Highlighted Session: The Role of Non-State Actors in Education in South Asia: A panel discussion on the GEM South Asia Regional Report

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

The objective of the panel is to discuss the Global Education Monitoring Report’s South Asia report on the role of non-state actors in education, developed over the last two years building on GEM Report research and collaborative partnerships. This panel session is chaired by Dr. Priyadarshani Joshi from the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report.

It is critically important to analyze non-state actors in education in South Asia.

The State has ultimate responsibility for its citizens’ education. However, non-state actors are involved in a wide range of modes of education provision and financing globally. The growing influence of non-state actors in the education sector present opportunities and challenges for the sector that need to be unpacked to help achieve SDG 4. The 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report urges governments to see all institutions, students and teachers as part of a single system, and prioritize equity and the public good (UNESCO, 2021). There is a major need to expand the research conversations on the comprehensive range of activities non-state actors are involved in, to understand its systemic implications. (Srivastava, 2020).

South Asia’s needs, challenges and opportunities provide the backdrop for an especially prominent non-state role in education. According to UIS data, the share of enrolment in private institutions rose between 1990 and 2018 from 23% to 42% in pre-primary education and from 9% to 18% in primary education. In secondary education, the share increased from 19% in 1998 to 26% in 2018. Deficits in governance, participation, poverty and inequality, weak regional cooperation, and fragile security limit trust in government for delivering public services and fulfilling the right to education. Within the majority of countries, there are also deeply internalized inequalities based on class, religious, ethnic and caste groupings.

The session will begin with three brief presentations (36 mins).

• Dr. Priyadarshani Joshi, Senior Research Officer, GEM Report, UNESCO will focus on the research contributions, key findings and recommendations of the South Asia Regional Report on non-state actors in education. Using the conceptualization of the 2021 Global Report on non-state actors in education, the Regional Report sheds new light on how non-state actors are involved in every aspect of education systems – by mapping the types and prevalence of formal and ancillary provision at different levels of education, examining the evidence, and exploring existing governance and financing mechanisms.

• Sehar Saeed, Deputy Director Research, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi, will present on the role of non-state actors in Pakistan, the commissioned country study by the GEM Report for the South Asia Regional Report. The study provides an overview of the diverse non-state providers in Pakistan (private schools, deeni madaris, public-private partnership schools) as well as providers involved in early childhood care and education, technical and vocational education and non-formal basic education. Primary data collection included key informant interviews, focus group discussions, school surveys and a household-based child survey, shedding new light on areas with a large research gap.

• Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, Western University, will focus on the conceptualization of non-state engagement in education. Relying on her long-term research interest and pioneering expertise in non-state engagement and low-fee private schooling globally and in the region, Dr. Srivastava was commissioned to develop the thinkpiece for the 2021-22 GEM Report on non-state actors in education. The presentation will discuss key elements of the thinkpiece framework, and discuss further specifications in the domains of finance, regulation, and management with reference to non-state engagement in South Asia.

Second, the discussant panel will then engage on several questions of academic and policy relevance as they relate to the regional report (30 mins). These questions can focus on any of a number of non-state activities in education systems – such as governance and finance systems, regulation of private sector activity, influences on policymaking and provision. The panel will focus on research contributions and gaps, policy relevance and prospects for peer learning for regional research.

The discussant panel has been carefully convened given their extensive expertise in academic, research and policy dialogues in diverse countries in the region. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Joshi. Besides the presenters, the discussants include:

• Dr. Amita Chudgar is Professor of Education Policy, Michigan State University. Dr. Chudgar will focus her reflections on teacher labor markets and learning outcomes. In these remarks, she will draw from her knowledge of India, and the South Asia region, along with several research studies from the Global South (including her own collaborative work). The remarks will focus on the complexities of teacher training (scale, quality), implications of various teacher staffing, remuneration, promotion, and transfer policies (demand side), and considerations of teacher background in understanding who becomes a teacher and who decides to remain in the profession (supply side). The remarks will weave in the role of non-state actors in each of these spheres and its implications for the broader system and also for student learning.

• Dr. Dhir Jhingran is the Founder Director of Language and Learning Foundation (LLF), a non-profit focused on improving foundational learning of students through early literacy and multilingual education programs. Dr. Jhingran has worked in the primary education sector for 30 years, within and outside the Indian Government. Having worked within the government for two decades and then as a non-state actor in the past decade, Dr. Jhingran has been a keen observer of the changing space and roles of non-state actors in the government-led primary education sector in India.

• Dr. Najeeb Shafiq is professor in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education (primary appointment), Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (joint appointment) and Department of Economics (secondary appointment). Dr. Shafiq will discuss the financing arguments in the Regional Report, especially commenting on how government financing inadequacy and fee-based regulations are linked to the prominent role of non-state actors in South Asia.

The session will conclude with Questions and Answers for the presenters and discussants (20 mins).

Sub Unit

• South Asia SIG

Chair

• Priyadarshani Joshi, UNESCO

Individual Presentations

• Conceptualizing non-state engagement in education: applications to South Asia - Prachi Srivastava, University of Western Ontario

• The GEM Report - South Asia Regional Report on Education: Main Research Contributions and Findings - Priyadarshani Joshi, UNESCO

• Transforming the Education Landscape: The Role of Non-State Actors in Education in Pakistan - Baela R Jamil, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA)

Discussants

• Amita Chudgar, Michigan State University

• Dhir Jhingran, Language and Learning Foundation

• M. Najeeb Shafiq, University of Pittsburgh