Economics and Non-Formal Education. Program of Studies in Non-Formal Education. Team Reports.

Overview & Synopsis

One in the series described in SO 008 058, this team report is a discussion in two parts of the economics of nonformal education. Part 1 deals with the national allocation of resources to the educational processes. Gathering reliable empirical data on cost-benefit and/or rates of return for allocation decisions is a critical problem. Despite this problem the questions asked when deciding resource allocation, such as why invest in one activity rather than some other, must still be answered. Part 1 also looks closely at the shortcomings of cost analysis in nonformal education in which cost figures are often used to prove that nonformal education is less expensive than formal education. Suggestions are made for improving such cost comparison studies. A common format for collecting cost data is proposed for testing. Part 2 begins with a state-of-the-art review of the economics of nonformal education. The underlying hypothesis of this review is that nonformal education can substitute for and/or complement formal education in both more and less developed countries. The way that nonformal education complements formal, the problems involved in investment criteria applied to nonformal education, and implications for planning the hypothesis are discussed. (JH)