• Dr. Rafique Uddin Ahmed

Economics of education is a branch of economic science, which is of recent origin. It has had mixed response from both economists and educationists, with some educationists being circumspect about the need for economic evaluation of education, while a handful of economists question the foray of economics into the realm of education. However the overwhelming majority agrees that education is a merit good and hence needs collective deliberation from economists, educationists and social scientists. The main objective of the economics of education is to recognize opportunities for improved efficiency, equity and quality of education and promote much needed education reform process. As a merit good, provision of education results in substantial benefit spillover on the society. It imparts knowledge and creates skills increasing the productivity and employability of the existing and future manpower resources of an economy, which results in their proper utilization. Education decreases the gap between human resource requirements and human resource availability and in the process softens the impact of unemployment or skill shortage, as the case may be. Such a gap can only be bridged if education adapts to the ever-changing nature and size of the manpower demand in the present day dynamic economies. Education is a chief influencing factor in self realization and economic development of a country. Education nowadays is regarded as a productive investment and as such is being used gradually as an effective tool for economic and social upliftment of a nation. Education positively affects the attitude of the human resources, their consumption pattern and preferences, innovativeness, attitude towards family size and an assortment of collective attitudes which have importance from economic point of view. Nonfarm activities plays significant role in decreasing the wide spread rural poverty through employment generation and creation of sufficient demand for goods and services rural market. The role become more significant when it provides diverse employment opportunities to the people in rural areas and in the course transforms the rural economy in compliance with the growth of the national economy. The paper mainly examines the relationship between educational attainment of people in rural areas and rural non-farm sector employment in the sample villages of Dhubri District of Assam. Besides an attempt is also made to find out the prevailing educational status of rural people in the sample villages. The paper concludes that there is significant positive relationship between education and rural commuting.

Education, Non-farm Sector, Employment Structure Index, Education Index, Adjusted Mean Years of Schooling

"Impact of Education on Rural Employment: A Case Study of Jorhat District", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 9, page no.359-363, September-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1809073.pdf

"Impact of Education on Rural Employment: A Case Study of Jorhat District", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 9, page no. pp359-363, September-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1809073.pdf