Impact of sending children to private schools - A qualitative study in AP

1. Impact of sending children to private schools - A qualitative study in AP SRINIVASULU BARIGELA JULY 04, 2012

2. Over View of Presentation • Performance of students by private and public schools • Motivation for the APSC study • Qualitative study of APSC • Anecdotes of the APSC qualitative study • Performance of scholarship students in standardized tests • Findings of the qualitative study • Conclusions

3. Performance of Students by school type (Pratham 2011) Learning achievement in students of private and public schools is coming down every year

4. Motivation of AP School Choice - Phase I • The recent Right to Education Act includes a provision mandating that private schools reserve up to 25% of the seats in their school for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. • No evidence on what the impact of such a provision may be! • Key design feature of the AP School Choice project is the ability to: • Compare the impact of receiving the scholarship relative to a “pure” control that is uncontaminated by students leaving for private schools • Study the impact of the program on • (a) Students left behind in the public schools and • (b) Students starting out in the private schools to begin with

5. Design of AP School Choice Phase I • Study in West Godavari district • Baseline conducted in Telugu and Math from classes 1 to 5 in 260 schools • Randomization was done for 32 villages • 5 Year study - from 2007 to 2012

6. Details of AP School Choice Phase I

7. AP School Choice Phase I: Time Line

8. Performance of Students in Competency Based Learning Assessments Students in government schools performed better than Scholarship Students an average over 5 years.

9. Qualitative Study of APSC To study the impact of school choice (Scholarship) on scholarship students and their families in terms of social, economical, educational and cultural aspects • Qualitative Research was conducted across 4 villages • 28 randomly selected parents of students provided with scholarships were studied • House hold factors • Parents had lot of hopes and aspirations towards their children’ future for better employment • School Choice of parents was largely influenced by their social, economical, educational and cultural conditions • Parents wished to send their children to private schools for quality education with English medium • Following are a few anecdotes from this qualitative study

10. Parents’ views Mrs. Mangamma told we were very happy to see our child was studying in English medium and we never thought our child would study in such a great school. The school was taking good care towards our child’s education. She was also studying well and she had improved in the marks and the grades. We have 2 children and our son was studying in the government school and he also wanted study in the private school. But our economic condition was not supporting us to join in the private school. But we were very happy to about sending my son to the Government school The Approach we chose and the result we got: - Mrs. MangammaTadisetty, Mother of SirishaTadisetty

11. Parents’ views !!!! Mrs. Sridevisivalakatold “we were very happy for getting the scholarship and our child was joined into the English medium. However, his learning levels were very low compare to others. He forgot everything and was unable to answer the previous questions. So, we have already arranged private tuition for our child to solve this problem. But he was not improving his studies. Then, his father wanted to shift to another school but later realized that the problem was with the child. Parents are the first teachers and the Teachers are the Second parents to the children – Mrs. SrideviSivalanka: Mother of Aravindsai

12. 94.4% @ Present Private School (Nothing much to say, the percentage speaks for itself “I am really very happy with my New School. I have so many Friends here. Teachers are taking good care of me. I like Swaroopa Rani Teacher very much. She teaches me Telugu and Social Subjects. I also love my uniform and shoes. This year I got the highest percentage of marks in my School. I am very happy to see my photograph on the Notice Board of school.” BoddapatiKarthik Student “Even an average student with good direction, suggestions and encouragement can be mouldedto be the Best student by teachers” Kalarani- Mother

13. LISTEN & SILENT ARE SPELT WITH THE SAME LETTERS She was teased as ‘fatty’, but she was silent and the result is “She is First Class” “It is really happy to travel by school bus every day. I have lot of new friends. But everybody in my school is teasing me. They are calling me as fatty everyday. Everybody is good though; I got first rank in my class and school. My teachers and parents are very happy with my studies” TalamSoujanya Student “She gave a fruitful result at the end of the exams as a result of good care and support by the teachers and as well as us” UmaDevi - Mother

14. LIMITATIONS ALSO PRESENT There's always room for improvement but teachers have to take more care “I am not able to understand in the Class. Teachers are teaching in English Medium. But, I am not able to understand anything. I love my New Friends and new Teachers in the School. I also love my New School Van. I love to travel daily through Van to my School.” VeeravarapuSalomi Student “Medium of instruction in English was the main problem for her studies and we did not know what to do at home” :Naga Lakshmi - Mother

15. Overall Parents’ perceptions of their children • 90% of parents were satisfied with the private schools and their children’s education because of the following stated reasons • Scholarship students were more disciplined and systematic • They were punctual and regular in attending schools • They were spending lot of their time in writing homework and reading class books • Most of the time they were interacting with others about education • They improved hygiene practices and dressing pattern • They were using positive communication and behavior with elders • Parents felt that equal opportunity was given to girl children to attend private schools

16. Overall Parents’ perceptions …2 • Parents increased visits and interactions with private schools managements and teachers and got awareness about education • Some families sent siblings also to private schools and tuitions • Families saved some money for high school education of their children • Scholarship Students were able to help their siblings in studies • Negative changes • Scholarship students experienced more corporal punishment • They had pressure due to medium of instruction and homework in English • They felt much stress and no interactions and entertainment with peer group 16

17. Conclusions • Parents perceived only daily observable changes in their children, which were positive like • Work habits • Communication and social behaviour • Hygiene practices • However, parents could not perceive changes in learning and performance of students, which have been actually negative in our assessments. • Studying in private schools did not show any significant impact on the learning level of the students. • Private schools did not improve the learning of the students of disadvantaged sections • Private schools could do better only with the students with educated and advantaged family background.

18. A Dream of a Just, Equitable, Humane and Sustainable Society Thank You