Education Reforms Succeed with Shared Responsibilities

Solving the Rubik’s Cube: On Education Reform
An Abstract of
A Thesis
Presented to the Faculty of
Department of Political Science
Western Illinois University
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
By
Anthony Raymond Ginn
December, 2015

ABSTRACT
This thesis looks at education reform in developing countries. This research
compares two developing giants in the global community-Brazil and India. Here, I
present two arguments: 1.) Policies that are devolution in nature fail in developing
countries as this model contributes to inequalities within the context of access to
education; and 2.) The only way education reformation will work in developing countries
is if they adopted a more stabilized approach by which responsibilities will be shared
between state/local and federal government. With shared responsibilities, no one form of
government bears all the burden of funding and providing quality education.

SOLVING THE RUBIK’S CUBE: ON EDUCATION REFORM
A Thesis
Presented to the Faculty of
Department of Political Science
Western Illinois University
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
By
ANTHONY RAYMOND GINN
December, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am writing this thesis in memory of my mother, Mitsie Ginn, who inspired me to
pursue Higher Education, and to never give up in pursuing success in both the classroom
and life. In addition to my loving mother, acknowledgement is extended to Dr. Julia
Albaraccin (Chair of my Grad Committee), and committee members, Dr. Greg Baldi and
Dr. Vincent Auger, for providing high quality suggestions and guidance in writing this
thesis project. And lastly, I want to take this time to thank Ayesha J. Montgomery for
helping me compile quantitative sources that proved very useful in writing this thesis.
ii

ABBREVIATIONS
CCT Conditional Cash Transfer
CG Central Government
EE Environmental Education
ESD Educational and Sustainable Development
FG Federal Government
FGB Federal Government of Brazil
FGI Federal Government of India
FUNDEF Fund for the Maintenance and Development
of Basic Education and Teacher
Appreciation
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GOB Government of Brazil
GOI Government of India
NDC Newly Developed Country
NSIA National System of Industrial
Apprenticeship
PPP Public Private Partnership
PT Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party)
SES Social Economic Status
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
UNICEF United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund
iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABBREVIATIONS iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF TABLES v
PROPOSAL vi
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1
Chapter 2: WHO GOT THE BALL ROLLING? 4
PART I: BRAZIL
Chapter 3: THE BRAZILIAN EXPERIMENT 10
Section 3.1, THE BEGINNING OF EDUCATION REFORM 11
Section 3.2, BRAZIL’S BOLSA ESCOLA AND FUNDEF 13
Section 3.3, WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? 23
Section 3.4, SUMMARY 27
PART II: INDIA
Chapter 4: THE INDIAN EXPERIMENT 30
Section 4.1, THE BEGINNING OF EDUCATION REFORM 32
Section 4.2, INDIA’S ESD AND 12TH
PLAN 35
Section 4.3, WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? 45
Section 4.4, SUMMARY 49
PART III: CONCLUSTION AND CLOSING REMARKS
Chapter 5: SOLVING THE RUBIK’S CUBE: WHAT TO DO NEXT? 53
iv

LIST OF TABLES
Brazil
Figure 3.1, Why did the Student Miss School? 14
Figure 3.2, Secondary Education Enrollment, Brazil, 1990-2015 25
Figure 3.3, Literacy Rate Among Youth, Ages 15-24 27
India
Figure 4.1, Literacy Rate, 1981-2015 31
Figure 4.2, Reasons for Dropout, 2011 46
Figure 4.3, Secondary Education Net Enrollment, India, 2006-2014 52
v

PROPOSAL
Developing countries are likely to undertake education reform as their
economies take shape in the global order; education reform in developing countries are
generally accommodated with economic growth. The central question(s) of this thesis
follows: What are the factors that influence the success/failure of education reform?
Does education reform improve or weaken the provision and administration of
education? And finally, what policies towards education work, and which policies do not
work?
1.) Extent to which policies are based on local needs and reality as opposed to being
a “one size fits-all proposal” (Hypothesis 1: A greater attention to local needs
will lead to a more successful education reform).
2.) Commitment of the federal government to the process of education reform
(Hypothesis 2: Successful policies will be more likely if federal government is
committed).
3.) Commitment on the part of the local government (Hypothesis 3: The success of
education reform will be more likely if local government is committed).
4.) Parental involvement/where are the parents?
(Hypothesis 4: Despite education reforms, parents in developing countries are
less likely to participate in school functions during education reform).
vi

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Education is vital in improving developing countries’ economy as
the education sector prepares students for the workforce, which requires more technical
training with the advancement of technology. Education also equips individuals with
knowledge for the real world. Nancy Birdsall began with the following statement:
“Education, the most easily measured form of human capital, is, like land and other forms
of wealth, an asset. In today’s global markets, it is a scarce asset, and can therefore,
generate income for its owners… once acquired, it cannot be stolen or sold-it cannot be
alienated from its owner.”1
Education improves wages for workers, raises the literacy rate, enables citizens to
participate more in political processes, and diversifies people’s options for employment.
The purpose of this thesis is to research developing countries and policies towards
education by covering the following key topics: 1.) To what extent does the federal, state,
and local government have to get involved to insure education for all; 2.) What are the
contributing factors that improve the quality of education in developing countries?; 3.) To
what extent do parents have to get involved with the education sector to promote higher
attendance rates during education reform?
This thesis presents four arguments. First, education reforms will yield positive
results if special attention is given to local needs. Clearly there is a divide in the quality
of education between poor rural areas and rich urban areas of a given country. This
research finds that education reforms that exclude shared responsibilities among
state/local and federal levels of government will yield negative results as poor areas tend
to be ignored by federal and state governments, which results in poor quality education
input and output as will be pointed out in both cases.
1
1
Nancy Birdsall, “Education: The People’s Asset,” in Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, Working
Paper No. 5, 1999, 1.

2
Secondly, education reforms are likely to meet successful ends if the federal
government plays an active role during the process. It would be wise if a federal
government accommodated state and local governments in the policy making process.
In the 1940s, for instance, Brazil experimented with education reforms by which the
federal government played a very little role. As a result, some state and local
governments had to secure resources on its own, and with scarce resources and very little
government involvement, poor regions in the North of that country suffered neglect as
well as teacher walk-outs.
Third, education reform will be successful if state and local governments are
committed to serve the people. State/local governments must accept accountability for
their actions. For instance, some local governments in Brazil embezzled money from
Block Grants that were granted by the Federal Government of Brazil (FGB). As a result
of this alarming situation, state/local and the federal government worked together to
prevent further embezzlement, but at the same time, allow state/local governments retain
their autonomy.
And finally, despite a neo-liberal establishment, parents are less likely to
participate in school functions they send their children to. This thesis finds that parents in
both Brazil and India were less likely to participate in school events despite education
and economic reforms. The question is “why?” Does Socioeconomic Status (SES)
attribute to these findings, or is there something else explaining why parents in both
countries were less likely to participate in school functions? Here, I find that sociocultural
variables play a major role as to why parents do not participate in school functions in
both case studies.

3
OVERVIEW:
The thesis has three main parts. Part I of the research looks at the case of Brazil, a
developing country in South America, with its experiments with education reform. Brazil
has approached education reforms in the 1940s, faced negative results, and slowly
transitioned to policies of stable model beginning in the mid-1980s, after the fall of the
military bureaucracy. Part II of this research looks at the case of India. India, the sub-
Continent, has implemented policies towards education the same way Brazil did in the
late 1940s upon its independence, and has also seen some negative results. Using the case
of Brazil and India, I argue that that policies of shared responsibilities are likely to yield
positive end results. Both Brazil and India eventually adopted policies with shared
responsibilities, but what explains these outcomes? This research sets to find the reason
behind why these two countries faced education reformations in the 1940s, failed, and
transitioned to a functional model. First, this essay begins by identifying the mechanism
behind why countries in the developing world undertake education reformation within
their respective school systems as their economies took shape in the global order.
After that, the research looks at Part III, closing remarks and statements as well as
suggestions developing countries can take to improve their education sectors.

Chapter 2: WHO GOT THE BALL ROLLING?
Before getting into the case studies of this research, I will identify the main actor
behind education reform in developing countries. What got education reformation
started in developing countries; who got the ball rolling? Some experts in the field of
comparative politics claim that the World Bank plays a huge role in shaping the structure
of education in developing countries:
“Over the past 50 years the World Bank has arguably became the epicenter for the global
governance of social policy within emerging economies and low-income societies,” and
“For an organization that originally had no mandate to work on education, the Bank has
become perhaps the most powerful and hegemonic of the international organizations
operating in the education for development field. The Bank is the largest single
international funder of education for development in low-income countries, and its
technical and knowledge-based resources tower over those of other international
institutions.2
Experts in comparative education believe that the World Bank became the main
actor in education reforms around the world over the past 50 years. The question is
“how?” How might the World Bank influence education systems around the world?
Originally, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (today called the
World Bank) was originally established post-WWII with its goal of reconstruction of
European countries. As decades passed, the World Bank became a global powerhouse as
post-colonial states relied on funding from the World Bank. With reconstruction projects
in Europe and as a financial provider to post-colonial countries, it appeared that the
World Bank was there to stay.3
The World Bank’s role in education in developing countries can be traced to the
1960s. Beginning in the 1960s, the World Bank saw little need to fund education in
4
2
Karen Mundy and Antoni Verger, “The World Bank and the Global Governance of Education in a
Changing World Order,” in International Journal of Education Development Vol. 40, ELSEVIER, 2015, 9.
3
Mundy and Verger, 10.

