Learning in India's primary schools: How do disparities widen across the grades?

Using a household survey, this study investigates how disparities in learning change over the primary school cycle

Abstract

Using a large-scale household survey, the researchers investigate how disparities in learning change over the primary school cycle. Even controlling for other factors, household wealth and parental schooling drive sizeable gaps in learning, increasing in magnitude over the school grades. Gender gaps also widen, although only among the poorest. In contrast to other countries, overage status is positively associated with learning early on, but its importance dissipates by later grades. While the importance of factors varies across states, household wealth predominates. The analysis highlights the importance of tackling disadvantage associated with poverty early, to avoid its effects on learning becoming entrenched.

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council-Department for International Development (ESRC-DFID) Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme

Citation

Benjamin Alcott, Pauline Rose, Learning in India’s primary schools: How do disparities widen across the grades?, International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 56, 2017, Pages 42-51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.05.002.

Learning in India’s primary schools: How do disparities widen across the grades?

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Published 1 September 2017