EDUCATION AS A SCREENING DEVICE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
INTRODUCTION
Education in developing countries is highly sought after. Part of its value is as consumption good: education is valued in its own right and is seen as a basic human need. But education also has more materialistic value: it is a means to higher income, more stable employment, and better working conditions ( Psacharopoulos, 2004).
One of the roles of education is to act as a tool or credential for screening. This means that for an individual to enter into a highly paying job, apart from the skills or experience, one must possess a certain level of educational qualifications. In most organizations, this forms the basis as the minimum requirement that candidates seeking formal employment must possess so as to be considered for recruitment.
Screening based on educational attainment occurs when, because of lack of educational attainment, a person is excluded from an occupation in which he would have a higher marginal product or higher (discounted) earning.
