Project description DEENESFRITPL 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. Show the project objective Hide the project objective 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. Fields of science social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiespublic policies Keywords affirmative action social inclusion education student learning India Programme(s) HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2022-STG - ERC STARTING GRANTS Call for proposal ERC-2022-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC) Host institution HANDELSHOGSKOLAN I STOCKHOLM Net EU contribution € 801 250,00 Address Sveavägen 65 SE11383 Stockholm Sweden See on map Region Östra Sverige Stockholm Stockholms län Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 801 250,00 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all HANDELSHOGSKOLAN I STOCKHOLM Sweden Net EU contribution € 801 250,00 Address Sveavägen 65 SE11383 Stockholm See on map Region Östra Sverige Stockholm Stockholms län Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 801 250,00 INSTITUTE FOR FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH India Net EU contribution € 697 500,00 Address 196 TTK ROAD PARTHASARATHY GARDENS NUNGAMBAKKAM 600018 Chennai See on map Activity type Other Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 697 500,00
