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Regional Patterns and Dynamics of Learning Outcomes in India

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Risks and Resilience of Emerging Economies

Part of the book series: India Studies in Business and Economics ((ISBE))

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Abstract

In the last few decades, educational enrolment at different levels of schooling has increased. The socio-economic disparity in education participation has also reduced. However, students’ learning levels have been low, and the trends in learning outcomes have been stagnant. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates how regional disparity in learning outcomes has changed over time. Using multiple rounds of nationally representative data on test scores and schooling inputs, we apply the methodology of convergence to study temporal changes in the distribution of learning outcomes across the Indian districts over a decade. Our findings reveal the existence of absolute convergence, which seems to be driven mainly by a fall in learning outcomes among initially better-performing districts. Our analysis of conditional convergence shows the importance of having equality of opportunity in reducing regional disparity in learning over time. Our study highlights the need for having policy measures targeted toward underperforming regions, especially in the current times when the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education system and caused significant learning loss among students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ASER is a nationally representative survey conducted by the NGO Pratham in every year across all districts of India. The survey measures children’s basic literacy, numeracy, etc. among other information.

  2. 2.

    The data can be downloaded from https://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/dmsp/downloadV4composites.html.

  3. 3.

    Based on expert advice, the age limit was raised to seven in the 1991 Census. It is observed that children below this age limit don’t ordinally develop the skill required to understand the text properly. To be literate, there is no requirement for formal education.

  4. 4.

    We use a non-parametric estimator, specifically, the kernel density function for this analysis.

  5. 5.

    The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test is a nonparametric test for comparing two samples and test whether they are drawn from the same probability distribution.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bangalore, India

    Muneer Kalliyil & Soham Sahoo

  2. BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India

    Srividya Aluru

Authors
  1. Muneer Kalliyil
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  2. Srividya Aluru
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  3. Soham Sahoo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Soham Sahoo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

    Tanmoyee Banerjee Chatterjee

  2. Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

    Arpita Ghose

  3. Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

    Poulomi Roy

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 4, 5, 6, 7.

Table 4 Conditional convergence (reading score)
Full size table
Table 5 Conditional convergence (arithmetic score)
Full size table
Table 6 Conditional convergence (younger children (age: 5–10))
Full size table
Table 7 Conditional convergence (older children (age:11–16))
Full size table

See Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

Fig. 5
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average reading scores in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average reading score across the map in 2018 is less than that in 2007.

District-wise reading performance, India

Full size image
Fig. 6
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average arithmetic scores in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average arithmetic score across the map in 2018 is less than that in 2007.

District-wise arithmetic performance, India

Full size image
Fig. 7
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average learning scores for younger children in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average learning score across the map in 2018 is less than that in 2007.

District-wise average learning performance for younger children (age: 5–10), India

Full size image
Fig. 8
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average reading scores for younger children in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average reading score across the map in 2018 is less than that in 2007.

District-wise reading performance for younger children (age: 5–10), India

Full size image
Fig. 9
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average arithmetic scores for younger children in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average arithmetic score across the map in 2018 is less than that in 2007.

District-wise arithmetic performance for younger children (age: 5–10), India

Full size image
Fig. 10
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average learning scores for older children in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average learning score across the map in 2018 decreases slightly as compared to 2007.

District-wise average learning performance for older children (age: 11–16), India

Full size image
Fig. 11
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average reading scores for older children in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average reading score across the map in 2018 decreases slightly as compared to 2007.

District-wise reading performance for older children (age: 11–16), India

Full size image
Fig. 12
2 maps of India mark the districts for the average arithmetic scores for older children in 2007 and 2018 using a color-gradient scale ranging from 1 to 4. The overall average arithmetic score across the map in 2018 is less than that in 2007.

District-wise arithmetic performance for older children (age: 11–16), India

Full size image

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Kalliyil, M., Aluru, S., Sahoo, S. (2023). Regional Patterns and Dynamics of Learning Outcomes in India. In: Chatterjee, T.B., Ghose, A., Roy, P. (eds) Risks and Resilience of Emerging Economies. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4063-9_13

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