Interrogating School Choice: A Case Study of a Village in Haryana

Exploration of parental schooling choice has dominated the Indian educational discourse for the last one and a half decade. This reflects the noticeable increase of private schools in the Indian school arena. English medium education is seen as one of the important aspects of this rise of private schools as government schools provide education in vernacular medium. This paper attempts to analyze the school choice scenario where both government and private schools are offering education in both English and Hindi medium in a village in Haryana. By drawing upon parents, teachers and students interviews, the paper analyzes the complexity of school choice in the new paradigm. Based on qualitative and quantitative data from an intensive field survey, the study found that introduction of English Medium in government schools has remarkably affected the school market as it has resulted in closure of three out of four private schools in the study area. While the private school is catering to socially privileged sections, a new segregation is created within the government sector. Besides cost, gender and caste, the study noticed the role of teachers, hidden expenses and aspirations for future as significant factors in manufacturing the school choice