5
developing countries as education was not viewed as a mechanism to pull people in the
developing world out of poverty. This all changed when Newly Developing Countries
(NDCs) joined the World Bank and demanded more loans for their respected education
systems (all levels). As new World Bank members requested more loans to fund their
education systems, the World Bank established a new Department of Education within its
headquarters.4
How does the World Bank encourage education reform in developing
countries? The answer to that question could be answered with just one simple word:
conditions. The World Bank is a main supplier in the field of education around the world.
If NDCs wish to acquire funding from the World Bank, their respected policy makers
must adhere to the World Bank’s conditions upon receiving these loans or grants. If
recipient states do not follow World Bank’s conditions, those states risk losing substantial
amounts of fund, which could cause great harm within their education systems as well as
their economy in the long run.
For example, Brazil’s well-known policy, Bolsa Família, was known for being
the largest Block Grant upon its implementation in 2003 in an effort to get more children
in school. This policy has been said to have raised the middle class by 50%, and is
admired by both industrialized and developing countries for “its systems for beneficiary
selection, monitoring and evaluation, quality control, and scaling up.”5
Upon
implementation, this program assisted well over 11 million families.
The World Bank played a major role in shaping this policy. Scholars wrote on
how the World Bank teamed up with Bolsa Família policy makers by providing loans to
4
Mundy and Verger, 11.
5
Kathy Lindert, “Brazil: Bolsa Família Program – Scaling-up Cash Transfers for the Poor,” in Managing for
Developing Results Principles in Action: Sourcebook on Emerging Good Practices, World Bank, 2005, 67.

6
the program; however, conditions were to be met on the part of the recipient country. For
example, loan disbursement was based off results of the program. The better the results,
the more likely the World Bank disbursed loans to the recipient. As a result, in 2006
the number of beneficiaries of Bolsa Família increased to well beyond 44 million people,
most of which were living in extremely poor conditions.6
Given the fact that loan disbursement from the World Bank depended on
performance, there was a demand to install a mechanism that insured most beneficiaries
were among those living in Third World-like conditions. As a result of these conditions
set forth by the Bank, the FGB and state/local governments established an elaborate
partnership by targeting impoverished areas. As a result, the loan disbursement rate from
the World Bank increased from 9% in 2003 to 11% in 2006.7
And lastly, the World Bank influenced education reform in India as well.
According to a 2015 World Bank Report, there exist clauses that give the Bank powers to
oversee projects it is assisting in developing countries such as India, and establish
conditions upon recipients countries:
“The sensitivity of project evaluations generates incentives to present project outcomes in
the most positive possible light. Consequently, a key part of the incentive scheme is
provided by the Independent Evaluation Group, formerly the Operations Evaluation
Department established in 1973, which audits every project implementation and
completion report.”8
Like the case of Brazil, the World Bank granted loans to India based on outcomes
of certain policies. India implemented the Rights to Education Act in 1991, and began
receiving loans from the Bank. However, to insure the expansion of public schools, the
World Bank began implementing conditions on the Government of India (GOI). For
6
Lindert, 67.
7
Lindert, 67.
8
Rabia Malik and Randall W. Stone, “Private Politics in World Bank Lending,” 2015, 5.

7
example, the GOI promised that the impoverished area of Madhya Pradesh, the “Heart of
India,” would continue to expand universal primary education, and encourage children
to attend school with the implementation of the Madhya Pradesh Peoples Education Act
(2001) and the Statutory Framework for Quality in 2002. These two acts were put in
place as a mechanism to encourage education reform in India, and to fulfill the World
Bank’s conditions in order to receive more funding.9
It has become clear that the World Bank got the ball rolling with education reform
in the developing world. As stated above, the World Bank originally had the sole mission
of reconstruction of Europe post-WWII. Once NDCs began requesting funding from the
Bank, that institution opened its own Department of Education within its own confines.
Once established, NDCs seeking financial assistance from the Bank had to yield to
conditions set forth by the Bank.
While NDCs seek financial assistance from the Bank, one cannot help but ask
how education reforms are political. Scholars attempt to explain how education
reform is more political than what many individuals think. First, education inspires
national values in the classroom. Education systems have a strong influence on morals,
values, customs, languages, and priorities.10
Secondly, schools are seen as a “source of
political power.” No matter what education structure one wishes to study, schools hold a
strong proportion of the nation’s budget. Furthermore, schools are top employers that can
hire, fire, and reassign teacher’s positions.11
And lastly, schools are the engine of
economic growth as education gives individuals the tools needed to pursue jobs of his/her
9
“Social Accountability Sourcebook,” in Social Accountability in the Education Sector, World Bank, 2007,
33.
10
Edward B. Fiske, Decentralization of Education: Politics of Consensus, The International Bank for
Reconstruction, 1996, 5.
11
Fiske, 5.

8
interest. Also, there are some materials in the classrooms that can be used as political
tools. For instance, textbooks and portfolios could stimulate political and social
ideologies.12
Experts wrote on how many schools in the past faced a “Rubrik’s Cube set of
possibilities,” meaning that in some cases, states implemented policies with uncertainty,
confusion, and mismanagement. With policy makers implementing reforms by which the
federal government was either excluded or played very little role in the process of
reformation, corruption among local governments and inefficiencies were numerous as
well as hiring of incompetent teachers, lack of funding for the classroom, and in some
areas, literacy rates dropped. Therefore, some schools around the world began to push for
an education system that is more centralized. However, as the end of the 1990s drew to a
close, many initiatives were undertaken to reform their respective education sectors due
to “too much bureaucracy and unresponsiveness to local needs.”13
And finally, there is the question as to why developing countries pursue
education reform in the first place. Experts in the field of comparative education claim
that it is a matter of politics and economics as to why developing countries seek
education reform. Sources indicate that education reform has been relatively new in the
past 15 years within developing countries. Topics such as “who should fund education?”
and “who should make the decision making in public schools?” all caught the attention of
the citizenry in all developing countries as people want to partake in the decision making
process that has an influence on them and their children.14
Also, some policies called for
special resources at the local level, especially with the implementation of special taxes
12
Fiske, 5.
13
Fiske, 9.
14
Noel F. McGinn and Thomas Welsh, Decentralization of Education: Why, When, What, and How? United
Nationals Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1999, 9.

9
and community participation, to help keep schools open. To some, since the CG in
developing countries cannot properly assist all its citizens, it is necessary to allow
education reformation as “scarce resources in public funds will be used more carefully.”15
In other words, funds from local governments are most likely to be used with greater
caution as oppose to “government waste.”
In sum, this section covered how the World Bank influences education reform in
developing countries such as Brazil and India. The Bank supplied both countries with
loans and grants based on results of policy and conditions both countries adhere to upon
receiving fund from the Bank. This section also covered why governments in developing
countries seek education reform. Since governments cannot provide goods and services
for all its members in society, it is necessary to allow local governments to “take the
wheel” and provide education the CG cannot properly provide otherwise because it is too
expensive. Furthermore, with education reform, people within the community can
participate in the decision making process with regards to how spending will be used for
the classroom, and since funding at the local level is scarce, the usage of funding will be
used with greater caution as local governments cannot afford to squander public funding.
15
McGinn and Welsh, 9.

Chapter 3: THE BRAZILIAN EXPERIMENT
Ever since the peaceful fall of the military bureaucracy in 1985, Brazil’s policy
makers took strong interest in education reform. For instance, Brazil’s Constitutional
reform of 1988 covers wide variations with respects to equitable education. Under
Chapter III of the Brazilian Federal Republics Constitution, Article 205 opens with the
following:
“Education, which is the right of all and duty of the State and of the family, shall be
promoted and fostered with the cooperation of society, with a view to the full
development of the person, his preparation for the exercise of citizenship and his
qualification for work.”16
Article 206 of Brazil’s Constitution lays the basis of education. Under Section I of Article
206, education will be equal access to all individuals; Section II states that individuals
have the freedom to teach, learn and research, and express his/her area of studies; Section
III establishes coexistence of public and private institutions; Section IV states that
individuals are guaranteed a free education to all official public schools; Section V
guarantees quality education via examinations upon entering higher education; Section
VI states that administrations will be democratic in accordance of laws; Section VII
guarantees quality education; and Section VIII guarantees a nationwide professional
minimal salary for public school teachers.17
Brazil undertook rapid changes in its education structure as that country
experienced education reformation in the 1940s, but learned from the mistakes made, and
began to improve on its education sector. Instead of relying solely on local and municipal
levels of government to provide funding for its populace, the state, local, and federal
level of government began a process of shared responsibilities. The FGB was left in
10
16
Constitution of the Brazilian Federal Republics, Chapter III, Article 205.
17
Constitution of the Brazilian Federal Republics, Chapter III, Article 206, Sections I-VIII.

