Access to and outcomes of Secondary Education for The Urban Poor: Findings from A Study in Mumbai City

Abstract

Secondary education has received much less attention than it deserves in the
state’s educational policies and investments in independent India. A similar
lack of interest is also observed in social science research on this segment of
schooling. Quality mass secondary education is important for India as one of
the ways of addressing social inequalities by expanding educational and
employment opportunities for its vast population of youth. Based on a study
conducted in Mumbai city, the paper examines the nature of state provision
of secondary education and the outcomes of government schooling for the
urban poor. It argues that by curtailing direct investments in the schooling of
the poor and indirectly subsidising private schooling of the middle classes, the
state deprives the poor of schooling and contributes to the reproduction of
social inequalities through schooling. The paper also discusses how specific
curricular subjects such as English and mathematics act as gate keepers in
this process.