IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v20y2019i2p274-302.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Revisiting the Role of Private Schooling on Children Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Karan Singhal
  • Upasak Das

Abstract

In the view of increasing preference of private schooling in India, this article assesses its impact on learning outcomes for rural children from 8 to 11 years. Despite earlier attempts to study the issue, this article stands out in two ways. Firstly, it addresses the problems arising because of non-random selection of children attending private schools. Secondly, it also presents an all-India estimate unlike most studies which have dealt largely with few states. Our results show the performance of children attending private school to be significantly better than those from public schools. This difference is evident among ‘low-fee’ private schools as well. However the private schooling premium differ across regions and groups, and there are several other concerns regarding affordability, access and segregation which require further deliberation and debate. JEL: I2, I21, I28

Suggested Citation

  • Karan Singhal & Upasak Das, 2019. "Revisiting the Role of Private Schooling on Children Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Rural India," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 274-302, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:20:y:2019:i:2:p:274-302
    DOI: 10.1177/1391561419853678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1391561419853678
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1391561419853678?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    2. Pal, Sarmistha, 2010. "Public infrastructure, location of private schools and primary school attainment in an emerging economy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 783-794, October.
    3. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Shawn Cole & Esther Duflo & Leigh Linden, 2007. "Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1235-1264.
    4. Maitra, Pushkar & Pal, Sarmistha & Sharma, Anurag, 2016. "Absence of Altruism? Female Disadvantage in Private School Enrollment in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 105-125.
    5. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    6. Andrabi, Tahir & Das, Jishnu & Khwaja, Asim Ijaz, 2013. "Students today, teachers tomorrow: Identifying constraints on the provision of education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 1-14.
    7. Aslam, Monazza & Kingdon, Geeta, 2011. "What can teachers do to raise pupil achievement?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 559-574, June.
    8. Rob French & Geeta Kingdon, 2010. "The relative effectiveness of private and government schools in Rural India: Evidence from ASER data," DoQSS Working Papers 10-03, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    9. Desai, Sonalde & Dubey, Amaresh & Vanneman, Reeve & Banerji, Rukmini, 2009. "Private Schooling in India: A New Educational Landscape," India Policy Forum, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 5(1), pages 1-58.
    10. Ashish Singh & Sarthak Gaurav & Upasak Das, 2013. "Household Headship and Academic Skills of Indian Children: A Special Focus on Gender Disparities [Sexe du chef de ménage et compétences scolaires des enfants indiens : une analyse des disparités en," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 445-466, November.
    11. Mehtabul Azam, 2016. "Private Tutoring: Evidence from India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 739-761, November.
    12. Sen, Amartya, 1999. "Commodities and Capabilities," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195650389.
    13. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2020. "The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India: A Review," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 1795-1817, October.
    14. Sangeeta Goyal, 2009. "Inside the house of learning: the relative performance of public and private schools in Orissa," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 315-327.
    15. Chudgar, Amita & Quin, Elizabeth, 2012. "Relationship between private schooling and achievement: Results from rural and urban India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 376-390.
    16. Shahidur R. Khandker & Gayatri B. Koolwal & Hussain A. Samad, . "Handbook on Impact Evaluation : Quantitative Methods and Practices," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 2693, September.
    17. Gautam Rao, 2019. "Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(3), pages 774-809, March.
    18. Karthik Muralidharan & Venkatesh Sundararaman, 2015. "Editor's Choice The Aggregate Effect of School Choice: Evidence from a Two-Stage Experiment in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1011-1066.
    19. Mehtabul Azam & Geeta Kingdon & Kin Bing Wu, 2016. "Impact of private secondary schooling on cognitive skills: evidence from India," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 465-480, September.
    20. Singh, Abhijeet, 2015. "Private school effects in urban and rural India: Panel estimates at primary and secondary school ages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 16-32.