11
charge of providing funds for primary and secondary education, and at the same time,
encouraged some schools to privatize in hopes of expanding education.
Section 3.1, THE BEGINNING OF EDUCATION REFORM:
Brazil is known for being a nation with “continental dimensions” with its 8,512
million square kilometers and a population with well over 173 million people.18
Brazil’s
experiment with education reform has a long history with respects to its education sector.
For example, during the Second World War 1942, prior to the military dictatorship that
ran the country from 1962-1985, and the establishment of the World Bank, Brazilian
policy makers established education reforms by which regional governments
had autonomy, but was very “corporative in character.”19
In other words, regional
governments relied heavily on federal government assistance with no accountability on
both regional and federal governments. For instance, in 1942 Brazil implemented an
elaborate program known as the National System of Industrial Apprenticeship (NSIA), an
initiative for primary and secondary educational growth. This program was funded by an
elaborate payroll tax, which was collected by the local municipalities and social security
offices. Sources indicate that funding from the NSIA was left unmonitored by the CG,
and wealthy industrialists maintained full control as to how funding was spent; more
funding went towards schools located in urban areas, and less went to schools in rural
18
David Atchoarena, Ian Wallace, Kate Green, and Candido Alberto Golmes, “Strategies and Institutions
for Promoting Skills for Rural Development,” in Education for Rural Development: Towards New Policy
Responses, International Institute for Education Planning, 2003, 289.
19
Ciaran Sugrue, “Conjuncture and Disjuncture in Teachers’ Work and Lives,” in The Routledge
International Handbook of Teacher and School Development, Edited by Christopher Day, Routledge, 2012,
88.

areas (in some cases, schools in impoverished areas received no funding).20
Regional
12
governments continued to rely heavily on federal payroll taxes up until the 1980s.
In 1988, Brazil’s policy makers undertook new education reforms. In the past
decades. After the 1985 democratic opening, the CG granted more autonomy to
municipal level of government. Current studies reveal that ever since education reform of
the mid-1980s, Brazil’s education sector yielded positive results. Adult literacy rates
improved from 75% during centralization of the 1960s to 90% in the 1990s experiment.
Brazil also improved universal enrollment of primary and secondary schools, and the
percentage of students delayed in public schools were cut in half.21
Scholars in comparative politics wrote on how the structure of Brazil’s education
system after 1985 was a little complex, but with shared responsibilities between the three
levels of government-state, municipal, and federal,-no one system of government bear
all the burden. Beginning in the 1980s the municipalities were the main providers for
early childhood education (roughly between the ages of 0-5). Currently both state and
municipal share responsibilities in providing for secondary education (ages 6-14); and
state level governments are in charge of making provisions for the final three years of
high school. In addition to state and municipal partnership in promoting education for all,
the FG provided funding to all levels of education as well as assist in coordinating
policies shall agreements not be met.22
20
Atchoarena, Wallace, Green, and Golmes, 290.
21
Aaron Pierce, “Decentralization and Social Policy in Brazil: An Analysis of Health and Education Policies
of the New Republic,” in Journal of International Affairs, online source, 2013,
http://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/decentralization-and-social-policy-in-brazil/ (Accessed August
27, 2015).
22
Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro, “Brazil: The Role of State and Municipalities in the Implementation
of Education Policies,” in Education in South America, edited by Simon Swartzman, Bloomsbury, 2015, 97.

13
Section 3.2, BRAZIL’S BOLSA ESCOLA AND FUNDEF:
In this section, I argue that education reform is likely to work if the federal and
state/local governments accommodate the process, and yet, allow state/local
governments to maintain their autonomy. Bolsa Escola (School Allowance) is a federal
government subsidy that was created in 1995, and was placed under the umbrella of
Bolsa Família in 2003. Ever since the 1990s the Brazilian government attempted to keep
its children in the classroom and off the streets. However, poverty led many students in
secondary education to dropout in order to find work to support their families, and thus
the school attendance rate dropped to frightening levels. Bolsa Escola is a program that
grant families with monthly stipends in return their children attend school and stay off the
streets.
Bolsa Escola was designed to keep students in school (particularly targeted to
primary and lower high school years) and out of the work force where they might be
exploited. Statistics from the National Household Survey reveal that Bolsa Escola
served its purpose by keeping the majority of participants in school, but statistical
analysis proved that some children that participated in Bolsa Escola tend to miss school
not so much due to looking for work, but other variables such as illness, troubles with the
school, etc. Figure 3.1 reveals the various reasons why children missed school
despite the fact they were participants of the Bolsa Escola program.

14
Figure 3.1
Why did the student miss school?
Bolsa Escola
Assistance?
Yes No
Volunteer Work 4.60% 3.20%
Work, seek Work 4.90% 6.50%
Transportation Issues 6.30% 4.00%
Lack of Money for Activities 0.90% 1.60%
Long Distance from the School 1.00% 0.80%
Teacher Strikes 10.90% 13.40%
Illness 46.60% 42.90%
Hard Time Understanding Teacher 0.30% 0.40%
Did Not Want to Go 10.60% 12.50%
Parents Did Not Want Him/Her to Go 0.70% 1.50%
These statistics were made possible with the assistance of the work of Simon
Schwartzman’s “Education-Oriented Social Programs in Brazil: The Impact of Bolsa
Escola,” (page 1023
) and his extensive research through the National Household Survey.
It appears that the majority of participants missed school due to illness, 46.6% of
those receiving benefits, and 42.9% of those not receiving benefits, missed school due to
illness. However, looking at the data, it appears that for those receiving Bolsa Escola
benefits were less likely to miss school due to seeking work. On the other hand, for those
not receiving benefits, it is likely that students missed class due to seeking work, or
working. One last speculation is the fact that even families receiving Bolsa Escola
benefits, 10.6% of the students missed class simply because they did not want to go to
class, period. On the other hand, for those not receiving Bolsa Escola benefits, 12.5%
tend to miss class because they did not want to go to class. Simply put, families receiving
this Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) will most likely send their child to school, and the
23
Simon Schwartzman, “Education-oriented Social Programs in Brazil: The Impact of Bolsa Escola,”
Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade, 2005, 10.

child will less likely skip school as oppose to families not receiving benefits.
15
The GOB was quite aware as to why students missed school despite the fact of
Bolsa Escola’s CCT program. Research indicated that upon implementation Bolsa
Escola faced problems in the past that was needed to be addressed. Experts point out that
for some reason, at age twelve, students; especially girls, tend to drop out of school.24
In
order to combat these troubles, Brazil’s Ministry of Education launched project
Educação
para Todos (Education for All). This project promoted healthy habits, encouraged
success in the classroom, and saying no to drugs. This program is said to have
encouraged children to stay in the classroom and off the streets and workforce where they
might be taken advantage of. Not only did this initiative keep students in the classroom,
but also encouraged parents to participate more in school functions in order to promote a
healthy relationship between the teacher, parent, and student.
New research indicates that ever since 2003, well over 3 million individuals
finished their high school work. This is a good sign as more individuals obtained a high
school education, but only 9% got accepted into a university after high school, a
percentage that would be highly unacceptable to global standards.25
U.S. News reported
that the overall acceptance rate in one of America’s prestigious college, University of
Southern California, is 18%.26
In other words, students have a better chance in getting in
to a prestigious American university compared to Brazil’s 9% overall acceptance rate.
24
Samuel W. Bodman, James D. Wolfensohn, and Julia E. Sweig, Global Brazil and U.S.-Brazil Relations,
Independent Task Force Report No. 66, Council on Foreign Relations, 2011, 24.
25
Tristan McCowan, Expansion without Equity: An Analysis of Current Policy on Access to Higher
Education in Brazil,” in Higher Education Vol. 53, No. 3, Springer, 2007, 580.
26
U.S. News Education, “Top 100 Lowest Acceptance Rates,” online source, 2013, (accessed October 18,
2015), http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-acceptance-
rate/page+2.

Something had to be done about Brazil’s overall low university acceptance rate. It all
16
began with the quality of primary and secondary education as these levels of education
are what prepare students to take the entry exams to enter a university or college upon
graduating.
Brazil’s minimal criteria for pursuing a higher education follows: “There must be
sufficient places so that all members society who so desire, and who have a minimum
level of preparation, can participate in higher education.”27
This notion of equity is
straight forward as students seeking higher education have to be able to read, write,
count, and know some of the hard science; however, there exists a problem with this
system of selection. Children living in rural areas in Brazil do not receive the same
quality level of education as those that live in urban areas. With that being said, when
time comes to take the entry exam, many students that live in rural areas either fall short a
few points or completely fail the exam as these students did not receive the proper
training as their urban counterpart did.
In order to advance to the university level, students must take an entry exam,
known as vestibular, that is very competitive, and in most cases, unprivileged students
were not well prepared to take. Private tutors, private schools, and special courses
designed to prepare students for the entry exam are simply too expensive for poor
students. Even if the student can afford to be sent to a private institute, Scholars point
out that the quality of education at some of these private schools are questionable as some
private schools have the autonomy to implement courses without the consent of the
Ministry of Education.28
As a result, many do not pass by a few points, or students totally
flunk the exam. Brazil’s CG had to act in order to alleviate the problem.
27
McCowan, 582.
28
McCowan, 584.

