Inside Indian Schools: The Enigma of Equity and Quality

by Vimala Ramachandran

After 70 years after independence, the tragic reality of Indian schools is that who we are, where we live, how much we earn, and our gender influences the kind of education we will get. In this collection of essays the author explores the contours of a school system that is facing a crisis of legitimacy.

While India aspires to march towards a knowledge driven society and economy, millions of young people are left behind. Those who can afford march out of government schools only to realize that the private schools are no better. The schools they attend leave them with little knowledge or skill, a very low self-esteem and a bleak future.

This book argues that the struggle for equality in education, is ultimately a struggle for quality—both being two sides of the same coin.

PART I THE BIG PICTURE

1. Introduction
2. Equity and Quality: Two Sides of the Same Coin
3. The Narrative Emerging from Different Data Sources
4. The Cumulative Burden of Exclusion of Tribal Communities
5. The Intermeshing of Gender and Equity in Education

PART II BEHIND THE SMOKESCREEN OF DATA

6. Segregated Schools in an Unequal Society
7. What Facilitates Successful Primary School Completion?
8. What it Means to be a Dalit or Tribal Child in Our Schools
9. The Teacher Conundrum

272 pages, ebook

Published March 5, 2018