    21. Deininger, Klaus, 2003. "Does cost of schooling affect enrollment by the poor? Universal primary education in Uganda," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 291-305, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Justine Herve & Subha Mani & Jere Behrman & Arindam Nandi & Anjana Sankhil Lamkang & Ramanan Laxminarayan, 2021. "Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills: Roles of SES and Gender Attitudes," PIER Working Paper Archive 21-007, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    2. Chayanika Mitra & Indrani Sengupta & Pradeep Kumar Choudhury, 2022. "An analysis of school shifting patterns in India: what do recent data tell us?," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(2), pages 295-318, December.
    3. Kumar, Deepak & Choudhury, Pradeep Kumar, 2021. "Do private schools really produce more learning than public schools in India? Accounting for student’s school absenteeism and the time spent on homework," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Paul Ronak & Rashmi, 2021. "Is educational wellbeing associated with grade repetition and school dropout rates among Indian students? Evidence from a panel study," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 19(1), pages 503-543.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marine de Talancé, 2016. "Quality perceptions and school choice in rural Pakistan," Working Papers DT/2016/15, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    2. Marine de Talance, 2017. "Quality Perceptions and School Choice in Rural Pakistan," Working Papers hal-01663029, HAL.
    3. Kumar, Deepak & Choudhury, Pradeep Kumar, 2021. "Do private schools really produce more learning than public schools in India? Accounting for student’s school absenteeism and the time spent on homework," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Ian K. McDonough & Punarjit Roychowdhury & Gaurav Dhamija, 2021. "Measuring the Dynamics of the Achievement Gap Between Public and Private School Students During Early Life in India," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 78-122, March.
    5. Kelly, Orla & Krishna, Aditi & Bhabha, Jacqueline, 2016. "Private schooling and gender justice: An empirical snapshot from Rajasthan, India's largest state," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 175-187.
    6. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2020. "The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India: A Review," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 1795-1817, October.
    7. Chayanika Mitra & Indrani Sengupta & Pradeep Kumar Choudhury, 2022. "An analysis of school shifting patterns in India: what do recent data tell us?," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(2), pages 295-318, December.
    8. Gooptu, Sayoree & Mukherjee, Vivekananda, 2023. "Does private tuition crowd out private schooling? Evidence from India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    9. Dahal,Mahesh & Nguyen,Quynh T., 2014. "Private non-state sector engagement in the provision of educational services at the primary and secondary levels in South Asia : an analytical review of its role in school enrollment and student achie," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6899, The World Bank.
    10. Wamalwa, Fredrick M. & Burns, Justine, 2018. "Private schools and student learning achievements in Kenya," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 114-124.
    11. Singh, Abhijeet, 2015. "Private school effects in urban and rural India: Panel estimates at primary and secondary school ages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 16-32.
    12. Zimmermann, Laura, 2020. "Remember when it rained – Schooling responses to shocks in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    13. Marine de Talance, 2017. "Wealth Inequalities in Perceptions of School Quality in Pakistan," Working Papers hal-01662698, HAL.
    14. Marine de Talancé, 2016. "Wealth inequalities in perceptions of school quality in Pakistan," Working Papers DT/2016/14, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    15. Chudgar, Amita & Sakamoto, Jutaro, 2021. "Similar work, different pay? Private school teacher working conditions in India," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Naveen Kumar, 2019. "Public Schools Can Improve Student Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India," 2019 Papers pku634, Job Market Papers.
    17. Servaas van der Berg & Chris van Wyk & Ronelle Burger & Janeli Kotzé & Marlies Piek & Kate Rich, 2017. "The performance of low fee independent schools in South Africa - What can available data tell?," Working Papers 01/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    18. Goel, Deepti & Barooah, Bidisha, 2018. "Drivers of Student Performance: Evidence from Higher Secondary Public Schools in Delhi," GLO Discussion Paper Series 231, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Mehtabul Azam & Geeta Kingdon & Kin Bing Wu, 2016. "Impact of private secondary schooling on cognitive skills: evidence from India," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 465-480, September.
    20. Bagde, Surendrakumar & Epple, Dennis & Taylor, Lowell, 2022. "The emergence of private high schools in India: The impact of public-private competition on public school students," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Learning outcomes; private schooling; education; rural India; endogeneity; treatment–effect model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:20:y:2019:i:2:p:274-302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ips.lk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.