Universal Secondary Education in India

Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
Editor

Universal Secondary
Education in India
Issues, Challenges and Prospects

With a Foreword by P. R. Panchamukhi

123
Editor
Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
Council for Social Development
New Delhi, Delhi, India

ISBN 978-981-15-5365-3 ISBN 978-981-15-5366-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5366-0
© Council for Social Development 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Foreword

In a country like India where knowledge and learning have been accorded a high
philosophical status and a high social status, entire education has to be viewed as a
‘process of great continuity’ rather than an event of discreteness. However, formal
education with specified stages immediately breaks this natural continuity and this
therefore calls for conscious efforts to re-establish it in the interest of the entire
educational sector. It is in this background that one can appreciate initiatives at
regular intervals taken in India to develop a holistic view of education with
keenness to strengthen its parts and efficiently establish their internal linkages.
Some of the economists of education of the developed world of the past advocated
even legitimisation of the segmented view of education when contemplating
strategies of educational development for countries of different levels of economic
development. They recommended that underdeveloped countries should focus their
attention on the development of primary education, developing countries on sec-
ondary education and developed countries on higher education. However, when we
recognise that the ‘option effect’ operates well even in less developed and devel-
oping countries, implying that completers of a particular stage of education would
find options to move to the next stage wide open, this segmented view turns out to
be irrelevant. Unfortunately, the economic factors also seem to strengthen the
stage-specific segmented view as certain economic opportunities seem linked to
specific stages of education. The present volume of insightful articles edited by
Prof. Jandhyala B. G. Tilak presents one such attempt at taking a segmented view
focussing on primarily secondary education in India, though the editor recognises at
the same time the inter-linkages between the three levels, the interdependence on
each other and the need to have a holistic approach in educational planning.
One feels that such a focus is quite warranted at the present juncture in India
because for many decades after the independence policymakers and analysts had
been focussing on primary education and elementary education so much so that
other stages appeared receiving less than their due attention. In fact in order to
achieve universal elementary education, resources should be diverted, they argued,
from higher education in particular to elementary education since there were no
hopes of getting much bigger allocation to the entire educational sector. In this

v
vi Foreword

frenzy, there was practically nobody who could look at the woes of secondary
education. Now of course, this type of indifference cannot continue, thanks to the
relatively better outcomes at the elementary education level due to all the passion
and legitimate advocacy. The option effect seems to be quite powerful, this needs to
be sustained, and transition rates from primary/elementary to secondary education
need to be raised further. Unfortunately, the hurdles in this process are innumerable,
such as: poor learning culture of the families, illiteracy of parents of children,
gender and caste, rural background, commercialisation of education at all levels
particularly in secondary schools, weak government schools and growing influence
of private sector ethos in secondary education with interest in profit chasing and
false notions of institutional and student achievements, less attractive curriculum,
highly regimented functioning of schools distancing children from the households
and the surroundings, alien medium of instruction in schools making learning very
difficult particularly for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and rural children,
inadequate fund flow to secondary schools, inadequate patronage for secondary
education from the state and union governments, location of schools (visualised in
the ‘neighbourhood schools’ by the Kothari Commission), highly discouraging
teaching methods and examination system, ill equipped teachers who are not able to
make learning activity an enjoyable activity for children, inadequate number of
competent teachers, poor involvement of parents in the process of schooling of their
children, high fees not affordable for poor households, very prohibitive restrictions
of the government with regard to the appointments of teachers and other staff and
functioning of schools, absence of economically feasible secondary education and if
needed its termination options without unduly heavy economic costs for children
and their families (the point which had received attention in past, as in the case of
basic education reform of Mahatma Gandhi at the level of primary education and
multi-purpose schooling and in case of vocationalisation a la Mudaliyar Committee
at the middle and secondary levels) and absence of fine-tuning of schooling cal-
endar with the agricultural seasons. In recent years, there are also signs of foreign
players in secondary education making it increasingly removed from indigenous
and national ethos and culture. Political factors have further added to this process
alienating secondary education from the indigenous ethos. All such hurdles are so
formidable that mild doses of initiatives may not bear fruits and significant and big
pushes are required. Apart from the diagnosis of the problems as above, what are
required are the well thought-out strategies of implementation. A thorough exam-
ination of these and many other relevant issues needs to be undertaken to provide a
sound analytical basis for understanding the challenges involved, formulation of
strategies and initiatives for their implementation. Obviously, some of these
problems are likely to be manageable and some are not at all manoeuvrable. This
really poses a further big challenge to policymaking.
I am very pleased to note that the present volume edited by Prof. Jandhyala B.
G. Tilak that includes studies conducted by a number of scholars with insightful
analyses may serve really as a trigger, inspiring further work in the field. Professor
Tilak has been considered in the academic and policy circles as a person with
educational research as his life’s mission. He has authored and edited not only a
Foreword vii

