identity intact, rest have shaven and joined the herd of sheep.

So what is exactly an ‘identity’? It is an amalgam of religion, language, culture, customs, symbols, traditions – something into which all of us are born – it is real, visible, palpable.
If we have respect for it and pride in it, we will retain it. Otherwise we will abandon it and assimilate.

Eclair - Illuminating Lives and Touching Souls

They are everywhere, hordes of street children, some of them rag pickers, others working as young maids and helpers with their parents in measly conditions, who romp around the streets all day until they are strong enough to do the heavy jobs and become bread earners.

And on the other end, there are so many of us, students who are free in vacations, or otherwise who have enough time to whine away on gossip, parties and facebook. Éclair (French word meaning enlightened) sought to bridge the gap. High school and college students turned teachers to these lovely street kids,…no ‘sweet’ kids! Started as a small informal class under the shade of a tree in a community park, éclair has now blossomed into a street school chain working in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Delhi and Sriganganagar.

The concept is to involve high school students and college students in imparting education to street kids in urban areas, thus channeling their free time and enthusiasm to the strata which needs it. All you need is a park, street kids and a bit of enthusiasm. You don’t need a room even!

Éclair now has about 15 spirited young volunteers, mostly college students who teach poor kids in parks in the evenings. The curriculum is flexible and context based. We start with the alphabet, English or Hindi, according to what is thought as suitable for the kids, for them to get enrolled in nearby schools. Eventually, counting and basic science is taught through innovative teaching techniques. Since most of us are students, we make sure that kids don’t get bored with what we teach and repetition and drilling don’t make our classrooms dull.

More than elementary knowledge, these kids are taught practical skills that they need the most in the kind of circumstances they live. Activities like how to cross road, knowing traffic lights, how to wash hands, how to brush are organized by our volunteers. All our volunteers are students, so we have a variety of curriculum here. Thanks to our BDS friends who help us in the tooth brushing activities while the Humanities friends introduce maps in our class – the kids love identifying the little India on the big world map. Our teen volunteers usually download interactive educational content on their cellphones and introduce in the classes which is thoroughly enjoyed by our kids. We have a Nepalese kid in our class too, lending it a multicultural touch.

Street kids are intellectually sharp and smart. They already know a lot of things around through experience and just viewing others. But the circumstances restrict their learning. We were reminded of this harsh reality on the very first day of the class when one of us told them all to bathe daily from next day onwards and then come to the class. One of the kids Ramjaan did not appear the next morning. When we asked the rest about it, they said, “Medam Ji, Ramjaan does not have any water connection in his house…so he couldn’t bathe and hence did not come”. It pains us when we discover the complex economics intertwined there.

The aim is to reform the outlook of the kids – they now know what is it to dream and to aspire. Éclair volunteers are doing a good job by being agents of hope for these kids and empowering their lives with quality education. Most of our éclair kids are now enrolled in nearby schools, an achievement that makes us all smile with pride. The success of an éclair class is gauged by the volume of its shrinkage!

Éclair has been publicizing primarily through Facebook. It’s simple, cheap and time saving. Most of us have huge friend following on social networking sites – that is what we use to network. We have been posting updates and pictures which have virtually flooded us with requests for volunteering and contributing.

We aim to build a deep long term commitment with the future of these kids; be the strength to give them better lives and eventually take éclair on a country wide scale to build a better nation.

* If you would like to support us or start an éclair nearby, contact us at eclairstreets@gmail.com

Tributes to Uncle Sam

ECONLIGHTENMENT – Uncle Sam’s Influence

Casual reading of untouched books in the gargantuan MSR Library at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana while waiting for my dad pulled me to a field I had hitherto no idea of. It was a magnetic pull indeed- chancing upon books like the iconic ‘Economics’ by Paul Samuelson and ‘On Ethics and Economics’ by Amartya Sen.

As I flipped through the pages of the recent edition of Paul’s Economics in my Class 12, I felt the immersion with which the book had been authored. It was written to address dilettantes like me with hidden enticing motives. It undoubtedly could transform any inquisitive seeker to an econ undergrad student!

For the first time I was exposed to a geographic interpretation of the same old indifference curves I had been taught in class. Like a zombie climbing a mountain, IC1 represented a contour – moving along the same contour did not give him additional height or utility on the graph, climbing up to IC2 made him gloat with glee as he went higher and attained higher utility. I learnt that all those curves and graphs sat still only in textbooks and that the field I had encountered was ever dynamic and alive with changes. Throughout my summer vacations in 2010 I had plans of writing to Sam about how effective an economist he was until I gave up on 13th December when I read about his demise at the age of 93. He had silently ignited in me love for economics.

Thanks Sam – nowadays when some conceptual understanding strikes me on the study table like a sudden spark of lightening, I silently thank you for the enlightenment.