473 The social costs of adjustment and considerations of distributional equity seem to have been universally neglected in World Bank-supported adjustment programmes. Where distributional outcomes were relatively benign, they were accidental. (Helleiner 1991, p. 535) 16.1 THE CONTEXT The importance of human resource development in general, and human capital in socio-economic development in particular, has been well recog- nised ever since the ‘human investment revolution in economic thought’ was initiated by Theodore Schultz in 1960 (Schultz 1961). Of the vari- ous components of human capital, education and health have been found to be the most important. Accordingly, several developing and devel- oped countries have invested huge resources in education. Education witnessed a ‘golden period’ during the 1960s with a substantial flow of CHAPTER 16 The Effects of Adjustment on Education: A Review of Asian Experience © The Author(s) 2018 Jandhyala Tilak, Education and Development in India, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0250-3_16 Published in Prospects (UNESCO) 27 (1) (March 1997): 85–107; expanded version in Education, Development and Underdevelopment (eds.: Sureshchandra Shukla and Rekha Kaul), Sage, New Delhi, 1998, pp. 99–137. © UNESCO and Sage Publications.