large number of research works of outstanding standards in the field of several

aspects of all the stages of Indian education, but also has been instrumental in
editing and revisioning the thought processes and policies relating to Indian edu-
cation. His scholarly introduction and meaningful organisation of the studies
included in this volume bear testimony to this observation. Some of the articles with
strong conceptual insights like the one relating to the role of power in school
choices, some with very meaningful applications of econometric techniques to the
understanding of some of the hurdles in secondary education, etc., show to what
high standards the present volume belongs. It is undoubtedly a must-read volume
for serious researchers and policymakers in the field of secondary education in India
in particular and developing countries in general.
Those interested in reforming education would expect many more analytical
initiatives on many more unexplored aspects of secondary education in India by the
research scholars with the leadership of the doyen of educational research in
India—Prof. Tilak. The Springer Publications deserve all accolades as they have
indeed provided an extremely useful reading material as a valuable addition to the
literature on educational research.

P. R. Panchamukhi
Professor Emeritus and Chairman
Centre for Multidisciplinary
Development Research
Dharwad, Karnataka, India
Acknowledgements

This book is an offshoot of the National Seminar on Secondary Education organised

by the Council for Social Development, New Delhi, in July 2018.
In the organisation of the seminar, and in consequent publication of this book, I
received valuable help and cooperation from many scholars, colleagues and others.
Grateful acknowledgements are due to:
Professor Muchkund Dubey, President, Council for Social Development, for his
keen interest and encouragement in organising the seminar, in bringing out the
book and in consistently supporting my work,
Professor P. R. Panchamukhi, Eminent Social Scientist and Economist of edu-
cation of first generation, for kindly providing a valuable foreword to the book,
Ms. Jayalekshmi Nair, Senior Research Associate, Council for Social
Development, for her excellent assistance throughout,
all the contributors for submitting revised versions of their papers for the book
and patiently waiting for it, and
the Springer Publishers for bringing out the book in the present attractive form.

Jandhyala B. G. Tilak

ix
Contents

Universal Secondary Education in India: An Introductory Overview

of Issues, Challenges and Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Jandhyala B. G. Tilak

Secondary Education in India: Growth and Inequalities

Status of Secondary Education in India: A Review of Status,
Challenges and Policy Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Madhumita Bandyopadhyay and Sunita Chugh
Push-Out, not Drop-Out: Youth and Secondary Schooling in India . . . . 51
Manabi Majumdar and Sangram Mukherjee
Secondary Education in Maharashtra: Issues of Concern . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Anuradha De and Meera Samson

