Public-Private Schools and Universalization of Access to Secondary Education

Implications for Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan in India

Abstract

Government of India under RMSA program has committed universal access to secondary education by 2017. However, this seems to be mere policy statement as secondary education in India is continued to be neglected policy area. There exist wide socio-economic differences in the level of participation at secondary level. The differential participation is likely to get intensified. There are two important reasons for that, a) public financing of secondary education in India is minimal (it received mere 16 percent of total plan expenditure on education) and b) the proliferation of private unaided schools. In this paper, we take up second reason in more detail. The proportion of private unaided schools at secondary level ranges between maximum of 88.4 in UP to minimum of 0 percent in West Bengal. The pattern of presence of private unaided schools presents the case of inequity and inequality as they have mostly proliferated in poor states. The issue is important since private cost of secondary education has been increasing while the public subsidy has been more or less stagnant. In this background paper examines the a) Growth pattern of Private unaided schools and rationale behind their proliferation b) Pattern of distribution of financial support and their implications for the affordability c) Household level determinants of participation in private unaided schools. This study utilizes selected educational statistics (MHRD), NSS 64th round Survey and household survey data from Punjab. This paper estimates private school choice using binary logistic regression.