The progress of school education in India

TLDR

India’s educational achievements are positioned in an international context, especially in comparison with China. The paper offers an overview of school education in India. The study examines enrollment and attendance, literacy and achievement, resource and teacher inputs, the growth and cost‑effectiveness of private schools, and major public education initiatives. It concludes by calling for rigorous evaluation of the impacts and costs of existing interventions to determine their relative cost‑effectiveness for evidence‑based policy.

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of school education in India. First, it places India's educational achievements in international perspective, particularly against countries with which it is now increasingly compared, especially China. Second, the paper examines schooling access in terms of enrolment and school attendance rates, and schooling quality in terms of literacy rates, learning achievement levels, school resources, and teacher inputs. Third, the paper investigates the role of private schooling in India, examining the extent of growth of private schooling and surveying evidence on the relative effectiveness and unit costs of private and public schools. Last, the paper discusses some major public education initiatives. The concluding section suggests a future research agenda and appeals for rigorous evaluation of the impacts and costs of the numerous existing educational interventions, in order to learn about their relative cost-effectiveness for evidence-based policy-making.