Who all access private coaching in higher education and how much do they spend? Evidence from India

Abstract

Using the latest National Sample Survey (NSS) education round data, we examine the patterns and determinants of demand and cost of private coaching in higher education in India. Two-step Heckman selection equation results find that students with better household resources (rich and educated) are more likely to take private coaching and tend to spend more on it. Results show that not only pro-male gender discrimination is in existence; there is also caste inequality in the demand and cost of private coaching, with a higher marginal effect among poor households. The study establishes that the market of shadow education, which by its very nature, is highly selective and delivers the service largely to the students of socially and economically well-off families. This article provides a rationale to consider the dynamics of inequalities in access to private coaching while devising educational policies, for making higher education egalitarian.

Keywords:

• Private coaching
• higher education
• household expenditure
• household resources
• Heckman selection model
• India

JEL code:

• I21, I22, I24

Disclosure statement

We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

Availability of data and material

This study is based on a national survey conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) from July 2017 to June 2018, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. The data is publicly available at:

http://www.mospi.gov.in/unit-level-data-report-nss-75th-round-schedule-252july-2017-june-2018social-consumption-education (accessed 25 April 2020).

Notes

1 https://strategyr.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-global-market-for-private-tutoring.html (accessed 20 May 2020)

2 http://www.businessworld.in/article/Business-Of-Private-Tutorials-In-India-Now-A-Multi-Billion-Dollar-Industry/28-07-2016-100972/ (accessed 15 July 2020).

3 Households are grouped into five consumption quintiles based on their annual household consumption expenditure. First quintile includes the bottom 20% of households; second quintile includes households between 20 and 40% and so on. As NSSO does not collect data on income, consumption expenditure is used as a proxy of household income.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pradeep Kumar Choudhury

Dr. Pradeep Kumar Choudhury teaches economics at Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research interests span a wide range of issues in Education and Development Economics. Currently, he is collaborating in a major project titled ‘Delhi Research Implementation and Innovation (DRIIV)’ with IIT Delhi and Ashoka University, sponsored by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Recently, he completed an international collaborative study (in an experimental set-up) with Stanford University, USA that aims to assess and improve student learning in engineering and higher education in an international comparative perspective. He co-edited Contextualising Educational Studies in India: Research, Policy and Practices, Routledge, India. In addition, he has published in several journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, International Journal of Educational Development, Journal of School Choice, Millennial Asia, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, and Economic and Political Weekly.

Amit Kumar

Amit Kumar is a PhD scholar in economics at Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India. His research interests include financing of higher education, student loans and inequalities in education. He has presented some of his research works in conferences in India and abroad (UK, Netherlands, Russia and Bangladesh). Some of his research works are published in reputed journals and also as book chapters. Also, he was engaged in an International research project titled ‘Assessing and Improving Engineering Education Program’ conducted by Stanford University, USA. Amit Kumar can be contacted at [email protected]

Angrej Singh Gill

Dr. Angrej Singh Gill teaches economics at the Panjab University Rural Centre, Kauni, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Punjab, India. Presently, he is working in Azim Premji University-sponsored research project which, inter-alia, aims to examine the magnitude, patterns and socio-economic impacts of household expenditure on elementary education in general and shadow schooling in particular across different schooling patterns. His major area of interest is development economics with special emphasis on certain crucial aspects in economics of education like impact of neo-liberal economic reforms on education sector, particularly from the perspective of commercialisation of education and horizontal-vertical inequalities, etc. Angrej Singh Gill can be contacted at [email protected]