Prof.:- Rahul.P.More.
Department of Economics
Abeda Inamdar Senior College,
Azam Campus, Camp
Pune – 1.
ABSTRACT
GATT & Education
Classification of Services :
Ø Industry related services : Eg. Banking and insurance. Telecommunication, infrastructure.
Ø Social sector services : Eg. Health care, Education.
Higher education as a tradable service :
Ø Trade growth in commodities as well as in services gives rise to the derived demand for higher education.
Ø Trade & xpansion of industries , technology transfers makes higher education more universal.
Ø Education thus starts featuring as a service provision at an international level & the incomes generated (30 billion US$) are perceived as trade in services.
What is GATS ?
Ø GATS is a multilateral negotiating Agreement under the WTO covering over 120 services.
Ø Education is however a very sensitive area & the implications for a human resource rich country like India are for reaching & long lasting.
Ø hence the need for understanding GATS.
Ø Procedural Aspect of GATS:-How it works
Ø submission of proposals.
Ø mechanism of request offer.
Ø negotiations.
Ø Final verdict.
The Argument of the presentation :-
Ø Nations with distinctive comparative advantage in a particular area within education insist on liberalization of that area via putting up proposals in that area first.
This leads to a certain sequencing of the articles negotiated,thereby changing the implications of the entire trade agreement.
v Indian Higher Education :
Ø Area of concerns.
Ø Availabilitiy : only 8 % of the relevant age group available of higher education in 2002.
Ø Regional disparity
Ø Maharashtra southern states – 46 % of all higher education centres 60 % of all professional institutes.
Ø UP, MP & Bihar 34 % of the population, but 23 % of general and only 14 % of professional colleges.
Changing ownership patterns :
Ø 57 % Pvt ownership in 1980, but increasing private participation post 1997 in selective areas.
Ø Engineering private sector 15 % in 1960, 86 % in 2003.
Ø Medicine from 7 % ( 1960 ) to 41 % ( 2003 )
Ø Management 90 % in 2003.
Conclusion :
Ø The sequence of proposals is a sequence of comparative advantage.
Ø The order of liberalization changes the impact of agreement.
Ø Globalization of service sector other than education.
Ø Location of the recipient and provider alone is inadequate for understanding historical origins and comparative advantage established earlier among nations.
Ø Bearing on the process of development.
Ø In India there is high proportion of unskilled labour and only 3 – 9 years of education on an average for the labour force in India.