In order for the FGB to provide special attention to areas that have been neglected
17
for decades, the FG had to get involved more in the education sector. In 1996, the
FGB launched many initiatives to assist state/local governments with their respected
education sector. For instance, then President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso
implemented policies that targeted poor quality education and promote justice and
fairness for high school students and individuals seeking higher education upon
graduating high school. In order to achieve this goal, President Cardoso knew he had to
target special areas of education, particularly secondary level of education, in order to
prepare students to take exit exams proctored in public schools and entry exams for
college and university entry. These initiatives include Block Grants from the federal
level, CCTs, such as Bolsa Escola to unprivileged families seeking assistance, and
Constitutional Amendments, such as the 1996 Fund for the Maintenance and
Development of Basic Education and Teacher Appreciation (FUNDEF). FUNDEF is best
recognized as the world’s largest Block Grant to fund primary and secondary education
in both rural and urban areas of the country. In order to keep teachers from “walking out”
and “striking,” 60% of FUNDEF funding was to go towards paying teachers’ salaries,
while the remainder of the 40% of the funding was to go towards improvement in
classrooms. This sounds good, but state/local governments in Brazil saw this as too much
power on the part of the CG. Therefore, it was agreed that the FG would provide these
Block Grants, and disperse funding to state and municipal levels, keeping local autonomy
intact.
At the local level, FUNDEF has served its purpose well by paying teachers’
salaries as well as increased enrollment in the education sector. In a 2014 report on
Brazil’s FUNDEF, experts on Brazil’s education sector concluded that this government

program improved the education sector in two ways. First, FUNDEF saved state/local
18
governments a lot of expenses. In the state of Paranaguá, for instance, the FG provided
Block Grants to the municipal level, which “resulted in the decrease of public
expenses.”29
Because the FGB provided these Block Grants to state/local governments,
local mayors did not have to concern themselves a lot with raising funds for education as
the FG covered these expenses. And secondly, the enrollment rates increased.
Researchers compared the enrollment rate in the state of Paranaguá in 1985 to 1999. In
1985, before the implementation of FUNDEF, the net enrollment rate in the city of
Paranaguá was roughly 12,000 students at state-owned schools at the secondary level. In
1999, after the implementation of FUNDEF, that number remained the same; however,
the enrollment of students in private schools at the secondary level increased from 5,900
in 1985 to over 7,000 students in 1999. It is said that this rising amount of students would
soon increase the number of students in higher education level.30
In addition to the increase number of students in the classroom in the state of
Paranaguá in public and private schools, the number of teachers began to increase. This is
due in part because of FUNDEF’s goal of keeping teachers satisfied with their pay, and
keeping them from going on strike. For instance, in 1985, prior to the implementation of
FUNDEF, the net enrollment of teachers in the state of Paranaguá was approximately 394
at public schools, and 334 in private schools. Both of these numbers increased after the
implementation of FUNDEF as 457 teachers were teaching in public schools and 523
teachers in private schools in 2011.31
Indeed FUNDEF increased the number of students enrolled in secondary and
29
Mary Sylvia Miguel Falcão, “The Decentralization of Education at Paranaguá County,” in Procedia-School
of Behavior Sciences Vol. 174, Science Direct, 2015, 3,976.
30
Falcão, 3,979.
31
Falcão, 3,980.

higher education by providing more funding to paying teachers’ salaries and target
19
areas that have not been receiving the attention that was needed to satisfy educational
goals. How else was FUNDEF used in the education sector? Just throwing money at the
problem will not solve everything; the GOB had to utilize some funding from FUNDEF
in other ways to encourage education among secondary education. With FUNDEF, the
GOB in the late 1990s began offering vocational and apprenticeship programs geared
directly towards those living in the countryside; the GOB began targeting impoverished
areas in the Northern part of Brazil. Brazil’s FUNDEF gave incentives for individuals in
the rural areas to pursue vocational education or apprenticeships while attending high
school. By the mid-1990s, the GOB gave up its “monopoly” of pursuing technical
education, and began to diversify the education system, both in urban and rural areas.
Instead of focusing on the hard sciences and technologies in the classroom, the GOB
encouraged the education sector to diversify student’s options in regards to career paths.
Agribusiness, aquaculture, horticulture, and apprenticeships in the agriculture sector were
encouraged by the FG, and interestingly, these new area of studies stimulated thinking in
areas such as climate change, global warming, the effects of the ozone layer, and
emphasis on investment in green technology.32
None of these programs would have been
successful hadn’t it have been for FUNDEF.
In addition to the implementation of FUNDEF, the FG began providing financial
incentives for local investors to invest in primary and secondary education in places that
have been neglected for so long, especially areas located in the rural areas. This alleviated
some of the financial inequalities within the education sector. President Cardoso
attempted to expand the private sector by implementing financial incentives for local
32
Atchoarena, Wallace, Green, and Golmes, 293

entrepreneurs to invest more in primary and secondary schools located in impoverished
20
areas of the country, and at the same time, ease the requisites of entering public
universities in order to allow the unprivileged to compete for entry. It is said that
expanding the private sector helped raise the student enrollment in both public and
private universities, but members of the Workers’ Party (PT) and the following President
of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, were against privatization.33
However, given the fact
that expansion of privatization expanded the enrollment of students in primary and
secondary education, the Lula da Silva Government allowed schools of all levels to
privatize. This speculates that allowing some institutes to privatize can lead to good
results since the FGB cannot provide for all its members in society effectively.
FUNDEF is currently labeled as a success story for the case of Brazil, but victory
did not come without its problems. After the implementation of FUNDEF, embezzlement
became an issue. Scholars in the field of education wrote on how in 1997 FUNDEF
established an annual $R2.2 million to fund primary and secondary education. FUNDEF
initially was not micromanaged by the Ministry of Education upon implementation.
Some local governments in Brazil did not accept responsibility in the late 1990s, and as a
result, embezzlement of funds from FUNDEF were problematic. Local governments were
put in charge of using dispersed funds to enhance infrastructure, pay teachers, obtain new
equipment needed for labs, repair sidewalks, and purchase technologies needed for the
classroom such as computers and microscopes. Because the Ministry of Education did
not oversee how these funds were used, and local governments did not accept
responsibilities and accountability, schools suffered:
“…the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment test among 15 year-old
students, Brazil ranked 54th
among 57 countries in mathematics and ranked 49th
among
33
McCowan, 586.

21
56 countries in reading…Brazil’s local governments bare much of the blame for this poor
performance.”34
Block Grants were dispersed by the FG to state and municipal governments, but
were left unchecked and not monitored by the CG. Since FUNDEF was left unmonitored
by the FG, some mayors fell for the temptation to embezzle money from FUNDEF
instead of using funds for education. For instance, in 2005, the new mayor of
Camaragibe, state of Pernambuco, was surprised when he took office by discovering that
his predecessor embezzled well over the equivalent of US$400,000. After serious
investigation and auditing, it turned out that the money was directed into his
predecessor’s bank account.35
Indeed Edward B. Fiske was right when he wrote that “every reform aimed at
correcting abuses contains the seeds of the next set of problems.”36
This is just one of
many incidents where local governments in Brazil misused federal funds for their own
self-interest. If local mayors in impoverished areas were not dispersing funds to schools,
chances were, schools in these areas lacked materials needed to advance the learning
process for students, such as simple things like pens, paper, pencils, calculators, folders,
and perhaps computers. Currently the Ministry of Education is doing a better job in
auditing municipalities and their actions with regards to how funding is utilized.
Despite the fact that some local mayors embezzled some of FUNDEF’s Block
Grants scholars, wrote on how Brazil’s education system improved gradually since the
implementation of FUNDEF. For instance, prior to the installation of FUNDEF, rural
areas, especially those located in the North and North East regions of the country,
34
Claudio Ferez, Frederico Finan, and Diana B. Moreira, Corrupting Learning: Evidence from Missing
Federal Education Funds in Brazil,” in Discussion Paper, No. 6634, Institute for the Study (IZA), 2012, 4.
35
Ferez, Finan, and Moreira, 6.
36
Fiske, 9.

22
suffered inequality with regards to funding and quality of education, which ultimately
resulted in high dropout rates and illiteracy rates. In fact, prior to FUNDEF, the poor
North East only had a net enrollment rate of only 77.3% while the wealthy South East
had a 94.4% net enrollment in 1994.37
However, after the implementation of FUNDEF,
enrollment rates increased slowly in poorer regions of the country, and the amount of
teachers in these poor areas increased. Even though wealthy Southern areas of Brazil still
saw greater results than its rural counterpart, test scores, mathematics, and literacy rates
among students in rural areas increased slowly upon implementation.
FUNDEF provided a lot of money to fund primary, secondary, and higher
education as well as the establishment of vocational schools and apprenticeship
programs for those in upper high school years, but what about the quality of education?
There had to have been some kind of mechanism in place to ensure that teachers were
teaching materials that are current rather than outdated subjects and trades. The FG
continued its involvement with the education system. An example of this would be
Brazil’s National Education Guidelines and Framework Law of 1996. This law was
established in December 20, 1996, shortly after the implementation of FUNDEF.
This law was set forth by the FGB by which lays the framework as to how public schools
will operate. This law created a mechanism to insure quality education in primary and
secondary schools:
“It requires the curricula in primary and secondary education to have a common national
basis; it increases the length and number of teaching days; it includes the evaluation of
courses and institutes; which increases its scope beyond the evaluation of pupils’
37
Nora Gordon and Emiliana Vegas, “Education Finance Equalization, Spending, Teacher Quality and
Student Outcomes: The Case of Brazil’s FUNDEF,” Education Sector, Human Development Department,
Latin America and Caribbean Region, World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2004, 4.

