PEW Research Centre based at Washington has conducted a global study and released the study report titled, ‘Religion and Education Around the World’.
The significant finding of the study is that Hindus continue to have the lowest level of educational attainment among all the major religions of the world. Jews are more highly educated than any other major religious group around the world. The vast majority of the world’s Hindus live in India (94 per cent) or in the bordering countries of Nepal (2.3 per cent) and Bangladesh (1.2 per cent).
The average educational attainment of the world population is 5.6 years of schooling. 41 percent of Hindus have no formal education of any kind. One in 10 has post – secondary degress. In respect of educational gender gap, Hindus are the largest of any religious group. On average, Hindu men have 2.7 more years of schooling than Hindu women and just over half of Hindu women (53 per cent) have no formal schooling.
Among the three countries, Hindus tend to have low levels of education, in India. Hindus average 5.5 years of schooling, while in Nepal and Bangladesh they average 3.9 and 4.6 years respectively.
But in countries outside the Asia Pacific region, where Hindus are a small religious minority, they are the most highly educated religious group in a particular country, the report says. For instance, Hindus in the U.S. have 15.7 years of schooling, on average – a full year more than the next most highly educated US religious group (Jews) and nearly three years more than the average American adult (12.9 years). Hindus in Europe also are highly educated, averaging 13.9 years of schooling.
The spectacular educational attainment in Hindu minority religious group is attributable to the engrossing of the Hindu-Vedic prescription which says the bulk of the toiling sect in Hindu religion viz. Shudras should not be provided with education. Proscription of Hindu religious prescription is the reason for the enhanced educational attainment level of minority Hindus in western countries.
