Comparing private and government schools in India: the devil is in the maths

ABSTRACT

Recent research shows that the gap in learning achievement between private and government schools in India can be explained away by self-selection. Analysing four rounds of panel data and distinguishing between ‘knowing’ and ‘applying’ dimensions of maths learning, I find that there is no private school advantage in the applying domain but that there is an advantage in the knowing domain.

KEYWORDS:

• Private schools
• India
• mathematical competencies
• propensity score matching

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I21
• I25

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Mili, Christopher Winch, Shaun Hargreaves-Heap and Ragupathy Venkatachalam for insightful discussion and comments. All errors are my own.

The data used in this publication come from Young Lives, a 15-year survey investigating the changing nature of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam, based at the University of Oxford (www.younglives.org.uk). Young Lives is core funded by the UK Department for International Development. The views expressed here are those of the author. They are not necessarily those of the Young Lives project, the University of Oxford, DFID or other funders.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ For instance, Jimenez and Lockheed (1995) provide cross-country evidence favouring private schools, whereas Newhouse and Beegle (2006) and Somers, McEwan, and Willms (2004) do not find evidence of a private-school advantage.