Suchergebnisse

Over the past two decades the importance given to preschool education as laying the foundation for lifelong learning and development has been increasingly recognised. India's 12th Five-Year Plan (2012–17) has conceptualised the pre-primary and early primary substages from 4 to 8 years old as an 'integrated early learning unit', to ensure a sound foundation for every child. With the expansion of private preschools, particularly in urban areas, even the poorest families are opting for low-fee private schools rather than free government services offered through the anganwadis (preschool centres). While evidence from developed countries exists that preschooling can have long-term beneficial effects on children, longitudinal evidence in India regarding the association of preschool education with later developmental outcomes is scarce. In light of this, this working paper draws upon Young Lives panel data to explore whether children who attended private preschools demonstrate higher cognitive skills and enhanced subjective well-being at the age of 12, compared to those who attended government preschools.

This mixed-methods paper investigates whether the 'private school premium', as manifested in student learning outcomes, is the result of better-quality teaching in private schools. Using school-, community- and household-level data from the Young Lives longitudinal study in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, this paper makes a detailed comparison of 227 government and private schools attended by the children in the sample. The results from our regression analysis suggest that privately educated children have a significantly higher (at 1 per cent) mathematics score than children in government schools. While characteristics of teachers like experience, gender, content knowledge and subject specialisation do not have any significant influence on children's learning outcome, teaching practices like regularly checking homework and factors such as the proximity of the teacher's residence to the school and teachers' attitude towards the children, as well as teachers' perceptions of their schools, have emerged as important determinants. In short, it is what the teacher 'believes and does' in the classroom that has the maximum impact on children's learning outcomes. Another key finding is that the students of teachers with professional qualifications have significantly higher outcomes (at 10 per cent in value-added specification) than children taught by teachers with only senior secondary education. But students of teachers with degrees in Education do not have significantly better outcomes than those taught by teachers with general degrees, after controlling for other factors. This has significant implications for policy on teacher recruitment and pre-service teacher training, as well as the development of regulatory frameworks. Setting standards for teaching and learning, to create appropriate benchmarks for both government and private schools, should be addressed as a matter of urgency.

There is national and international concern about the effects of corporal punishment upon children, and its implications for their capacity to benefit from school, yet corporal punishment is still widely used in schools all over the world, despite being banned in national legislation in most countries. Nevertheless, the topic is under-researched in developing countries. This working paper discusses the experiences of children aged between 8 and 16 in Andhra Pradesh, India. It draws on analysis of Young Lives household survey and school survey data to produce descriptive statistics to give an indication of the extent of corporal and other forms of punishment in schools. The paper also draws on analysis of three rounds of qualitative data from interviews with children and with their parents or caregivers as well as in-depth interviews undertaken as part of the school survey. The paper explores children's accounts of forms of punishment, how poverty is linked to corporal punishment, the reasons children give for punishment, how the punishment makes them feel, and the consequences punishment has not only for the quality of their learning at school, but also for the decisions they make about staying on in school or leaving school to start working.