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 dis...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| 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 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4147 |
| Summary: | 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. |
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