Abstract
This paper provides an overview of school education in India. First, it places India's educational achievements in international perspective, particularly against countries with which it is now increasingly compared, especially China. Second, the paper examines schooling access in terms of enrolment and school attendance rates, and schooling quality in terms of literacy rates, learning achievement levels, school resources, and teacher inputs. Third, the paper investigates the role of private schooling in India, examining the extent of growth of private schooling and surveying evidence on the relative effectiveness and unit costs of private and public schools. Last, the paper discusses some major public education initiatives. The concluding section suggests a future research agenda and appeals for rigorous evaluation of the impacts and costs of the numerous existing educational interventions, in order to learn about their relative cost-effectiveness for evidence-based policy-making.
Highlights
India’s recent economic growth rates have generated much optimism about its general social and economic development
Has there been accompanying progress in indicators of educational outcomes? How good are Indian educational achievements in relation to China’s, the country with which it is increasingly compared? What are the most significant developments in Indian school education and what has been the impact of various education policy initiatives? This paper presents a critical overview of the school education sector in India using newly released data and a survey of existing studies
This paper provides an assessment of the current situation and recent progress of school education
Summary
India’s recent economic growth rates have generated much optimism about its general social and economic development. What are the most significant developments in Indian school education and what has been the impact of various education policy initiatives? This paper presents a critical overview of the school education sector in India using newly released data and a survey of existing studies. The story of India’s educational achievements is one of mixed success. It has made encouraging recent progress in raising schooling participation. While the base of India’s education pyramid may be weak, it has emerged as an important player in the worldwide information technology revolution on the back of substantial (absolute) numbers of well educated computing and other graduates. This paper provides an assessment of the current situation and recent progress of school education
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