Private Education, Equity, Quality and Justice in Secondary

Education
Changing Public–Private Mix in School Education
and Its Implications for Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Achin Chakraborty
Expanding Education Market and Parental Choice for Secondary
Schools in India: Evidence from IHDS Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Pradeep Kumar Choudhury
The Power Game: A Case Study of a Private School in Odisha . . . . . . 137
Amrita Sastry
Regional Diversity, School Leadership and Quality of Education
in North-Eastern States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
N. Mythili

xi
xii Contents

Universal Secondary Education in India—Access, Equity

and Social Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
C. Sheela Reddy

Determinants of Participation in Secondary Education

Tracking the Progress of a Child from Enrolment to Completion
of Secondary Education in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Deepak Kumar
Socio-Economic Determinants of Secondary Education in India . . . . . . 245
Susmita Mitra
Who Completes Secondary Education in India? Examining Role
of Individual and Household Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Nivedita Sarkar
Universal Secondary Education in the Telugu-Speaking States:
Prospects and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
P. Prudhvikar Reddy, V. Nagi Reddy, and D. Sree Rama Raju

Skill Development, Vocational Education and Employment

Elusive Vocational Education Programme: An Analysis of Trends
in Indian Secondary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Mona Sedwal
Missing Middle of Educated Unemployable: A Critical Perspective
on Secondary Education in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Bornali Bhandari, Charu Jain, and Ajaya K. Sahu
Shared Prosperity and Universalisation of Secondary Education . . . . . . 355
Arup Mitra

Financing Secondary Education

Public Provisioning for Secondary Education in India:
A Situation Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Praveen Jha and Satadru Sikdar
Declining Public Funding and Increasing Private Expenditure
in Neo-Liberal Regime: Challenges Ahead for Universalisation
of Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Narender Thakur
Financing and Management of Secondary Education
in Uttar Pradesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Mohd. Muzammil
Contents xiii

Questions and Debates

Universalisation of Secondary Education: Questions
for Discussion and Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Rounaq Jahan

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Editor and Contributors

About the Editor

Jandhyala B. G. Tilak is a former Vice-Chancellor and Professor at the National

University of Educational Planning and Administration, and currently an ICSSR
National Fellow and Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social
Development. Holding a Ph.D. in Economics of Education from the Delhi School
of Economics, University of Delhi, Prof. Tilak, an eminent economist of education,
has served on the research and teaching faculty of the University of Delhi, Indian
Institute of Education, University of Virginia and Hiroshima University (Japan),
and as a Visiting Professor of Economics at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher
Learning. He was also on the research staff of the World Bank. Prof. Tilak has
authored/edited about twenty books and over 350 research papers in the areas of
economics of education and development studies. His important recent books
include Education and Development in India: Critical Issues in Public Policy and
Development (Palgrave Macmillan 2018) and Higher Education, Public Good and
Markets (Routledge 2017). He received the UGC’s Swami Pranavananda Saraswati
National Award for his outstanding scholarly research in education (1999), Dr.
Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for distinguished research contributions to develop-
ment studies (2003), the Inspirational Teacher of the Year Global Education Award
(2012), and the Devang Mehta National Education Award for outstanding contri-
butions to education (2015). Prof. Tilak had the privilege of delivering a keynote
address to a meeting of the Noble laureates in Barcelona in 2005. President of the
Comparative Education Society of India (2010–12) and Editor, Journal of
Educational Planning and Administration (1990–2017), Prof. Tilak currently serves
on the editorial boards of several professional journals.

