Impact of Socio Economic Political Factors on Learning Poverty- A Study on India and Neighboring Countries

Abstract

To be able to Read is a foundation for future learnings. In the absence of it students often fail to thrive later in school (Primary, Secondary or even Higher Education) or even when they join the corporate world. In the absence of good learnings, they fail to acquire the human capital that is very much required to progress in their careers and economies once they leave school, nor the skills for a better family life. This paper examines the relationship of learning poverty indicators across five SAARC countries with their GDP, their GDP growth rate, the per capita income, adult literacy rate, national poverty headcount ratios and indicators of political institutions. The Ordinary least Square Method is used in this paper to examine the relationship between learning poverty indicators and the various variables of interest. The R2 values from the OLS method are found to have the highest for adult literacy rates and political stability, followed by National Poverty headcount ratios and Per Capita Incomes. Astonishingly, GDP and growth rates as well voice and accountability do not show higher R2 values. This, then, points to the attention for focused interventions to increase adult literacy rates and poverty alleviation measures as well regime and policy consistency. This result corroborates with the existing literature on human development which has shown how economic growth on its own is not enough to alleviate learning poverty.