Project description
Improving India’s school integration policy
India boasts the world’s largest school system. Unfortunately, it is experiencing significant disparities. To solve this problem, the Right to Education Act 2009 requires private schools to save one quarter of their seats for students from disadvantaged economic and caste backgrounds. The government then reimburses the fees for these students. What has been the impact of this policy? The EU-funded EDINCLUSION project will find the answer. It will evaluate the impact of India’s school integration policy and identify scalable ways to improve it. Specifically, it will assess the effects on current beneficiaries, identify approaches to encourage applications from poorer eligible students, and provide a systematic understanding of private school markets.
Objective
Social and economic stratification of schools can hurt both the equity and effectiveness of education systems. These concerns are exacerbated in settings where private schools account for a significant share of enrolment, as is the case in India - where nearly half the population attends a fee-charging private school. The EDINCLUSION project proposes an ambitious research agenda focused on understanding and improving school integration in India - which is the world’s largest school system, and also among the most unequal. The agenda focuses on studying and improving the impact of India’s landmark school integration policy, under the Right to Education Act 2009, which mandates that 25% of places in private schools should be reserved for students from disadvantaged economic and caste backgrounds (with the government reimbursing fees). This is likely the world’s largest-ever school integration initiative, affecting several times as many children as school desegregation initiatives in the US in the 1960s. Yet, despite its importance, there is remarkably little research on either the impact of this policy or on ways to improve its effectiveness.
The proposal features three work packages to address these gaps: (a) an assessment of effects on current beneficiaries, identified using the lottery-based allocation of seats in oversubscribed schools, (b) identifying approaches to encourage applications from poorer eligible students, evaluated through two multi-armed randomized control trials, and (c) a systematic understanding of private school markets using innovative survey design methods, panel data and exogenous policy-induced variation for identification. The results of this research program will generate ground-breaking evidence on (i) the effectiveness of this large school integration program (ii) identify scalable ways to improve its effectiveness and (iii) generate fundamental insights about the functioning of urban school markets in developing countries.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
SE11383 Stockholm
Sweden
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.