"School dropouts are giving way to child labour". Discuss how this is a loss to human capital.

Question

Accepted Answer

Primary education causes an increase of 40% in labour productivity, secondary education 10% and higher education 300%. As children drop out from school, they are forced to take up small and menial jobs and work as labourers. If these children were allowed to complete their education, some would have become doctors, engineers or government officials. Their productivity would have been more and they would have contributed towards human capital formation. So, school dropouts are definitely a loss to human capital.