An Assessment of the Inequality of Educational Attainment in the District of Purulia, West Bengal

The measurement of inequality in status of human development inevitably takes the status of education into its fold. The level of educational attainment is directly and indirectly related to the almost all the parameters of development. The primary data collected from 170 villages and 3 urban municipal wards bring to fore the complex pattern of inequality in educational attainment within the district. The present study uses the Mean Year of Schooling (MYS) for the population aged 25 years and more as the indicator for level of attainment as proposed by the UN Institute of Statistics (2012 scheme). The non-spatial analysis of educational inequality has been accomplished by calculating the MYS of the population disaggregated by required non-spatial classes. The spatial pattern of inequality in educational attainment has been reported by block level datasets as well as analyzing the rural urban differentials of the same.