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7 Soc. Change 3 (1977)

handle is hein.journals/sclcnge7 and id is 1 raw text is: Social Change : March 1977 Educational Development in India: Comparison by Taxonomic Method P. HI. Reddy* I wish to excpress my sincere, thanks to Dr. K.K. Nair, Head, Department ofElectronics and Commuonications Enginleering, Osmantia University, Hyderabad for providing mhe free computer facilities and Mr. Histha Reddy for helping me in Comnputerising the data. 1. Mehta, F.A., How Can We Become Rich ? The I11tsfrhated Weekly of Lndia, Vol. XCIII, No. 37, 1972, p. 8. 2. Harbison, Frederick, Maruhnic, Joan and Resnick, Jane R., Quartailarive Analysis of Modernization and Development, Princeton, New J-zrsey: Princeton University Press, 1970. 3. McGranahan, D.V., Richard-Proust, C., Sovani, N.V. and Subramanian, M., Contents and Measuremnent of Socio-Economnic Developmnent, UNRISD Report No. 70-10, Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1970. 4. Drewnowski, Jan, The Level of Living Index, UNRISD Report No. 4, Geneva: United Nations Research Institute ror Social Development, 1966. 5. Drewnowski, Jan, Studie~s tn the Measurement of Levels of Livinigand Welfare, UNRISD .Report No. 711-3 Genev'a: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. 1970. Ever since countries embarked on planning for development, it has been the practice to measure and compare the levels of development of a group of contiguous countries or of countries with different types ofpolity and economy. This is perhaps important to know where a given country stands in relation to others, what has been achieved in the past, which dimension of development needs more attention in the future, what goals and targets are to be set, etc. But it is doubtful whether the practice of comparing and contrasting the levels of development of poor countries with those of affluen1 countries has really helped the development of the former. What is more important is especially in a large country like India with wide variations in the levels of development among various states and among various districts within a state, to make interregional comparisons and help in planning for the elimination of imbalances in development within a country and within a sub-national region. Per caput Gross National Product (GNP), expressed in US dollars, has been the most often used index to compare the levels of development of different countries. But in recent years there have been allegations that such unitary or composite index as the per caput GNP conceals more than what it reveals and ducks real issues rather than faces them squarely. For example, one economist says, It (per caput GNP) is like a bikini-what it reveals is interesting but what it conceals is significant'. Several attempts are being made to develop better alternative indices toper caput GNP. Some indices have already been developed as alternatives to per caput GNP. These indices vary in their method of construction and scope but some of them aim at enabling us not only to compare the levels of development of different countries but also to compare the levels of development of different regions within a country, of the development of different components or sectors of development and of the development of indicators of each component. Taxonomic method (Wroclaw Taxonomy) enables us to construct such an index. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the taxonomic method and demonstrate its application to a quantitative analysis of educational development in different states of India. As will be seen, the method facilitates the ranking, classification and comparison of the states by levels of educational development, reveals the relatively well developed and underdeveloped indicators within the selected group of indicators of educational development in each state, and enables the setting of initial targets and allocation of resources. Taxonomic Method The taxonomic method was developed in the early 1950's by a group of Polish mathematicians. It was proposed in 1968 to UNESCO as a tool for ranking, classifying and comparing countries by levels of development. More recently, the method has been applied successfully to measure the levels of development and components of development of developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and developed countries in different parts of the world, as well as to analyse interregional developments within Mexico'. Compared to other methods of measurement of socio-economic development', levels of living' and levels of welfare,, the taxonomic method is more lucid and simple. It does not require knowledge of higher level statistics and mathematics. This is not to say that the method does not require knowledge of statistics and mathematics at all. Central to the taxonomic method is the concept of average value. A technical note on the taxonomic method is presented in the Appendix. What follows is a step by step explanation of the method in a simple language. 1. At the outset, select indicators or components of development for a group 3

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