Mass education expansion is a necessity outcome that occurs in a society where the effects of
high dependency and density ratios are less mitigated by policy/institutional opportunities.
Population pressure effects such as land scarcity and diminishing returns to labour lead to a
decline in farmers’ valuation for agriculture. Farmers do not longer consider agriculture as
significant and primary as it used to be when resources are in abundance. They start to value
other livelihood strategies such as wage labour or migration to urban areas. Since there is a
lack of cash constraints for the expansion of wage labor in rural areas and since migration
requires prior network, farmers tend to prefer and opt for education if and when schools are
available. They believe that education is important for intensive agriculture, non-farm
occupation and migration. Mass education is a result of farmers’ valuation decline for
smallholder agriculture, non-tradable nature of the non-farm sector and society’s positive
attitude change towards education. Government intervention, which was historically effective
in creating elitist education, and school building does not by itself create a demand for mass
education in rural areas.