xv
xvi Editor and Contributors

Contributors

Dr. Madhumita Bandyopadhyay is Associate Professor in the Department of

School and Non-Formal Education at National Institute of Educational Planning
(Deemed to be University), New Delhi. She is currently engaged in research,
teaching and training programmes of the university. She has a Ph.D. (geography)
from Centre for Studies of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi. Her research interests include education of disadvantaged groups,
decentralisation of educational governance and the education of women. She has
also published many articles and chapters in books and journals of international
repute.
Dr. Bornali Bhandari is Fellow at National Council of Applied Economic
Research, with a background in international economics and macroeconomics,
specifically focussing on the impact of globalisation on development. Currently, she
is working on direct benefit transfers and on the challenge of skilling India. Her
wider research interests include analysis of infrastructure, particularly the roads and
ICT sectors, G-20 issues like climate change, finance and reserve currency and
trade-related issues. She is also coordinating NCAER’s macro-publications—the
Quarterly Review of the Economy and Business Sentiments Survey. She has
completed her doctorate studies from the University of Oregon, USA.
Prof. Achin Chakraborty, Ph.D. in economics, University of California at
Riverside, 1995, is presently Professor and Director, Institute of Development
Studies Kolkata. Earlier, he served as Associate Professor, Centre for Development
Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Teaching Assistant and graduate student at the
University of California at Riverside, and Lecturer in economics, West Bengal
Education Service. His areas of interest include welfare economics, microeconomic
issues in development economics, human development, and health economics, in
which he has a good number of quality publications.
Dr. Pradeep Kumar Choudhury, Doctorate from the National University of
Educational Planning and Administation, New Delhi, is Assistant Professor of
economics at the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social
Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He worked earlier in the
Institute of Studies in Industrial Development and Population Foundation of India.
His research has dealt with various aspects of Indian development, especially issues
related to education, health and the labour. His specific research interests include:
economics of education, financing of education, education and labor market and
educational inequality.
Dr. Sunita Chugh, M.A. and M.Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru Universtiy in
international politics and Ph.D. in Education from Jamia Millia Islamia, is currently
Associate Professor, National Centre for School Leadership, National Institute of
Editor and Contributors xvii

Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. Her areas of interest include
education of the urban deprived children, inclusive education, right to education
and school leadership.
Ms. Anuradha De has M.A. from University of Calcutta and M.Phil. from
Jawaharlal Nehru University. She worked as Lecturer, Netaji Nagar College,
Kolkata, and Senior Research Fellow, PROBE (Public Report on Basic Education)
team, and is currently Director, Collaborative Research and Dissemination
(CORD), New Delhi.
Prof. Rounaq Jahan is Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka,
Bangladesh, and Adjunct Professor, International Affairs, School of International
and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She had been Research Fellow at the Chr.
Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway, in 1979; Research Fellow in the Department
of Political Science and Committee on South Asia, University of Chicago, in 1975–
1976; Visiting Fellow at the Committee on South Asia, University of Chicago, in
1980; Senior Research Associate at the Center for Asian Development Studies,
Boston University, in 1978; and Research Associate at the Center for International
Affairs and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, from
1971 to 1972. She served several policymaking bodies established by the
Government of Bangladesh in an advisory capacity in the fields of education,
culture, rural development, women and population, and UNDP, UNICEF, USAID,
OECD, The Rockefeller Foundation, as well as NGOs like International Women’s
Health Coalition. She also served as Head of the Programme on Rural Women,
Employment and Development Department at the International Labour
Organization, as Coordinator of the Programme on Integration of Women in
Development, United Nations Asia Pacific Development Centre (APDC), and as
Member of the advisory board of Human Rights Watch, the Population Council, the
international council of the Asia Society, and the Advisory Committee on rural
development at ILO.
Dr. Charu Jain works as Associate Fellow, National Council of Applied
Economic Research, New Delhi. Prior to this, she had worked at TNS India Ltd.
and PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), New Delhi. Her areas of
research interest include socio-economic issues, gender and educational studies,
consumer studies and developmental changes. She has worked in the area of
large-scale consumer studies, industrial surveys, housing studies, agriculture and
macroeconomic policy issues. Her current research focusses on the agricultural
outlook and handloom sector. She received her Ph.D. in economics from School of
Social Sciences (SOSS), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New
Delhi.
Prof. Praveen Jha is Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning
(CESP) in the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New
Delhi. He has also been Visiting Fellow at University of Bremen, Germany, and
Tianjin University of Finance and Economics Tianjin, China, and Visiting Senior
xviii Editor and Contributors

