How Do Government and Private Schools Differ? Findings from Two Large Indian States

This paper uses survey data from representative samples of government and private schools in two states of India, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, to explore systematic differences between the two school types. The authors find that private school students have higher test scores than government school students. However, in both private and government schools the overall quality is low and learning gains from one grade to the next are small. There is large variation in the quality of both school types; and observed school and teacher characteristics are weakly correlated with learning outcomes. There is considerable sorting among students, and those from higher socio-economic strata select into private schools. Private schools have lower pupil-teacher ratios and seven to eight times' lower teacher salaries but do not differ systematically in infrastructure and teacher effort from government schools. Most of the variation in teacher effort is within schools and is weakly correlated with observed teacher characteristics such as education, training, and experience. After controlling for observed student and school characteristics, the private school advantage over government schools in test scores varies by state, school type and grade. Private unrecognized schools do better than private recognized schools. Given the large salary differential, private schools would clearly be more cost effective even in the case of no absolute difference in test scores.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Pandey, Priyanka, Goyal, Sangeeta
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2009-12
Subjects:	AVERAGE SCORE, BASIC COMPETENCIES, BASIC SKILLS, CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS, CLASS SIZE, CLASS SIZES, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOM CHARACTERISTICS, CLASSROOMS, COLLEGE DEGREE, DISTANCE TO SCHOOL, EARLY GRADES, EDUCATION LEVEL, EDUCATION LEVELS, EDUCATION OUTCOMES, EDUCATION QUALITY, EDUCATION SECTOR, EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES, EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, ELEMENTARY EDUCATION, END OF GRADE, ENROLLMENT, FEMALE TEACHERS, FREE TEXTBOOK, FREE TEXTBOOKS, GIRLS, HIGH SCHOOL, HIGHER TEST SCORES, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, ILLITERACY, IN SERVICE TRAINING, LEARNING, LEARNING ACHIEVEMENTS, LEARNING OUTCOMES, LITERACY, LITERACY RATE, LITERATURE, LOCAL TEACHERS, MATHEMATICS, MINIMUM SKILLS, MULTI GRADE TEACHING, NUMBER OF TEACHERS, NUMERACY, PAPERS, PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, PRIMARY EDUCATION, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN, PRIMARY SCHOOLS, PRIVATE EDUCATION, PRIVATE EDUCATION SECTOR, PRIVATE PRIVATE, PRIVATE SCHOOL, PRIVATE SCHOOL EFFECT, PRIVATE SCHOOL SECTOR, PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS, PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, PRIVATE TUITION, PRIVATE UNAIDED SCHOOLS, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PUPIL TEACHER RATIOS, PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO, PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS, QUALITY EDUCATION, QUALITY OF EDUCATION, READING, READING COMPREHENSION, REGULAR TEACHER, REGULAR TEACHERS, RESEARCHERS, REVENUE FROM FEES, RURAL AREAS, RURAL POPULATION, SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, SCHOOL ENROLMENT, SCHOOL LEVEL, SCHOOL MANAGEMENT, SCHOOL OWNERS, SCHOOL QUALITY, SCHOOL REGISTERS, SCHOOL STUDENTS, SCHOOL SURVEYS, SCHOOL SYSTEM, SCHOOL TEACHERS, SCHOOL TYPES, SCHOOL YEAR, SCHOOLING, SERVICE TRAINING, STATISTICAL ANALYSES, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, STUDENT BODY, STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS, TEACHER, TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS, TEACHER MOTIVATION, TEACHER QUALITY, TEACHER SALARIES, TEACHERS, TEACHING, TEACHING ACTIVITY, TEACHING EXPERIENCE, TEXTBOOK, TEXTBOOK PROVISION, TEXTBOOKS, TUITION, TYPES OF SCHOOLS, TYPES OF STUDENTS, VOUCHERS,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2009/12/11629796/government-private-schools-differ-findings-two-large-indian-states https://hdl.handle.net/10986/17962
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