Missing Girls on the margins? Equity, assessment, and evaluation in India’s education policy

• In Event: M&E for Equity and Marginalized Populations

Proposal

Introduction. India’s new National Education Policy (NEP), enacted in 2020, stands on certain pillars of democracy, and the country’s special schools for underserved girls, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs), are a particularly important component of the policy’s realization. Launched by the Government of India in 2004, KGBVs are residential schools at the upper primary level for girls belonging predominantly to socio-economically disadvantaged groups in difficult rural areas, traditionally starting as a grade 6-8 model (NITI Aayog, 2015).
What can be observed throughout the short history of KGBVs is that democracy has not been fulfilled. While KGBVs are instrumental in providing educational access, there are consistent disparities between policy rhetoric, the institutionalization of values, the operationalization of provisions, and the reality of the outcomes observed (e.g., Kumar & Gupta 2008; Balagopalan 2010; Bhatty & Dongre 2016). Affirming that assessment, monitoring, and evaluation within the policy are worth investigating, this study examines 1) how the implementation of NEP provisions is going and 2) what outcomes are being observed regarding the education of India’s most marginalized girls.

Theoretical Frameworks. Our theoretical framework is informed by the field of evaluation’s concepts of democratic evaluation (e.g., Greene 1997; House & Howe 2000a, 2000b) and multicultural validity (e.g., Kirkhart 1995). To serve democracy, evaluation of public programs and policies requires deliberation between a diversity of stakeholders with their divergent interests and social positions (Greene 1997; House & Howe 2000b) and is inevitably tied to power and privilege (Greene et al. 2004). At the same time, the framework of multicultural validity (Kirkhart 1995, 2005, 2010, 2013) highlights that validity is a contextualized argument made about the a) defensibility of the process of engagement and data collection, b) the credibility of the evidence or knowledge produced, and c) the accurate, appropriate usage of that knowledge in a particular place and set of circumstances.

Methods. The study’s research questions are the following: RQ1) How are KGBV girls’ educational interests served by the assessment strategies of India’s new education policy?
RQ2) Can the policy facilitate the generation of credible and useful evidence for equitable reform? Answering the first research question relied on document analysis of NEP 2020 to examine how it represents the interests of KGBV girls, what provisions NEP establishes specifically for KGBVs, and what assessment strategies NEP adopts. Through a synthesis of NEP analysis and existing KGBV literature we inquired how NEP’s assessment strategies corresponded to KGBV girls’ interests. Answering the second research question required a) an additional analysis of NEP’s statements about equity, gender, inclusion, and exclusion; b) a literature review of other scholars’ NEP commentary and analyses; and c) a historical contextualization of NEP given the challenges and successes of India’s education system.

Sample Findings and Discussion: NEP 2020 and Generating Evidence for Equitable Reform. In its guiding principles, NEP explicitly identifies “full equity and inclusion as the cornerstone of all educational decisions to ensure that all students are able to thrive in the education system” (p. 5). There are 20 references to “equity” and 24 to “equitable” signaling the Indian government’s drive toward equitable reform in a school system that is presently characterized as highly unequal (Section 6.2, page 24). Beyond its evident concern for equity, NEP also reflects some awareness that detailed, integrated plans for implementation and evaluation are crucial “the Centre and States” (p. 62). The following NEP excerpt serves as an example to support analysis regarding how NEP proposes to use information to evaluate its activities toward achieving greater equity in India’s education system.
Section 2.2 describes a “National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy” created as a top priority of India’s Ministry of Education” (p.8). Here, the government identifies an important quality and equity issue that has received much national attention in India over the last decade: foundational literacy and numeracy. Routine, independent assessments of basic learning skills across rural Indian districts have found that it is a major problem for youth from early primary to secondary grades (e.g., ASER Centre 2015). The strengths of Section 2.2. are that it identifies a responsible agency and highlights the importance of monitoring and tracking. Its weaknesses are its inexplicit application to all children affected (e.g., out-of-school children) and its detail. Particularly, does the mission apply to KGBVs, which are not classified as primary level? Acquiring foundational learning skills is a need for many KGBV girls. Furthermore, Section 2.2 reflects a common challenge throughout NEP: its degree of detail within the document compared with its need for other parties to define and operationalize provisions beyond it.
NEP’s absence of exact measures to satisfy the nagging question of “how will this be achieved?” gives one pause. NEP is a policy document versus an implementation plan, yet aspirational words loose merit in time without clear steps, timelines, monitoring and evaluation, and enforcement mechanisms in place. In the case of KGBVs, its past evaluations raise two concerns: 1) lacking follow-through from the government on policy provisions, and 2) incongruency in priorities for program improvement. Given this history and NEP’s omissions, skepticism about NEP’s sincerity in achieving its equity goals quickly wins out.

Contributions. At present, it is unknown how girls benefit from participating in KGBVs regarding their empowerment, learning, and formal school completion (Bandopadhyay & Subramanian 2008). Given that historically KGBVs and alternative schools have been omitted from large-scale assessments (Goodnight & Bobde 2018), this study is original (as a Type A submission). It engages not only the question of how NEP’s assessment strategies may impact the education of KGBV girls, but also whether these strategies will even be implemented in KGBVs.

Significance to the CIES 2023 Theme. In Indian educational discourse, representation of KGBV students, teachers, and schools through assessments and evaluation is nearly missing, overlooking the educational experiences of the most marginalized girls in the country. Regarding the theme of ‘Improving Education for a More Equitable World’, this paper advocates for better assessment and stronger implementation and monitoring of policies like NEP so they fulfil their stated aims: a more equitable education system and society.

Author

• Ananya Tiwari, University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign