Addressing Educational Disparity : Using District Level Education Development Indices for Equitable Resource Allocations in India

The challenge of development work in the social sector in India today is one of bridging huge disparities across regions of the country, gender and social groups. Unless national and state policies specifically target resources to address these disparities, achieving higher level outcomes in an inclusive manner, which is the real goal for human development in education and health, will be a distant dream. This paper takes up the case of the Indian government s Elementary Education for All Mission to understand how this flagship program relates investments to spatial and social disparities. For identifying the most deprived districts in terms of educational inputs, outputs and overall development, the authors estimate district level education development indices for 2003-2004. The contribution of the largest investment program is measured by "per child allocations" and expenditures at the state and district levels for 2005-2006. An analysis of comparing the ratio of allocations to expenditures with the ratio of district level indices to sub-dimensional indices shows that there is an apparent disconnect between the "real investment needs" of the districts, reflected in their level of educational development and the actual allocations made on an annual basis. The analysis shows that although all districts received more funds for investing in elementary education programs, the most disadvantaged and needy districts received proportionately more funds, which helped these districts to bridge access and infrastructure gaps and appoint more teachers. Benchmarking sector development by spatial entities helps not only in monitoring the outcomes, but also in targeting planning and funding to reduce disparities.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Jhingran, Dhir, Sankar, Deepa
Language:	English
Published:	2009-06-01
Subjects:	ACCESS TO EDUCATION, ADDITIONAL FUNDS, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES, ADULT LITERACY, AGE GROUP, ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION, ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION CENTERS, ARITHMETIC, ARITHMETIC MEAN, ATTENDING SCHOOL, AVAILABILITY OF CLASSROOMS, AVAILABILITY OF SCHOOLS, AVAILABILITY OF TEACHERS, BUDGETING, CAPITAL EXPENDITURE, CAPITAL EXPENDITURES, CAPITAL GOODS, CHILD LABOR, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOM RATIO, CLASSROOMS, COMPLETION RATES, CONTRIBUTION, CURRICULUM, DECISION MAKING, DISADVANTAGED GROUPS, DROP-OUT RATES, DROPOUT RATE, DROPOUT RATES, ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION, EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION EXPENDITURES, EDUCATION FACILITIES, EDUCATION FOR ALL, EDUCATION OF GIRLS, EDUCATION PLANNING, EDUCATION PROGRAMS, EDUCATION SECTOR, EDUCATION SERVICES, EDUCATION STATISTICS, EDUCATION SYSTEM, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTS, EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATIONAL DISADVANTAGE, EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES, EDUCATIONAL INDICATORS, EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE, EDUCATIONAL INPUTS, EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES, EDUCATIONAL PLANNING, EDUCATIONAL SERVICES, ELEMENTARY EDUCATION, ENROLLMENT, ENROLMENT RATES, ENROLMENT RATIO, EQUITABLE ALLOCATION, EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION, FEMALE LITERACY, FEMALE LITERACY RATE, FINANCES, FINANCIAL GUIDELINES, FINANCIAL INVESTMENT, FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS, FINANCIAL RESOURCES, FREE TEXTBOOKS, GENDER DISPARITY, GENDER GAP, GENDER GAP IN ENROLMENTS, GENDER PARITY, GENDER PARITY INDEX, GIRLS, GLOBAL MONITORING, HIGH DROPOUT, HIGHER EDUCATION, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, INTERVENTIONS, INVESTING, INVESTMENT PROGRAM, KEY ROLE, LEARNING, LEVELS OF LITERACY, LINGUISTIC MINORITIES, LITERACY, LITERACY EDUCATION, LITERACY RATES, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, NER, NET ENROLMENT, NET ENROLMENT RATIO, NUMBER OF SCHOOLS, NUTRITION, OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN, PHYSICAL ACCESS, PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, POVERTY ALLEVIATION, POVERTY REDUCTION, PRIMARY COMPLETION, PRIMARY COMPLETION RATE, PRIMARY EDUCATION, PRIMARY EDUCATION PROGRAM, PRIMARY GRADES, PRIMARY LEVEL, PRIMARY LEVEL EDUCATION, PRIMARY LEVELS, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL COMPLETION, PRIMARY SCHOOLS, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, PUPIL TEACHER RATIO, PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO, QUALITY OF EDUCATION, QUALITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE, REASONING, REPETITION RATES, RESOURCE ALLOCATIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES, SALARIES, SALARY, SCHOOL BUILDINGS, SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION, SCHOOL COVERAGE, SCHOOL DATA, SCHOOL FACILITIES, SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE, SCHOOL LEVEL, SCHOOL RATIO, SCHOOL SYSTEM, SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS, SENIOR, SERVICE TRAINING, SOCIAL GROUPS, SUPPORT GROUP, TEACHER, TEACHERS, TEXTBOOK, TEXTBOOK DISTRIBUTION, TRAINING OF TEACHERS, UNIVERSAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION, UNIVERSAL ENROLMENT, UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION, UPPER PRIMARY, VULNERABLE GROUPS,
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090604092157 https://hdl.handle.net/10986/4147
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