School characteristics, socio-economic status and culture as determinants of primary school enrolment in India

Contains fulltext : 83255.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)We test hypotheses on the role of socio-economic and cultural factors and of characteristics of the educational infrastructure on primary school enrolment using data for 70,000 children living in 439 districts of 26 states of India. Most of the variation in educational enrolment (around 70%) is explained by factors at the household level, of which socio-economic factors are most important. In urban areas, none of the characteristics of educational facilities studied is significantly related to participation, thus indicating that in the cities schooling decisions are hardly influenced by supply-side factors. In rural areas, however, these factors do play an important role. If there are fewer schools or teachers, or if the local culture is more patriarchal, rural children – in particular girls – participate substantially less. Interaction analyses show that effects of factors at the household level depend on characteristics of the context in which the household lives. A major finding in this respect is that in rural areas inequalities between socio-economic status groups are lower if more schools and teachers are available.34 p