Research Economist at International Labour Organization, Geneva. His areas of

interest/specialisation are labour economics, agricultural economics, development
economics, economics of education, resource economics and history of economic
thought.
Mr. Deepak Kumar is a Ph.D. research scholar at Centre for Economic Studies
and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research interests
include economics of education and development economics. He completed his M.
Phil. from Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
He was a part of the team that conducted qualitative field survey organised by
CMS-targeted research to empower change (a collaboration project with J-PAL
conducted in four districts of Haryana). He was also associated with the team
conducting quantitative field survey organised by Indian School of Business (ISB),
Hyderabad.
Prof. Manabi Majumdar works as Professor in political science, Centre for
Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. She had obtained her Ph.D. from University of
Maryland. Her research interests include political economy of education, demo-
cratic decentralisation and human development. Earlier she was associated with the
Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, and the Pratichi Institute
Kolkata. Her recent publications include Education and Inequality (jontly with Jos
Mooij) (Tayor & Francis).
Prof. Arup Mitra, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Economics, South Asian
University, New Delhi, served earlier as Professor at the Institute of Economic
Growth and as Director General, National Institute of Labour Economics, Research
and Development. His research interests include development studies, urban eco-
nomics, labour and welfare, industrial growth and productivity and gender
inequality—areas in which he has several publications. Many of his research papers
are published in international refereed journals. He has been Member of several
expert committees, and his contribution to policymaking has been significant.
At IEG other than research, he has been engaged in teaching the trainee officers
of the Indian Economic Service.
Dr. Susmita Mitra, Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, works
as Assistant Professor in Council for Social Development (CSD). She has received
Best Paper Award in the 2nd International Conference of REDSET (2015); Junior
Visiting Fellowship (2011) under the UNCTAD vi DAAD programme at the HTW,
Berlin, Germany; Junior and Senior Research Fellowship (2006–2011) in National
Entrance Test (NET); and Ford Foundation Scholarship, awarded for topping two
consecutive semesters during M.A. (2003–2005). She has been Co-principal
Investigator of the project ‘Status of and Barriers to School Education in
Chhattisgarh’ (Council for Social Development 2018). With strong econometric
background, she has 13 publications in international and national peer-reviewed
journals and edited volumes.
Editor and Contributors xix

Dr. Sangram Mukherjee works as Senior Research Associate, Pratichi Institute,

Calcutta. His research interests include educational inequalities and private
expenditure in education.
Prof. Mohd. Muzammil taught economics at Lucknow University for 38 years
before serving as Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University,
Bareilly, and then Agra University. He was Visiting Fellow, Oxford University;
Member of the RPC Cambridge University, UK; Chairman of the Committee on
Policy Making for Attracting Private Investment in Higher Education in Uttar Pradesh
(2012); Chairman of the Committee on Optimum Number of Colleges and Academic
Monitoring in Higher Education in UP (2014); Chairman of the Committee on
Evaluation of Answer Books in State Universities of UP (2015); and Member of the
Direct Taxes Advisory Committee, Government of India (2013–2015).
Dr. N. Mythili, Assistant Professor, National Centre for School Leadership,
National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, has completed her
Ph.D. in the area of education from Institute for Social and Economic Change
(ISEC), Bangalore. Her areas of work include educational data bank, school
leadership, school quality, improving student learning and teacher education.
Organisations where she was involved prior to joining NCSL, NIEPA, include
Centre for Multidisciplinary Development Research (CMDR), Dharwad; Azim
Premji Foundation, Banglaore; and Tata Institue of Social Scienes, Mumbai.
Prof. V. Nagi Reddy works as Adjunct Professor, Operations and IT, ICFAI
Business School, ICFAI Foundation of Higher Education (IFHE) University,
Hyderabad. He has long professional experience at the Indian Institute of
Management, Kolkata, and the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad.
Dr. P. Prudhvikar Reddy, Consultant, Centre for Economic and Social Studies,
Hyderabad, is a doctorate in economics and has gained rich experience in field
survey methods, especially in rural areas in both quantitative and qualitative spheres
of research including longitudinal studies. In the capacity of Senior Researcher and
Survey Coordinator in Young Lives Project since its inception (2002) he has
extensively travelled within and abroad. He has rich experience in the areas of
multi-dimensions of poverty and in rural development besides publishing agricul-
ture, education and poverty-related articles.
Mr. Ajaya K. Sahu works as Research Analyst, National Council of Applied
Economic Research, New Delhi. His expertise lies in conducting primary survey
that involves sampling and weight calculations, handling large-scale data like
NSSO employment and consumption data as well as ASI data. Further, he works on
poverty analysis and issues related to agriculture and rural development areas. He
completed his M.Phil. in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
and is presently pursuing his Ph.D. in economics from Jamia Millia Islamia. He
cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) with the Junior Research Fellowship,
conducted by UGC.
xx Editor and Contributors

