Educational deprivation and primary school provision : a study of providers in the city of Calcutta

Publicly provided education systems are increasingly being seen as unable to address the specific educational needs of poor and marginalized groups. The emphasis on pluralism in educational provision and alternative schooling systems for such groups hence assumes significance. This paper focuses on the education of the poor in the city of Calcutta, capital of the state of West Bengal in India. It dwells on initiatives that are underway to bring all children to primary schools both in state funded regular schools as well as in alternative schools that are being run by non-government organisations. The paper situates these initiatives in the larger context of the state of primary schooling in the city and the perceptions of educational deprivation among policy-makers, teachers and administrators. It points to the fact that primary schools are inadequate in terms of availability and offer education of relatively poor quality. However educational deprivation is seen by school providers to result largely from poverty, particularly child labour and the absence of home and community environments that are conducive to learning. This has provided the rationale for an alternative schooling system to address the specific educational needs of children who are not in regular schools. The paper acknowledges that poverty is an important constraint in the education of the children of Calcutta’s poor. However it stresses that an emphasis primarily on the linkages between poverty, child labour and non enrolment in school fails to address the magnitude of educational deprivation that results from the institutional context of schooling provided to the poor. While the alternative schooling system may increase educational opportunities for poor children it is unlikely to provide education of quality. On the other hand it is likely to result in a further stratification of an already iniquitous schooling system

Advocacy networks, choice and private schooling of the poor in India

This article is about the flows of rhetorics and discourses, particularly those that advocate choice and private schooling, and the role that transnational advocacy networks play in managing and driving these flows. We explore a set of network relations between advocacy groups in the UK and the USA and local 'choice' advocates in India, and some of the emerging impacts of local and transnational advocacy on the politics of education and education policy in India. The network advocates school choice and private schooling as solutions to the problem of achieving universal, high-quality primary education. Individual policy entrepreneurs are active in making these connections and circulating ideas. A complex of funding, exchange, cross-referencing, dissemination and mutual sponsorship links the Indian choice and privatization advocacy network, and connects it to other countries in a global network for neoliberalism. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd & Global Networks Partnership

Educational deprivation and primary school provision A study of providers in the city of Calcutta

Includes bibliographical referencesAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:9350. 21495(187) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo