Charu Jain

Literature on School Education, Quality, and Outcomes: A Review

To understand why it is essential to invest in education and at what level of education, various research scholars across the globe have conducted research studies and have tried to analyse the relationship between educational performance indicators and socio-economic outcomes in developing the methods of measuring quality of education and identification of its determinants. This chapter reviews the literature of such noteworthy studies. However, it has been noted that in the absence of qualitative indicators of education, most researchers have used quantitative indicators as a base for doing these analyses. Although most of the research work in this area has been conducted at global level, we have tried to present a few Indian cases as well to identify what has already been done and what needs to be done.

Conceptual Framework of the Study

This study has been conceptualized that the study proceeds in three steps: firstly, it examines the performance of secondary education at the national level; secondly, it evaluates the performance of educational indicators at the state level, identifies inter-state disparities, and also sees how educational indicators are linked to various outcomes. Thirdly, identifies the determinants of quality indicators and measures its impact on student outcomes in sample schools in Delhi. In addition to this, the chapter also discusses research questions, objectives, hypothesis, and significance of the study.

Profile of Sample Population: An Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the sample population to have an insight about the quality of secondary education in schools in a more comprehensive way. The information provided in this chapter is purely based on the primary survey data collected from 41 sample schools in Delhi by interviewing students, teachers, and key informers. The chapter is divided into four sections—the first section discusses the in-depth profile of sample schools in terms of facilities available in general, types of courses offered, enrolments, teachers and their qualifications, etc.; the second section elaborates the characteristics of teachers in sample schools; the third section deals with the socio-demographic characteristics of student respondents who are presently studying in selected sample schools in lower and senior secondary level of education; while the last section summarizes the major findings.

Secondary Education: Sampling Procedure and Design

This chapter is broadly divided into two parts. The first part provides a detailed description of the study area covering its geographical, economic, demographic, and educational background. The second part introduces the research methodology adopted to answer the research questions raised. This includes selection of target respondents, sample size, and its fixation procedure and sampling design covering sources of data, survey procedure, and tools used in data collection. A two-stage stratified systematic random sampling technique was adopted for collection of primary data.

Secondary Education in India: Growth, Performance, and Linkages

The recent initiatives undertaken for the universalization of elementary education has led to a dramatic growth in enrolments and improvements in retention and transition rates for elementary education, thereby resulting in an increased demand for the expansion of secondary education. Meeting this demand is essential firstly because secondary education forms the bridge between elementary and higher education, and secondly, the required input fulfils large manpower needs of the semi-organized and organized sectors of the economy. Also, investment in secondary education yields considerable social and private returns, offering young people the chance to acquire attitudes and skills that are unlikely to be developed in the primary grades. However, it is seen that as access to secondary education has expanded, its overall quality has often been on the decline as overstretched resources has combined with less efficient systems. Low participation rates and poor quality at the secondary stage are a bottleneck in improving both higher education participation and schooling at the elementary stage. In the light of the foregoing discussion, the present chapter aims to provide an in-depth review of trends in growth and performance of secondary education at the national level, covering various aspects such as expansion or access in terms of student enrolments, number of institutions, teachers, gender parity indicators, dropouts, transitions, etc. Along with these, the chapter also throws light on the management and financing issues of secondary education in India. Further, it evaluates the relationship between secondary education at the national level and socio-economic outcomes such as economic growth, health, demographic transition, employment, and income level. This is followed by the last section that summarizes major findings of the chapter.

Indian Education System: Structure and Key Challenges

The Indian education system has made significant progress in recent years. With more than 1.6 million schools and more than 290 million enrolments, India is home to one of the largest and complex school education systems in the world along with China. This chapter not only gives an overall picture of the vast and continuously changing Indian school education system, but also discusses the key challenges faced thereof with special focus on secondary education. The comparative assessment of Indian school education system at the global level is also discussed later in this chapter.

Teachers Perspective on Quality of Teaching in Schools

Research across the globe consistently demonstrates that teachers are important factors in determining the learning and achievement level of students. Hence, improving the quality of teaching and its process may be one of the effective means of raising pupil achievement levels. By quality in teaching, we mean possessing competencies to teach effectively. However, making teaching most effective is not just a one-dimensional term as it depends upon a number of ways in which other resources work in combination. Hence, it becomes important to discuss those dimensions which affect the quality and competencies in teaching. Improvement in these dimensions can help in enhancing the expertise and motivation of teachers towards achieving the common goals of quality secondary education and better learning outcomes in schools. Therefore, in this regard an attempt has been made to examine the teachers’ perspectives on various issues which are limiting their competencies and teaching abilities, thus restricting them in adopting efficient teaching practices and methods. This chapter thus provides better understanding on existing teaching environments and practices in schools, working conditions, problems faced by teachers in achieving their professional goals, and perceptions on various issues by elaborating on the important factors at school level, student level, and teachers self-evaluation. The chapter is further divided into six sections; the first section provides details on facilities available in schools and their working conditions; second section elucidates on the characteristics of teaching practices and aptitude; the third section discusses the extent of teacher–student interactions; fourth section discusses various factors affecting teaching abilities; the fifth section deals with perceptions of teachers; while the last section summarizes the major findings of the chapter.

Quality Measurement: Tools and Techniques

Qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted as complementary strategies for this study. While quantitative methods involved interviews through survey instruments, qualitative approach included key informers and observations attained thereof. Evaluation was carried out using both primary and secondary data sources. The description of various indicators used in the study, ways to measure them, econometric models applied, and the methodology used for the development of indexes has been also elaborated in this chapter. The limitations of the study have been mentioned in the last section of this chapter.

Understanding Factors Affecting Student Outcomes and Learning Behaviour

On the basis of discussion in earlier chapters, we have understood the importance of improving the quality of secondary education in India, due to its socio-economic implications impacting society and individual as a whole. But the main question arises on how to improve the quality of secondary education? Although at the macro level we have identified various deficiencies in Chaps. 8 and 9 that need to be relooked in order to improve the system, it is equally important to identify various obstacles at the micro level, that is, at school, by student or teacher to achieve overall improvement in the quality of education. It is equally important to understand their perspective as well to bring this change. But before looking at various factors that determine the quality of education, it is important to understand the way in which we can measure and try to improve the quality of education. It is pertinent to mention that by the expression ‘improving the quality of education’, we mean improving the performance and achievements of students by providing them best learning and growing environments. Hence, this study will measure the quality of secondary education in terms of student performances, their achievements, and overall satisfaction level. Available literature shows that schools, family environment, and teachers do play an important role here, but to measure the exact impact, a detailed analysis is required. To locate the determinants of student outcomes and performances, this study has conducted a survey to capture student perspectives on school environments, family culture, types of resources and infrastructural facilities available, and exposure to mass media. It also covers information on teacher’s background and teaching methods and practices adopted, the findings of which are discussed in this chapter. In addition to this, the perceptions of students on their self-performance, development, schooling, teaching quality, and self-evaluation are also discussed here. The chapter further elaborates the factors which are affecting the performance and learning outcomes of students and thereby act as major obstacles in achieving quality education at secondary level. The first section of this chapter describes various characteristics related to schools, family and other background of students that may have possible impact on learning outcomes and achievement of students. The perceptions of students on different issues have been covered in the second section. The third section presents the exploratory model for identifying the factors affecting performance of students. The findings of this chapter have been summarized in the last section.

Identifying Inter-state Disparities and Socio-economic Linkages

India aspires to become a knowledge hub, transforming millions across the world into educated global citizens. For this transformation, the entire education system in the country needs to be sound and robust. To achieve this goal at the national level, it is desirable to first strengthen the education system at state level. Education in India is in the concurrent list; the union government has some responsibilities while the states have autonomy. Therefore, the responsibility for financing secondary education is a shared responsibility between the union and state governments. The patterns of school management of secondary education are complex and vary considerably not only across states but even within states, between lower and higher secondary levels of education. Given the well-known regional disparities in India in various fields—social, economic, health, education, science, and technology—the comparative performance of individual states has become an important area of research. Despite the fact that secondary education forms an integral part of the development of the entire education system, very few studies have been conducted so far that have taken up the issues on the growth of secondary education particularly at the state level and in identifying the inter-state disparities in India. To fill up the gap, this chapter discusses the issues related to access, participation, and quality of lower and higher secondary education (Ninth–Twelfth standards) in 20 major states in India and examines the existing level of inter-state disparities. State-level analysis of secondary education is required especially if states need to progress in a balanced way. Moreover, the results from state comparisons can throw up successful experiments and examples which can be replicated or adapted by other states. While, the first section of this chapter discusses the state profile in terms of economic, social well-being, health, education, income and employment, and demographic performances, the next section presents facts on the status of secondary education in states. The third section discusses state financing patterns and the fourth section deals with disparities existing among and within states. This part of the chapter highlights various capabilities and inefficiencies of states in terms of socio-economic and demographic profiles and has tried to relate these with educational attainments in selected states. The fifth section tries to evaluate the inter-relationship between attainment of school education attainment and socio-economic outcomes at both macro and micro levels. The major findings are summarized in the last section of the chapter.