Ms. Meera Samson is a Senior Researcher in Collaborative Research and

Dissemination (CORD), New Delhi, India. She has been doing research on edu-
cation for over 25 years, focussing primarily on the quality of education accessed
by disadvantaged groups. She was part of the team who worked on the Public
Report on Basic Education (PROBE) report in the 1990s. Secondary education has
been a focus of her research for many years, earlier in Delhi, Rajasthan and West
Bengal, and more recently in Maharashtra.
Dr. Nivedita Sarkar teaches at Ambedkar University Delhi. She holds a Ph.D. in
economics of education from National University of Educational Planning and
Administration, and her research interests include economics of education, applied
econometrics, higher education, development economics and educational financing.
Earlier, she worked at National University of Educational Planning and
Administration, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and PGDAV
Evening College, Delhi University. Her current research focusses on skills and
labour market outcomes, privatisation in higher education and inequality in access
to higher education.
Dr. Amrita Sastry is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Jesus
and Mary College, University of Delhi—teaching for last 8 years. Her core area of
interest is in sociology of education. Currently, she is working on a project—New
Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) school at Bapu Dham, New Delhi—to
develop it to be a model school (approval from the president’s office On Jesus and
Mary College’s golden jubilee celebration).
Dr. Mona Sedwal, Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University and currently
Assistant Professor, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration,
has worked in the area of Education for All (EFA) and has contributed in the
publication of two books published by Oxford University Press entitled India
Education Report, A Profile of Basic Education in India, edited by R. Govinda,
2002, and India Education Report, Progress of Basic Education, edited by R.
Govinda and Mona Sedwal, 2017. She has authored two books in history of edu-
cation entitled Genesis and Growth of University Education in India and
Development of University Education. She has authored and co-authored several
articles related to history of education, teacher education and disadvantaged groups.
Prof. C. Sheela Reddy is Chair Professor, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Chair in Social
Justice, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. Her areas of interest
include governance, public policy issues and international relations. She has four
books and several articles published in journals of high repute. Before joining IIPA,
Prof. Reddy worked in the Department of Political Science and Public
Administration, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.
Dr. Satadru Sikdar is with National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
(NIPFP), New Delhi, since 2006. He has been associated with several research
studies in NIPFP, including preparation of Medium-term Fiscal Policy for different
states, effectiveness and utilisation of funds for selected schemes, property taxation
Editor and Contributors xxi

and urban poverty alleviation among others. He did his Ph.D. from Centre for
Economic Studies and Planning (CESP/SSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi on assessment of public provisioning of school education in India.
Dr. D. Sree Rama Raju, masters in statistics and Ph.D. in development studies, is
Consultant, database management, econometric and statistical modeling and anal-
ysis, agriculture, rural development, education, at Centre for Economic and Social
Studies, Hyderabad.
Dr. Narender Thakur teaches economics in Bhim Rao Ambedkar College,
University of Delhi. Presently, he is doing his postdoctoral research on ‘Shadow
Education in Global City: Coaching Industry in Delhi’ in Jawaharlal Nehru
University (funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research). His areas of
specialisation are applied econometrics, economics of education and migration. He
published his research articles in journals like the Economic and Political Weekly
and chapters in edited books.