23
performance and states that national procedures for assessment at primary, secondary,
and higher levels shall be guaranteed.”38
Brazil’s National Education Guidelines and Framework Law of 1996 promotes
quality education via teacher evaluations by both pupils and local administrators. Despite
its centralized characteristics, Brazil’s National Education Guidelines and Framework
Law of 1996 encouraged local autonomy. Instead of having a central authority figure
evaluate teaching performance, evaluation is left up to the students and other school
officials. With that being said, schools are free to hire/fire anyone within the faculty,
negotiate salaries, utilize funding from state and federal aid accordingly, and decide the
use of textbooks for the class. Under the National Education Guidelines and Framework
Law, public schools in Brazil must teach a certain amount of math, sciences, and
reading/literature courses because the infamous vestibular is alive and well, and students
wishing to advance to higher education levels must perform well on this exam. Therefore,
it is necessary for public schools to teach a certain amount of math, science, and literature
courses to prepare them for this competitive examination.
Section 3.3, WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?
Constitutional Amendments such as FUNDEF and the National Education
Guidelines and Framework Law of 1996 shows that the Brazil’s FG took strong interest
in working with state and municipal governments in expanding education for all, but
what about the role of parents during the process of education reform? Scholars in the
field of sociology wrote on the importance of parent-teacher partnership to encourage
24
38
World Data on Education, 7th
edition, 2012/11, UNESCO, 2,

success in the classroom for the student(s). Experts believe that a child’s success in the
classroom, and his/her adult life, depends on parent’s interest in education.39
Research
indicates that literacy and enrollment rate depended on SES. It is said that parents with
high income tend to read more to their children and provide a healthy learning
environment at home than for those that are among the low income sector.
Scholars stress the importance of the role of parental participation in the education
sector, but in the case of Brazil, secondary education enrollment has gone down
compared to other countries around the world. Figure 3.2 reveals the enrollment rate in
Brazil from 1999-2013. Since 2000, the enrollment rate in that country has declined
gradually. For instance, in 2010 Brazil’s secondary education consisted of 4,151,834
children; that number declined to 3,650,445 in 2013.
25
39
Julia Wilkins and Amy B. Terlitsky, “Strategies for Developing Literacy-Focused Family-School
Partnership,” in Intervention in School and Clinic No. 1053451215589181, 2015, 2.

Figure 3.2
Secondary Education Enrollment, Brazil, 1990-
2015
Year Enrollment
1999 N/A
2000 5,202,104
2001 4,763,018
2002 4,814,111
2003 4,691,702
2004 4,533,470
2005 N/A
2006 N/A
2007 4,277,648
2008 4,231,765
2009 4,199,197
2010 4,151,834
2011 3,912,649
2012 3,771,591
2013 3,650,445
2014 N/A
2015 N/A
These statistics were made possible by UNESCO, 201540
Net Enrollment, 2015
Male Female Mean Average
78.8 79.6 79.2
These statistics were provided by UNICEF, 201541
In all public schools throughout Brazil, there are occasional parent-teacher
conferences throughout the academic year, but not a lot of parents attend those meetings.
The only time parents attend parent-teacher conferences is when their child is facing
urgent issues, such as bullying or trouble with the teacher.42
Sometimes, schools will
invite parents to attend filed trips, plays, or other school functions, but again, not too
26
many parents participate in these matters. Put simply, “parental involvement is not really
40
UNESCO, 2015, http://data.uis.unesco.org/
41
UNICEF, 2015, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil_statistics.html
42
Education in Brazil, The School Scoop Series, School Choice International, 2009, 40.

very intense in Brazilian schools.”43
I present two explanations explaining Brazil’s declining secondary education
enrollment. Both explanations lead to the parents, but this is not to say that the declining
enrollment rate in Brazil are solely parent’s fault. On the contrary, economic status
plays a huge role as to why parents do not get involved with the school systems.
In Brazil, there exists a great income gap, and Brazil is notorious for being the
most unequal society when it comes to income distribution. With poor families struggling
to survive, very little attention is given to education on the part of the parents. With that
being said, poor families have very little relationship with the public school they send
their children to as they are more fixated on working to provide bread for the family.
Because of poverty, parents are more concerned with seeking work that will provide for
their families.
SES explains why many parents in Brazil do not participate in their children’s
Education. Many would dismiss parents in Brazil as “irresponsible,” or “incompetent” to
raise a child, but many fail to look at sociocultural factors. Experts point out that there is
a cultural misunderstanding that explains why parents in Brazil do not participate in
activities at the school they send their children to. Scholars conducted interviews with
Brazilian parents as to education in that country. The interviewers have learned that
parents refer to teachers as “aunts” or “uncles,” meaning that teachers in Brazil are
considered family as they teach their children the skills needed for the real world. As a
result of this logic, “parents’ role were to not interfere with the teacher’s role and
27
responsibilities.”44
43
Education in Brazil, 40.
44
Mariana Souto-Manning and Kevin J. Swick, “Teachers’ Beliefs about Parent and Family Involvement:

Section 3.4, SUMMARY:
For the case of Brazil, I find policies of shared responsibilities have become
successful with respects to raising the literacy rate. With Brazil’s local, municipal, state,
and federal levels partnership and shared responsibility, the literacy rate among
secondary education has escalated since the 1980s. Figure 3.3 demonstrates that Brazil’s
education reforms of the 1990s resulted in higher literacy rate.
Figure 3.3
Literacy Rate Among Youth, Ages
15-24
Female Male
Year Value Value Average
1980 85.24 82.56 83.9
2000 95.72 92.65 94.185
2004 97.9 95.78 96.84
2006 98.36 96.8 97.58
2007 98.56 97.06 97.81
2008 98.53 97.18 97.855
2009 98.69 97.45 98.07
2010 98.32 96.72 97.52
2011 99.07 97.91 98.49
2012 99.02 98.22 98.62
These statistics were made possible with the Mundi Index with Brazil’s
Literacy Rate, 2013,45
and UNESCO, 2015.46
28
According to the Mundi Index, in 1980, the literacy rate among younger
Rethinking our Family Involvement Paradigm,” in Early Childhood Education Journal Vol. 34 No. 2, 2006,
189.
45
Mundi Index, “Brazil’s Literacy Rate, Literacy Rate between Females and Males 1980-2012,” United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, Online Source,
2013, http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/brazil/literacy-rate (accessed September 9, 2015).
46
UNESCO, 2015

individuals were not as good as the 1990s and 2000s. In 1980 85% of young females
were literate; 83% young men were literate. As decades went by with a more liberal
setup, literacy rates rose in conjunction with education reform. In 2012, the Brazil’s
Ministry of Education reported that 99% females, and 98% of males, were considered
literate. This shows that government programs such as Bolsa Escola and FUNDEF
assisted individuals in tapping into their true potential.
I find that policies towards education are likely to succeed when local needs are
met to insure education for all (Hypothesis One). For instance, Brazil’s Bolsa Escola
program kept students in the classroom and addressed family needs by providing
additional stipend money for food and other necessities. The FGB dispersed CCT’s to
families living in extreme poverty and in return their child must attend school. This
program did keep students in FGB sponsored vocational and apprenticeship programs for
upper secondary education levels geared towards those living in extreme poverty, and at
the same time, provided local entrepreneurs financial incentives of investing in secondary
education in impoverished areas. This poured more financial resources into schools that
have been neglected for years.
Secondly, education reform is likely to succeed when state/local government is
committed (Hypothesis Two) as well as FG commitment (Hypothesis Three). With power
comes responsibility. When the GOB granted more local autonomy to local governments,
mayors had to accept accountability for his/her actions, such as the infamous incidents
with the embezzlement of money from FUNDEF. Once the FG implemented a
mechanism to ensure that funding from this well-known Block Grant was being utilized
29
with prudence, local governments worked together with the FG to crack down on local

corruption and to insure money was being used for education purposes. Put simply, in
order for policies towards education to be successful, local, state, municipal, and federal
governments must share responsibility and work together to achieve education for all.
And finally, I find that SES and sociocultural variables explain lack of parental
participation in Brazil (Hypothesis Four). In a country that faces income inequality
issues, parents are concerned with their child’s education, but must also provide for the
family; meaning working two jobs or overtime positions. Furthermore, sociocultural
variables offers a reasonable explanation as to why parents do not get involved with the
public school they send their children to. Brazil is a culture that is closely family-
oriented. Teachers are viewed as extended members of the family-“aunts” or “uncles.”
Based off interviews with parents from Brazil, teachers are trusted in providing quality
education to students, and that the teacher should be left alone to teach students unless an
invitation has been sent by the teacher.
Experts wrote on what parents can do that will improve not just attendance, but
literacy rates as well. Family literacy programs enhance parents’ capabilities. With this
program, teachers will coach parents for a brief period (30 minutes perhaps per session)
on what is being taught in the classroom for their children. This is a way for teachers and
parents to construct an understanding of each other and develop common goals to insure
their child’s success in the future.47
Chapter 4: THE INDIAN EXPERIMENT
India gained its independence from Britain with the Indian Independence Act
47
Wilkins and Terlitsky, 3

of 1947, and although since then India has shown progress with its education sector as
attendance and literacy rates improved, India’s education sector faces extreme problems
with regards to poor quality education input and output. After India gained its
independence in 1947, that country had to start practically from square one as very little,
if any, foreign aid was granted to India’s education sector as great powers like the U.S.
were more concerned with the reconstruction of Europe at the time. India’s education
sector, like the case of Brazil, also implemented education reforms in the late 1940s
that did not see much success as local needs were not met as well as lack of federal, state,
and local government involvement. There was no concept of shared responsibilities
among the federal and state/local governments. However, as decades passed, the Federal
Government of India (FGI) saw the need to intervene in promoting access to education
for all its citizenry. Like its Brazilian counterpart, India’s Constitutional Amendment of
1991, Right to Education Act, insures free and easy access to education for its children:
“The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the
commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children
until they complete the age of fourteen years. (Article 45).”48
India’s Constitution on education is not as comprehensive as its Brazilian
counterpart as it does not mention shared responsibilities of the state and family as its
Brazilian counterpart does. Despite the fact that India has seen improvement with its
education sector as literacy and attendance rates went up slightly, there is more work to
be done in that country. India’s education sector reveals that literacy rates among the
30
31
secondary education sector cries for improvement as 10% of the population are
considered illiterate (India currently has a massive population of 1.2 billion people; 10%
48
Constitution of India, Article 45.

