Do Government And Private School Students Have Same Learning Levels And Parental Involvement? Indications From Rural Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Recent past has marked significant changes in India’s educational arena. Although the enrollment ratio has raised and dropout has decreased considerably, the question of quality is still a concern. The increased accessibility of education at the primary, secondary and tertiary level has not reflected at the quality. Empirical shreds of evidence show that learning levels of students are not par with the standard (class) they are studying. The case is more complex among the rural population, urban poor and other deprived sections. Academic performance and outcome are depending on a number of interrelated factors. The school and parental involvement remain important. The present study attempted to investigate the similarities and differences of learning levels and parental involvement in the government and private schools. The school-related factors of learning levels were also investigated. The study was conducted in the three villages of Central Rajasthan, India. Three government and private schools were randomly chosen for the study. From each school, a sample of 10 students of class 6^th and 7^th were selected randomly and information was collected from them and their parents. Hence the total sample size of the study is 120, i.e. 60 parents and 60 students. The study unveils that learning levels of students are not promising and parental involvement in the education of children is poor. The school-related factors are significantly contributing the poor performance of students at the elementary level. Policy level changes also required to enhance the learning outcomes.