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Group-based educational inequalities in India: Have major education policy interventions been effective?

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  • Varughese, Aswathy Rachel
  • Bairagya, Indrajit

Abstract

Despite seven decades of policy thrust, group-based educational inequalities persist in India. The tenacious social group-based stratification often proves to be a hurdle for educational participation policies to be effectively rolled out. Given these realities, this study reviews all major national education policy interventions since t 1950s. Using four rounds of National Sample Survey (NSS) data, we analysed the pattern of educational attainments in terms of Average Years of Schooling (AYS) and educational inequalities in India for the period 1994-2012. Three indices of inequality - Gini, Theil’s enttropy and Atkinson - have been constructed to study inequality by gender, place of residence and social groups. . We also empirically estimated the determinants of educational attainments in India by using OLS and Tobit Models. Further using the Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition technique, we analysed the educational attainment gaps between groups. The study concludes that policy interventions have done little to reduce the group-based educational attainment gap and it’s time to place improved focus on secondary and higher education while continuing the efforts in primary education.

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  • Varughese, Aswathy Rachel & Bairagya, Indrajit, 2020. "Group-based educational inequalities in India: Have major education policy interventions been effective?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:73:y:2020:i:c:s0738059319308211
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2020.102159
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Qu, Jingjing & Li, Aijun & Liu, Xiaohong, 2021. "A new approach for evaluating technology inequality and diffusion barriers: The concept of efficiency Gini coefficient and its application in Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    3. Liu, Huacong & Fernandez, Frank & Dutz, Gregor, 2022. "Educational attainment, use of numeracy at work, and gender wage gaps: Evidence from 12 middle-income countries," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Shukla, Prakash Kumar & Reddy A, Bheemeshwar & Kumar, Dushyant, 2024. "Class in caste: Inequalities in human capital investments in children in India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    5. Rashmi Rashmi & Bijay Kumar Malik & Sanjay K. Mohanty & Udaya Shankar Mishra & S. V. Subramanian, 2022. "Predictors of the gender gap in household educational spending among school and college-going children in India," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Tista Kundu, 2023. "Inequality of Opportunity in Elementary Level School Education: Evidence from India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 17(2), pages 253-270, August.
    7. Munari & Mahfudz & Sasterio Mansur & Abdul Rivai & Nawawi Natsir, 2020. "Quality of Academic Services in the Academic Bureau, Students, and Planning of Tadulako Palu University," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(8), pages 103-112, August.
    8. Varughese, Aswathy Rachel & Bairagya, Indrajit, 2021. "Interstate variation in household spending on education in India: Does it influence educational status?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 405-415.
    9. Debasmita Basu & Sandip Sarkar, 2023. "Polarization in Indian Education: An Ordinal Variable Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 21(3), pages 569-591, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education policies; Educational attainment; Educational inequality; Tobit estimation; Oaxaca - Blinder decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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