of this is approximately 120,000,000 people!). Figure 4.1 reveals that the literacy rate
among secondary education overall lags slightly behind its Brazilian counterpart as
89.65% of India’s population in 2015 was reported literate by UNESCO, the Census of
India, and the State of Literacy Index:
Figure 4.1
Literacy Rate, 1981-2015
Year Female Male Average
1981 29.76
56.3
8 43.07
1991 39.29
64.1
3 51.71
2001 54.16
75.8
5 65.005
2011 65.46
82.1
4 73.8
2015 74.4 82.1 89.65
These statistics were compiled by “InfoChange Education,” Literacy Rate in
India, the Census of India, 2001, the State of Literacy, 2011, and UNESCO, 2015
This is not to say that the case of India is a complete failure as India’s education
sector has come a long way since the 1980s. In the 1980s, only 43.07% of India’s
population were literate; in 2001, the number of literates in the country escalated to 65%;
and in 2015, 89.65% were reported literate. If we were to make a prediction, literacy rates
in India will improve much more as the education sector in India has undergone a lot of
changes within the context of education reform. However, the best starting place in
explaining India’s literacy rate problem is to first identify what were causes of reform.
In some scenarios, students will skip school more frequently to pursue work
because the quality of education in some of India’s institutes were questionable. Instead
32

of attending school, a lot of students in India went straight to work, hoping that their hard
work and effort in the workforce would prepare them for white-collar jobs. Experts in
India’s education system concluded that the education sector in that country needed
improvement as in 2013 a little less than 50% of students in the fifth standard can read a
paragraph from the second standard level; and less than 27% of students in the third
standard level can properly solve a two-digit subtraction problem.49
Why is this important
to know? If 50% of students in 2013 in the fifth standard had a hard time reading a simple
paragraph at a second standard level, chances are these students would suffer once
reaching secondary education level as there tends to be more reading assignments
found in this level of education; and much more in higher education. Poor quality
education resulted in students dropping out of school in hopes of finding work, but this
cannot be the sole variable explaining India’s dropout rates. What was the mechanism
causing these staggering numbers? What role does policy play in this enigma?
How can we solve India’s Rubik’s Cube of uncertainty?
4.1, THE BEGINNING OF EDUCATION REFORM:
Scholars wrote on how the role of education was essential for economics
as well as the well-being of individuals and for the good of society as a whole. To the
Greek philosopher Plato, education makes people into “reasonable men,” and since
education has a high value in economics, Plato believed that a good portion of wealth
should be invested in education.50
33
49
Karthik Muralidharan, “Priorities for Primary Education Policy in India’s 12th
Five-Year Plan,” in India’s
Policy Forum, 2012-2013, Vol. 9, National Council of Applied Economic Research, 2013, 5.
50
Jandhyala Tilak, “Post-Elementary Education, Poverty, and Development in India,” in International
Journal of Education Development No. 6, Centre of African Studies, 2007, 21.

India currently consists of 29 states and seven Union Territories. India, like
Brazil, is a developing nation which has seen a lot of economic growth and prosperity in
recent decades. Since decolonization, India’s economy has been on the rise in the
international community, and many countries admire the economic prosperity that India
brings about.
India’s policies towards education in the late 1940s was not successful because
many public education facilities in India at the time faced poor quality education input
(such as poor teaching materials or facilities) and poor quality education output (such as
very low literacy performance when compared to other countries around the world). The
GOI did not give enough attention to the education sector at the time as not enough
funding was dispersed to schools across the sub-Continent. To some, India’s economic
performance was on the rise during the mid-1950s because of very little investment in
secondary education by the state. 51
This comes to show that within the context of
education, the federal government needs to get involved to some extent to promote
education for all.
The question is “why?” Why did the GOI give very little attention to its education
sector upon independence? Research indicates that the number of schools, teachers, and
enrollment in India increased upon independence; however, “the country’s socialist,
egalitarian leaders failed to implement reforms that would advance their rhetorical goal”
in expansion of education for all.52
Many fail to realize that India’s education sector faced
34
setbacks because of its social hierarchy. Class division became an issue in India in the
51
Geeta Ghandi Kingdon, “The Quality and Efficiency of Private and Public Education: A Case-Study of
Urban India,” in Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics Vol. 58, No. 1, 1996, 6
52
Lindsey D Carson, Joanna V. Noronha, and Michael J. Trebilcock, "Picking Up Big Bills from the Sidewalk:
The Supply of and Demand for Quality Basic Education in India and Brazil." Available at SSRN 2468824,
2014, 8.

1950s. Experts wrote on how colonization created a very long and strong division
between the “have” and “have nots.” The establishment of English universities,
construction of roads, and even metropolitan areas, like Bombay, created “an elite edifice
within the Indian society.”53
These English schools did not necessarily promote education
in India as extracted raw materials were transported by railway created by British capital.
In other words, to save capital, little was poured into the education sector by the British.
Upon independence, the elites pushed for expansion of privatization to promote
capital, but the results were a bit grim as not everyone benefited from the private sector
because the high cost of tuition. Besides the high cost of tuitions, students had to
purchase their own set of textbooks as well as supplies, such as pencils and paper; it all
adds up. It was not just the fact that a lot of unprivileged students could afford private
institutions, but higher caste system members had the mindset that too much expansion of
education was improper. Elites had the notion that expansion of education for the mass-
especially among the unprivileged-was “excessive” and “inappropriate.” Therefore,
federal spending on India’s public schools remained lower than 3% Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) until the 1980s.54
The FGI began noticing that in order to compete in the global economy, it must
educate more of its citizens as the advancement of technology demanded more education.
In 1991, the FGI implemented Article 45 in its Constitution. Article 45 of India’s
Constitution states that free education will be granted to all children up to ages 14. Ever
since the implementation of Article 45 in its Constitution, India’s secondary education
35
expanded as the number of teachers escalated from 127,000 in 1950 to over 1,334,000 in
53
Monalisa Bal, Skill India, Education Policy and Budgeting – Beyond Numbers,” in Journal of Education
Policy Vol. 2 No. 3, Entrepreneur Research, 2015, 16.
54
Carson, Noronha, and Trebilcock, 8.

1991. Besides the number of teachers hired in India, the construction of public and
private schools increased from 7,416 in 1950 to 79,796 in 1991. In 1950, only 0.15
million students were enrolled in a school in India; that number escalated to 1.91 million
in 1991.55
Statistics reveal that the Constitutional Amendment of 1991, Article 45 of
India’s Constitution, The Right of Education Act, increased the number of schools,
teachers, and attendance rate, but what about quality of education? What were the long
term results of Article 45 of India’s Constitution?
Even well into the 1990s and 2000s India’s quality of education has been
questionable. Scholars in comparative education wrote on how a 2008 nationwide
survey on education attainment revealed in rural areas that well over 90% of children are
enrolled in high school, but only 56% of the students can read a short story from the
second standard (2nd
grade), while 19% cannot read upon graduating high school, and
less than 45% can read a simple story at a 5th
grade level.56
To what extent did the
government have to intervene in order to improve the quality of learning for its students?
The next section looks at India’s Educational and Sustainable Development (ESD) Plan
and 12th
Plan.
4.2, INDIA’S ESD AND 12TH
PLAN:
In a desperate attempt to combat poor quality education output, the GOI has taken
some initiatives in promoting equitable and quality education to all levels of education.
36
Experts wrote on how UNESCO recommended India to target specific areas within
55
Tilak, 24.
56
Abhijit V. Banerjee, Rukmini Banerji, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster and Stuti Khemani, “Pitfalls of
Participatory Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of Education in India,” in American
Economic Journal: Economic Policy Vol. 2, No. 1, American Economic Association, 2010, 1-2.

