Parental Motivations in Sending Children to School in a Paradoxical Indian Learning System of Declining Learning Curve and Increasing Enrolment: A Case Study of West Bengal

Ujjawal Chauhan

doi:10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p441

Abstract

Current studies explain the growth in enrolment in Indian primary schools to be a result of ‘cost-effective’ incentivized education by the Indian Government. However, this does not explain why parents living below the poverty line (BPL) are forgoing higher opportunity costs and sending their children to school, especially in the context of a declining learning curve. This study investigates the motivating factors among BPL parents and the relative significance of incentives in shaping their decisions regarding their children’s enrolment. This study also reveals qualitative and quantitative data based results showing Right to Education (RTE) Act’s (2009) ‘free and compulsory primary education for all’ motivating millions of ‘very poor’ first generation learners to enroll. However, in these households, incentivized education is not sufficiently cost-effective to substitute child labor. Furthermore, The Right to Education Act’s No Fail Policy is shown to have negatively impacted learning in government schools. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p441

Highlights

This research sets out to investigate the gap in the research area of qualitative understanding and explaining the causal mechanisms through which the parent’s choices lead to child enrollment. King, Keohane and Verba (1994) suggest that qualitative research can add depth to quantitative research by going beyond established correlations and instead investigate causation from descriptive inferences.The question to be asked is what motivates parents despite falling learning curves to send their children to primary school
Despite policy interventions and the significant progress in bringing millions of out-of-school children to enroll in primary school and achieving enrolment rates as high as 96%in 2014 (Pratham, 2015), the Indian education system has a new challenge in form of the declining learning curve
In the context of this paradoxical scenario of increasing primary school enrolment and the declining learning curve, it becomes crucial to evaluate the motivators for educational choices, especially in the cases of children whose families constitute the 269.8 million that live Below Poverty Line (BPL) (Planning Commission, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

This research sets out to investigate the gap in the research area of qualitative understanding and explaining the causal mechanisms through which the parent’s choices lead to child enrollment. King, Keohane and Verba (1994) suggest that qualitative research can add depth to quantitative research by going beyond established correlations and instead investigate causation from descriptive inferences. The millennium has witnessed the introduction of new policy interventions in India’s elementary education system and better implementation of existing ones These include amendments to the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 in 2006 and 2009, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (the Education for All Movement) at the turn of the new millennium, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) in 2001 as well the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2009. The RTE made education compulsory and free, it mandated the ‘No Fail Policy’ (NFP) till the completion of primary school i.e. Class VIII (age 13 years). Each one of these factors has contributed to the promising enrolment figures. In the context of alternate economic opportunities for children (in form of child labor) available to parents, the larger question which this research addresses is why are parents ( from poor households) sending their children to school when the learning curve is declining?

The Unexplored Paradox

Research Question

Conclusion