Paper short abstract:

This paper uses data from in tier I and tier II cities of expenditure on education and the level of skill acquisition and employment outcomes of youth in peri-urban and rural communities.

Paper long abstract:

Governments tend to provide fewer and poorer quality services in informal urban areas, resulting in a greater risk of growing inequality in skill acquisition accessible established urban residents and migrants. There are also differences in the availability of public provision in small and large cities, with citizens of small- and medium-sized cities being particularly poorly served with regard to educational services.

This paper will examine the impact of a variation in the quality of educational provision in urban and peri-urban spaces on skill acquisition and employment opportunities. Recent data from in tier I and tier II cities on the provision of education to understand how the expenditure on education compares with level of skill acquisition and employment outcomes of youth in peri-urban and rural communities. The implications for current educational provision for the future skilled labour within growing cities in India are critical for understanding how educational inclusion can be a key lever for improving the sustainability of key labour skills in cities.

In the current neoliberal environment, there is a focus on reform that regards 'marketisation' as an effective way to improve public education. This paper concludes by making the case while fiscal constraints that are faced by local and state governments are identified as the rationale for decentralization, it is often the preference to adopt business models rather than directly address the impact of social exclusion, reduced 'publicness' of educational provision on the sustainable human development in the city.