its education sector. At a 2005 UN Summit Meeting, UNESCO advised the following to
India’s Ministry of Education:
“1.) Improve access to quality basic education; 2.) Develop public understanding and
awareness of access to education; and 3.) Provide quality training to ensure positive
results of learning experiences for students.”57
Indian officials heeded the words at the UN Summit as policy makers in India
implemented a ten-year plan to enhance the quality of education and stimulate thinking in
the classrooms in new fields. In 2005, the GOI established the ESD Plan. ESD’s goals
were to further the human condition by providing education in fields such as poverty
alleviation, culture diversification, gender equality, peace, human rights, and even
Environmental Education (EE) for those interested in the field. Regional governments
still maintained their autonomy as schools retained the power to hire or fire teachers, the
use of textbooks and other classroom materials, and set hours of learning.
India’s ESD was very clever as it linked environmental concerns with Indian
philosophies and religion. For example, within Indian religions and philosophies, many
gods and goddesses reside in plants, trees, lakes, oceans, and rocks. With that being said,
this stimulated thinking within India’s education sector in the field of EE, and promoted
the use of environmental friendly technology. Very similar to Brazil’s FUNDEF, India’s
ESD Plan encouraged special areas in green technology and addressing climatic issues in
secondary education and higher education classrooms.58
How did ESD manifest in India’s education sector? India’s rich history provides a
more interesting, and engaging, reason for the establishment of ESD. The Chipko
37
(Embrace) Movement began over 260 years ago in the early eighteenth century. This
57
V.S. Mehrota, “Education for Sustainable Development in Schools: The Indian Content,” in Journal of
Educational Policy Entrepreneur Research, Vol. 2, No. 9, JEPER, 2015, 277.
58
Mehrota, 278

movement consisted mainly of young men, girls, and women in an effort to protect and
provide education on the environment. In the past, many individuals risked their lives to
protect the environment from the Maharaja (King), who sometimes ordered the
destruction of areas of environmental concerns.59
To this day, the Embrace Movement
still exists, and is a top provider in education within the context of EE for both secondary
and higher education. Currently, EE is being taught in all levels of education in
classrooms that teach geography, and other sciences that are related to climatic concerns.
ESD served a long-term benefit for India’s population as the quality of education on
climatic concerns can stimulate new jobs and markets in attempts to boost India’s
economy; however, ESD might be losing funding by the end of 2015 as ESD’s initiative
was to last from 2005-2015; ESD is a ten-year plan. By ending ESD, the quality of
education can face downturns. I will revisit this policy towards the end of this section.
India’s ESD program might come to a screeching halt by the end of 2015, but India is
looking at new options to promote quality education within its secondary and higher
education levels, such as India’s 12th
Plan.
ESD promoted quality education in secondary and higher education by
stimulating thinking in culture, environment, peace, and tolerance in the classrooms that
were taught by experts in these area of emphasis. It is said that ESD improved the
enrollment rate in India as young individuals took strong interest in these area of studies,
but with the program about to face its end, one cannot help but ask what the GOI will do
to continue quality education in the classroom for all levels of education.
It is clear that the numbers indicate that the number of schools, teachers hired, and
38
student enrollment has increased over the past decades, but numbers can only tell so
59
Mehrota, 278.

much. The number of schools, attendance, and teachers escalated with India’s newly
Constitutional Amendment, but what about quality of education? What was the long run
results brought about by India’s education reform?
India’s recent education policy, 12th
Plan of Government of India (2012-2017),
has the potential of becoming something great to promote quality education. This plan
targets all levels of education; however, most of its attention has been given to upper high
school level and higher education. India’s 12th
Plan is a product of its predecessors,
such as the Knowledge Commission (2009) and Narayan Murthy Commission (2012).
Despite its mission to improve the quality of secondary and higher education, members of
India’s 12th
Plan Committee were a bit bias towards the poor as their suggestions
undermined the notion of equity:
“1. Higher Education should be left to the private sector initiative with thrust on creation
of knowledge clusters and promotion of technical and management education; 2.
Encourage Science and Technology and Management related courses; and 3. Government
should act as a facilitator and promote public-private sector participative investment.”60
Point one in the above quotation never manifested as there are free public schools
and universities in India, but one cannot help but point out the bias within the Committee
Members of India’s 12th
Plan.
The Committee on India’s 12th
Plan recommendations stated above certainly
undermined the notion of equity. For one thing, the Commissioners of India’s 12th
Plan
were anti-poor. How can unprivileged students possibly enroll in these schools when they
are very expensive? The Commissioners did not address how unprivileged students might
acquire financial assistance upon enrolling in these schools. And secondly, the
39
Commissions stated above do not prioritize levels of education. These Commissions omit
60
Bal, 16.

the fact that secondary education is extremely vital in preparing students for higher
education, and nowhere do these Commissions mention how to deal with poor quality
education in public secondary education level. Despite the government’s rhetoric on
expansion of education, the quality of secondary and primary education remained rather
poor in rural and village areas. For example, private primary schools account for 29% of
rural or village areas of the country, but the quality of these schools did very little in
preparing students for secondary education:
“1. Only 58% of children enrolled in classes 3 to 5 can read a class-1 text; 2. Less than
45% are able to divide 20 by 5; and 3. Only 37% of children enrolled in class 4 or 5 can
read fluently.”61
These shortcomings are what set a chain reaction in motion. If students receive poor
quality education in primary school, students will not be well prepared to tackle
secondary education work. If students cannot handle secondary education work, students
will either drop out or suffer with poor performance, which could decrease an
individual’s probability of getting into a college or university upon graduating high
school.
Experts on India’s education policy point out the main reason why the quality of
higher education in India is stagnant despite the fact that India has the third largest
education structure (United States ranked first; China second). Universities in India suffer
poor quality education because secondary education does little in preparing students for
higher education. India’s newly 12th
Plan has the goals of the following: expansion of
education [both secondary and higher education institutes]; insure access of education to
the less fortunate; enhance quality performance in the classroom; increase autonomy
40
from the CG; increase government funding to promote PPP; and coordinate across
61
Bal, 17.

agencies within the education sector of all levels.62
These agendas all seem great as it
targets quality of education and promotes healthy partnership between the public and
private sector, but how will India’s 12th
Plan encourage better quality education within
secondary education?
It appears that India’s 12th
Plan is a mirror image of Brazil’s FUNDEF. Within the
context of India’s 12th
Plan, the GOI mentioned that there will be institutions that teach
more on the science and technology as well as vocational training to upper secondary and
higher levels of education, but India’s 12th
Plan faces a lot of challenges for the future.
Like Brazil’s FUNDEF, India’s 12th
Plan consisted of expanding vocational
schooling for secondary level students that were at a disadvantage. Based off the success
of Brazil’s experience with vocational schools, technical schools, and apprenticeships
programs, one would think that the case of India would yield positive results, but success
will not come easily as some argue that vocation schools are not an ideal selection for
students as these schools did not see much success. According to the National Sample
Survey Data on 66th
Round, out of 1,000 students in the sample, only 44 received some
form of vocational training, and only 14 received formal vocational training.
Furthermore, the GOI reported that 36% in rural areas and 24% in urban areas claim that
vocational training did nothing to prepare them for a career path.63
If India’s 12th
Plan
policy were to succeed, it must first start at targeting secondary education.
41
Here, I raise the question: Why is it that Brazil’s experiment with vocational,
62
Gaura Nautiyal, “Students’ Perception of Quality of Higher Education: A Case Study of Post-Graduation
Management Students at Selected Management Institutes in Delhi,” in International Journal of Commerce
and Management Vol. 4 No. 3, IRACST, 2015, 1184.
63
Charanya Raman and Vishal Gupta, “Preparation for the World of Work: Secondary and Higher
Secondary Education in India,” in Research and Publications W.P. No. 2015-02-03, Indian Institute of
Management, 2015, 6.

technical, and apprenticeship programs for high school students saw success, while
India’s experiment with vocational education did not see much success? To answer this
question, it is necessary to look at the structure of these institutions. In Brazil, the FG
gave financial incentives to local entrepreneurs to invest in vocational, technical, and
apprenticeships programs, especially for those located in poor and impoverished areas.
Special attention was given to local needs with regards to funding and education
programs for students that wish to pursue vocational or higher education upon graduating
high school.
On the other hand, for the case of India, the World Bank reported that vocational,
technical, and apprenticeship programs failed in that country because: 1.) Lack of funding
model (not enough funding from the FG or local government); 2.) Lack of private sector
participation (the CG did not address local needs to satisfy the population); and 3.)
Vocational schools in India teach “mismatch” material with the labour market.64
In other
words, some vocational schools in India taught trades that were not in high demand for
the work force.
The situation seems grim in India as that country has a population of over
1.2 billion people, and 47% of graduates are not employable in any sector of the
economy.65
However, new research shows that the new government in India, under the
umbrella of 12th
Plan, is currently experimenting with a new model of expanding
vocational education to secondary-level students, and one that is of better quality than
42
what was mentioned above.
64
Raman and Gupta, 6-7.
65
Sangeeta Kohli, “Public Private Partnership in Education: An Impactful Means of Promoting Skill
Development and Inclusive Growth in India,” in Scholedge International Journal of Multidisciplinary and
Allied Studies, Vol. 2 No. 3, Scholedge R & D Center, 2015,
http://www.thescholedge.org/index.php/sijmas/article/view/143/174

