Do parental resources reduce the gender gap in math for primary school-going children? Evidence from India

ABSTRACT

While a large body of evidence suggests that gender inequality in access to primary education has reduced significantly in India, there has been relatively little research on gender gap in learning outcomes, particularly math scores. Using a nationally representative household dataset, this study examines the role of parental resources in explaining gender gap in math scores for primary school-going children in India. We find that male children have significantly higher math scores than their female counterparts. However, this difference decreases with the increase in parental education and household assets. We also find that family investment in education explains a large part of gender gap in math. Overall, our findings provide a new understanding of gender gap in math scores in India. It has important policy implications for minimising gender gap in academic achievement to make school education more gender-inclusive.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender gap
• math performance
• household assets
• household investment in education
• primary education

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the external reviewers for giving several useful comments and suggestions to improve the paper, particularly helping in presenting the arguments cohesively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [ICPSR] at doi:10.3886/ICPSR36151.v6 [doi], V6 [2018-08-08].

Desai, S., and Vanneman, R. (2015). India Human Development Survey-II (IHDS-II), 2011–2012. ICPSR36151-v6.Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 31.