Relationship Between Privilege And Learning Outcomes In India

Education is highly important for everyone. Education enhances the personality of an individual. It teaches us the way of life. The government of India keeps making efforts time and again in order to improvise the ground reality and change the scenario every now and then. Lately, a new survey that has been conducted has revealed a relationship between the financial standing and the learning capacity of the students.

It has stated that those students who belong to privileged classes learn better and hold better learning skills in comparison to those who are not so privileged. As per Pratham’s Annual state of education report (ASER), the education system of India lacks largely. While private schools are in a better condition, the government schools are doing excessively bad. Among the students of classes III to V, a good number of students belonging to privileged sections of the society can read a Class I text, on the contrary, a considerable number of students belonging to the underprivileged families failed to do so. There is a uniform difference at higher levels of schooling (classes VI-VIII) also. When it comes to basic numeracy, there is a major, though less stark, difference between children from underprivileged families and those from privileged ones. The survey has shown a clear relationship between household characteristics and the learning outcomes of children. The households have been categorized into three types and is based on their access to basic household amenities (such as electricity connection, pucca house, etc.,) and to resources that could potentially influence learning outcomes (presence of an educated member in the household, reading material, etc.). As per the survey conducted, a total of nearly 30% of over half-a-million students surveyed fall in the highly privileged category, 16% in the underprivileged category, and the remaining in the moderately privileged category. The survey further states that the situation is slightly better for those who are born in underprivileged families but those that are educated ones. The chances of such children doing well in life are more than those who are born in illiterate and underprivileged families. Unfortunately, the number of students who are unprivileged and born in educated families is very less. As per statistics, while only 65% of the highly privileged families had at least one parent who possesses a high school or college degree, only 5% of the underprivileged families had at least one such parent. The analysis also reflects that there is a difference between government and private school when it comes to learning outcomes for both privileged and underprivileged children.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/how-privilege-shapes-learning-outcomes-in-india-1548086593289.html