Educational Quality and Social Inequality

Abstract

It is argued that the perception of existing inequality within the field of school education gave rise to the language of rights, but that normative notions of childhood underpinning educational discourses have not been sufficiently problematised. The paper makes a case for productive convergence between the discourses of quality and inequality by drawing on the observations from a study of government schools in Andhra Pradesh. Specifically, the paper foregrounds the need for reflecting on the tacit agreement that exists within the education system about bracketing off questions of socio-cultural inequality when discussing issues of quality and learning goals on the one hand, and the compartmentalisation of the language of rights on the other hand such that adequate attention has not yet been paid to questions of educational quality.

Beyond Enrolment and Appropriation Politics in Dalit Girls’ Education: Caste and Patriarchy Among Scavenging Communities of Urban Haryana, India

“…In line with this, with an aim to improve inclusivity and to challenge the common beliefs around Dalit girls' education, recently, a growing body of literature highlighted several socio-economic barriers and stigmatized educational experiences of Dalit girls in the Indian education system (Anand & Yadav, 2006;Balagopalan & Subrahmanian, 2003;Bhagavatheeswaran et al, 2016;Jha & Jhingran, 2005;Kabeer, 2006;Kamat, 2008;Kaul, 2015;Majumdar, 2021;Morarji, 2014;Narwana & Gill, 2020;Pappu & Vasanta, 2010;Saxena et al, 2009;Shah, 2015;Subramanian, 2016;Vacha Kishori Project Team, 2016). Research illustrates how Dalit girls are victims of double discrimination, Dalit girls are not allowed to go to school due to early marriage practices, girls remain engaged in household chores and miss school, security issues, lack of economic resources, etc.…”

Theorising gendered childhoods and girls’ schooling: Poverty, patriarchy and girls’ education in urban India

“…Contrary to the world-view circulated through the school/labour binary and ‘the girl effect’, existing research on girls’ schooling and childhoods (cf. Balagopalan and Subrahmanian, 2003; Jha and Jhingran, 2005; Morarji, 2014; Pappu and Vasanta, 2010; Saxena, 2012; Saxena et al, 2009) in India underscores the importance of engaging with local socioeconomic issues in order to address the question of their education. It shows that a community’s socioeconomic marginalisation centrally shapes girls’ educational experience and that caste-based socioeconomic exploitation, insecure livelihoods, low wages and lack of employment opportunities are serious impediments.…”

Child Labor and Education in South Asia

“…The schooling system has little understanding, if any, of the kinds of responsibilities that these children have at home because of the mistaken belief that once in school, the children stop working. There is ample empirical evidence though to show that a majority of school-going children in South Asia combine school with work (Balagopalan and Subramanian 2003;Bandyopadhyay andSubrahmanian 2011, CINI-ASHA 2003;Nambissan 1996Nambissan , 2000Nambissan , 2003Sinha 2000;Sinha and Reddy 2011;Stromquist 1989;Pappu and Vasanta 2010;UCW 2003UCW , 2011Woodhead 1998). This reality of the children's lives notwithstanding, within the frame that the formal schooling system adopts, the school-going child is envisaged as one who has no history or baggage of any kind from the past, but only a future to look forward to.…”