From Universalization to Privatization: Drift in Indian Education Policy

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Comparative Education Policy and Politics

Abstract

In 2015, approximately 40 percent of primary education in India was provided privately. How did a country with so many low-income citizens come to provide a substantial amount of education privately? I argue that policy decisions made prior to market-oriented reform in the 1980s allowed for the emergence and rapid growth of private providers. Policies that cut labor costs to meet the demands of rapid public expansion spilled over into the private sector, allowing for a simultaneous growth of the supply of private providers. I argue that Indian education policy ``drifted'' from a focus on government provision, to policy that implicitly, if not explicitly, welcomed a role for private provision.

Author

• Emmerich Davies, Harvard University