Global frameworks, local contingencies: policy translations and education development in India

Abstract

Policies and programmes pursuing the universalisation of elementary education (UEE) in developing nations have been influenced by a set of complex forces in international, state, and local arenas. This paper explores how a large‐scale standardised assessment programme shaped by international and market‐oriented discourses has been differently re‐worked in the south Indian state of Karnataka. We draw on observation and interview data with educators and administrators to shed some light on their roles in reconstituting the meaning and practice of this programme. The intended frameworks of ‘borrowed’ education policies are not always reproduced or sustained in local contexts. Our paper shows how policies, rather than ‘borrowed’ from one context to another, undergo a process of ‘translation’ involving the contextualisation and inevitable transformation of policies.

Keywords:

• policy borrowing
• India
• standardised assessment
• education policy

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed and insightful feedback.

Notes

1. Elementary education refers to the first seven years of schooling in India. Primary education usually refers to the first five years of schooling.

2. NCERT is the apex government body in India which advises the central and state governments on academic issues pertaining to school education.

3. In Karnataka the seniormost posts by rank are held by the elite IAS cadre while the junior posts are held by a provincial cadre popularly known as the Karnataka Education Service (KES). As shorthand we have used ‘senior officials’ for the IAS cadre and ‘junior officers’ for the state cadre though even the state cadre has a multi‐tiered hierarchy.

4. This included details of membership of parents, number of meetings held, and a check‐list of activities the association had undertaken to increase enrolment and attendance.

5. This can be a common discursive construction in some parts of India to imply gendered hierarchies.

6. Approximately 25% of the schools evaluated the previous year scored less than 40%.

7. One programme called the School Academic Plan, was introduced by a senior IAS officer of the department in response to the poor results in that year’s school leaving examination. Another programme, OduveNaanu (I Will Read) was the initiative of one of the Joint Directors of the department and focused on reading skills of children.