Private Management and Public Responsibility of Education of the Poor

Abstract

This paper presents an alternate explanation for the declining enrolments and dropouts from municipal primary schools. In the urban context, dropout has more usually been interpreted as a ‘preference for private/English-medium schools’. On the contrary, this paper points out; this ‘dropout’ could have been forced upon the poor by structural features introduced within the system of educational administration during the British period. Using evidence from studies of nine metropolitan cities, it is pointed out that the phenomenon of negative growth of enrolment at the primary stage is seen only in those cities where the next level of education is provided only/mainly through private-aided schools. Further, studies show that in Mumbai, the anxiety to ensure admission to aided secondary schools causes children to seek admission in aided secondary schools at the fee-charging primary stage itself. It is this manifested anxiety, this paper argues, that could be causing the observed phenomenon of low enrolment, dropout, etc. Thus, instead of representing a desire to leave schooling, the dropout could be likened to the backflow of smoke from a blocked chimney, seeking a way to progress upward. There is therefore a need to examine more closely the flows within the system of education, as also the role of subsidised private schools in providing continuity of education for children from municipal primary schools.