School choice in rural Odisha, India: Understanding from a multi-stakeholder perspective

This article discusses the socioeconomic and institutional complexities of school choice in rural Odisha, India, from a multi-stakeholder perspective. It argues that parents prefer to send their children to private schools as they find government schools are of low quality in rural India. Discussions with stakeholders in school education reveal that teachers in government schools often involve themselves in different non-teaching activities, such as managing the school building construction, distributing school uniforms and bicycles to students, and overseeing midday meals served in schools. In contrast, this does not appear to be the case in private schools. Other than offering better teaching–learning, private schools also have pre-primary sections and an emphasis on extra-curricular activities that motivate parents to select these schools. The analysis finds that the push factors in government schools and the pull factors of private schools lead to economic exploitation of parents by for-profit private schools, a significant policy concern highlighted in the National Education Policy 2020.