1. Approaches to International Education: India Session 9

2. Factors influencing the success of EFA 1.The negative impact of target setting 2.The negative effects of donor dependency 3.Lack of participation of CSOs linked to target setting and donor dependency 4.The negative effect of gender mainstreaming as part of educational practice – toolkits and checklists! 5.Ethnicity and class variables which cut across EFA goals eg the middle class of West Bengal

3. Context: development of Indian education Traditional education served the needs of high caste Brahmin families and boys in particular Moguls remained elitist – wealth more than religion Nehru – 1947-64 India as a secular democracy – education for all to overcome social & religious division but emphasis on higher education Rajiv Gandhi reforms 1986 – increased central government funding to states – school in most villages Operation Blackboard 1987-8 – staff & plant District Primary Education programme 1993 – decentralised planning EFA (2000) universal primary education by 2010?

4. India: choice as a means of achieving EFA goals Neo-liberal market forces encouraged by the World Bank and educational choice in England (specialist schools & academies) and America (charter schools) held up as good practice. World Bank Group report Making Services Work for Poor People (2002): What is worth noting is that here, despite the evidence of externalities in primary education and health in developing countries, clearly there is private demand for these services even (or especially) amongst the poor (p4)

5. India: choice as a means of achieving EFA goals We need to examine options for improving the outcome of public services for the poor. We need to address the relationship between the policymaker and the service provider, the provider and the client, the client and the policymaker (p14) CfBT Report Public-Private Partnerships in Basic Education (2008) undertaken on behalf of EFA

6. India: choice as a means of achieving EFA goals In a PPP the public sector role is to define the scope of business, specify priorities, targets and outputs and set the performance regime. The role of the private sector is to deliver the business objective of the PPP in terms of offering value for money to the public sector. (p8)

7. Is there a demand for private education from the poor in India? Tooley & Dixon (2006) 1. Widespread acceptance of the availability of affordable private schools for the poor in a range of developing countries 2. Parents choose them because of the inadequacy of the state system 3. Private schools are more accountable 4. Teaching/teacher attendance superior 5. Unregistered private schools perform better 6. They perform better at a cheaper price

8. Three key objections to private school use in EFA refuted 1.Private schools do not have to be inequitable if they contribute to EFA through concessions eg vouchers 2.Private schools starting from a higher bases can be improved quickly alongside state schools if they receive a state subsidy 3.Private schools do not have to undermine state school reform if they are accessible to all, including the most poor, the socially excluded and girls

9. Critical evaluation of private school to achieve EFA goals in India Key issues: 1. In which geographical and socio- economic areas has private education expanded? 2.Are schools competing in these areas along neo-liberal lines? 3.Who is in a position to choose? 4. Is there better learning in private schools?

10. Challenging points to consider Ascribed status and the indices of poverty have converging relationships with school Choice (Harma 2009 p164). Increased reliance on LFPs will polarise Society with the poorest remaining poor at least partly through lack of learning in ghettoised government schools (p164). Markets do not deliver universal and socially optimal levels of service delivery (p164).

11. India: the way forward It is socially desirable to reform the government system, incorporating accountability as a core principle (Harma p164) Reform Options 1. Funding a) teachers salaries b) spend less on secondary & tertiary education and more on primary c) regulating not subsidising private schools d) Incentives which guarantee attendance not just enrolment (Mehrotra (2006)

12. India: the way forward 2. Improving teachers accountability and work environment: a) serious shortage of teachers b) performance of teachers: absenteeism, para-teachers, teacher education, role of village education committee (CSO), unions c) Teacher work environment – pupil-teacher ratios, single teacher schools

13. Conclusions Can choice really bring about a basic education for all? Is there a place for public-private partnerships in achieving EFA goals?

14. Bibliography Harma, J. (2009) can choice provide education for all? Evidence from growth in private primary schooling in India, Compare, 39 (3) 151-156. LaRocque, N (2008) Public and private partnerships in basic education, CfBT. Mehrotha, S. (2006) reforming elementary education in India: a menu of options, International Journal of educational Development, 26 (2).

15. Bibliography continued Tooley, J. (2004) Private education: the poors best chance? http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_11/uk/doss22.htm Tooley, J & Dixon, ( (2006) De facto privatisation of education and the poor: implications of a study from sub-Saharan Africa and India, Compare, 36 443-62. World Bank(2004) Making services work for poor people, in the World Development Report, Islamabad, World Bank,