Despite all its shortcomings, India’s 12th
Plan has been amended by policy
makers in attempt to establish healthy relationships between the public and private
sector. Under India’s 12th
Plan, private and public firms coexist with each other in order
to expand education for the mass. India’s 12th
Plan created newly apprenticeship,
craftsmen, and vocational education programs for both upper secondary and higher
education levels for those that cannot afford to go to institutions that are privatized. What
motivated the GOI to act on amending the 12th
Plan? The answer to that question can be
found within the context of economics. The workforce is demanding high skilled workers
in the fields of science and technology as well as business administrations, engineers,
education, and pharmacy. Experts predict that if India’s education structure does not
engage in PPP, the consequences will be extremely dire, the total destruction of
India’s economy. With an accelerating rate of population growth in India, it is estimated
that by 2020 India will be the world’s youngest country with well over 64% of the
population of working age.66
If these predictions are correct, there will be a growing
number of young people entering secondary education, and at the same time, have a very
large labor force. Put simply, if India’s education sector does not improve by 2020, this
very large group of secondary education-level students will have difficulties finding work
upon graduating high school as jobs will be scarce.
These predictions on India’s labor market is worth paying close attention to as
there is a large demand for new skilled labor in India’s workforce. Currently, India is
going through a transition by which state/local and the FG are collaborating to improve
its education sector. Beginning in 2012, India’s 12th
Plan is responsible for building more
43
vocational schools by which teaches new sciences and technologies of today’s world for
66
Kohli, http://www.thescholedge.org/index.php/sijmas/article/view/143/174

both secondary and higher education. For instance, the GOI reported that as of 2014,
there exists approximately 10,750 vocational institutes for upper secondary and higher
education levels with well over 133 trades (many of which are becoming trades of high
demand, such as computer science and business administration). Within the total of
vocational institutes, 2,274 are government run facilities, while 8,475 of these facilities
are privatized.67
This all sounds promising, but will building more facilities matter for the case of
India? How will these new facilities improve the quality of education? India’s new 12th
Plan strongly encourages “skilled building” education with special attention on
development of education growth through industry partnership. In 2009, the GOI
established the National Skilled Development Plan with the intent of growing the
skilled labor sector to 500 million by the year 2022.68
For example, Tata Motors is
currently in a partnership to over 150 government institutes across India. Their mission is
to provide vocational education to secondary and higher education level to individuals
with an emphasis in the auto industry. Trades include vehicle repair, engineering,
welding, computer science, mechanics, and other services in the auto trade.
These are skills that are in high demand as the auto industry is a booming business.
India’s experiments with PPP has received worldwide attention. Scholars give
credit to the GOI for its encouragement of education to all levels and promote healthy
partnership between the public and private sector. In fact, the sub-Continent has become
a model as India’s PPP percentage is 10 times greater than that of China.69
When
44
compared to its revised 11th
Plan predecessor, India’s experiment with 12th
Plan has
67
Raman and Gupta, 11.
68
Kohli, http://www.thescholedge.org/index.php/sijmas/article/view/143/174
69
Vidya Telang and Shalaka Prakash, “Financing of Public Private Partnerships in India,” in Impact Factor
ISSN No. 2320-8341, Impact Factor, 2015, 51.

increased infrastructure spending as well as the raising of PPP percentage. For instance,
under the 11th
Plan, spending for infrastructure amounted to $2.4 million upon
implementation. India’s 12th
Plan yielded $5.5 million in infrastructure spending. Put
another way, India’s 11th
Plan resulted in 37% spending in PPP’s throughout the sub-
Continent, while India’s newly 12th
Plan had a 48% PPP spending.70
Why is this
important to know? This data revealed that India’s 12th
Plan not only yielded better
results than its predecessors with regards to developing a greater PPP percentage, but
these new institutions worked closely with both private and public schools as well as
universities. These new institutions partnered with these schools by providing expertise
training in their respected fields for students that are interested in pursuing a particular
trade.
India’s major industries must participate in partnerships to stimulate more trades
that are needed in today’s global economy. If too many people learned the same trade as
each other, then there will no longer be a demand in the later run. Under India’s 12th
Plan,
the FGI will provide funding to local governments around the sub-Continent and promote
healthy PPP between the labor and education sector of the economy as well as assume the
role of the moderator shall state/local governments cannot reach consensus. Regional
governments will maintain their autonomy as schools will maintain the power to hire
teachers as well as holding these individuals accountable. This speculates that the CG
plays a role in shaping education, but at the same time, allows local autonomy to flourish.
Advocacy groups will play a role in influencing policies of education in
45
India. For instance, the Make-in-India Campaign seeks to extend the skilled labor
workforce within the next decade. However, these individuals realize that in order to
70
Telang and Prakash, 52.

achieve such accomplishments, the GOI must invest more in secondary and higher
education in the fields of science and technology. If India wishes to be the next Asian
powerhouse, it must provide better quality of education for its secondary and higher
levels of education. This group’s creed traces its roots back to India’s First Century wise-
saying with the advancement of education:
“Education is the special manifestation of man; Education is the treasure which can be
preserved without the fear of loss; Education secures material pleasure, happiness and
fame; Education is the teacher of the teacher; Education secures honour at the hands of
the State, not money.”71
Make-in-India calls for more partnerships between state/local and the FGI to
extend education for all. These partnership goals include expansion of skilled labor
technical institution for secondary and higher education levels. In addition, Make-in-India
calls for higher GDP spending on education as India lags behind other developing
countries like Russia and Brazil. The Human Development Index reported in 2013
Russia’s GDP on education constituted 4% of its national budget, while in Brazil
5.7%. India ranked last with 3.1% with very little satisfaction from the citizenry.72
Section 4.3, WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?
Many experts on India’s education wrote on how government and advocacy
groups have been attempting to improve the quality of education in India, but what is the
46
life expectancy for individuals in primary and secondary education combined forces?
Figure 4.2 observes the overall dropout rate as of 2011:
Figure 4.2
71
Satya Narayan Misra and Sanjaya Ku Ghadai, “Make in India and Challenges before Education Policy,” in
Journal of Education Practice, Vol. 6 No. 1, Journal of Education Practice, 2015, 97.
72
Misra and Ghadai, 100.

Reason for
Dropout, 2011 Gender
Male Female
Mean
Average
Economic Reasons 27% 23% 25%
Domestic Work 24% 24% 24%
Lack of Interest 21% 20% 21%
These statistics were made possible with the assistance of Misra and Ghadai’s work on
India’s Public Policy Report Statistics, 2014.73
According to India’s Public Policy Report Statistics, poor economic conditions
explain why some students in India have an overall low life-expectancy within the
education sector as 25% of the population drop out of school due to economic
disadvantages, while 21% lack interest in the classroom. Where are the parents during
education reform?
Prior to Constitutional Amendments of the 1990s, parents did not see education as
a top priority as the quality of education was rather poor, and was viewed as a waste of
time. Experts wrote on the importance of parental involvement with the decentralization
process. To some, the quality of education depends on the amount of interest parents have
in sending their child to school.74
In some parts of India, some parents did not have the
desire to send their child to school because parents felt that their child might see better
47
success in the workforce.
Research indicates that parents living in rural areas of the country were less likely
to participate in their child’s schooling as oppose to urban areas. Experts analyzed the
situation in Guwahati, the North Eastern Part of India, as the unit of analysis. Within this
73
Misra and Ghadai, 99.
74
Ajay Mahal, Vivek Srivastava, and Deepak Sanan, “Decentralization and Public Sector Delivery of Health
and Education Services: The Indian Experience,” No. 20, ZEF Discussion Papers on Developing Policies,
2000, 66.

impoverished area of India, the Harijan community lags behind in literacy and enrollment
rate than what is expected despite the fact that the GOI provided educational facilities
along with a democratic atmosphere.
Like the case of Brazil, parents were less likely to participate in their child’s
education on cultural grounds. The term “Harijan” was first coined by Mahatma Gandhi
meaning “children of God” as these individuals were the low and unprivileged caste
members, the “untouchables.”75
Typically in Harijan communities, like Guwahati,
establish their education sector based off their communities traditions, such as sweeping,
shoe-making, leather tanning, scavenging, and even dead body carrying. Students in these
communities do not last long upon entering secondary education, and are less likely to
attend higher education as well as low parental involvement. Teachers in Harijan
communities are seen as higher caste, and therefore should be left alone to teach the
students without parental interference.
Guwahati is an excellent case study because this Harijan community in
particular has a diversification of professionalism, such as hospital work, railroad
workers, teachers, college professors, as well as lower caste workers, such as shoe-
makers. Out of a sample of 200 parents, only 38% of the sample agreed that parental
participation is crucial for quality education for their children. On another note, 15% of
48
the sample could not decide a yes or no answer. These findings reveal that parents within
Harijan communities like Guwahati are not well informed about the benefits of
participation in the education sector.76
Like the case of Brazil, very rarely will parents in India attend parent-teacher
75
Runumi Devi, “A Study on the Awareness Level of Parents of a Backward Community of North East India
for Higher Education of their Children,” in International Multidisciplinary Journal Vol. 3 No. 1, The Clarian,
2015, 129-30.
76
Devi, 132.

conferences, plays, committees, and school-board meetings despite advertisements and
invitations from schools; however, parents in India, like anywhere else, have strong
influences with respect to secondary education as children’s main source of learning is
at home with their parents, which could be bad as some households face extreme poverty,
child neglect, broken family issues, and even violence. In fact, research shows that
alcoholism among parents are quite common in rural Indian communities. Out of a
sample of 200 parents in Guwahati, well over 80% of the sample indicated that
alcoholism among parents are becoming more and more of a problem as too much
alcohol on the part of the parents hampers with their child’s ability to learn at both home
and in the classroom.77
Despite the fact that many parents of India, especially among poor Harijan
communities, do not participate in the education sector as they probably should, the
majority of parents agreed that secondary and higher education will move their children
up in status. Experts in education and sociology concluded that in order for education to
improve in these communities, government, non-government organizations, and parents
must work together in order to encourage a better education structure not just in
impoverished areas of India, but the whole sub-Continent as well. In addition to parental
involvement, India’s Television Networks will play a role in encouraging parents to
participate in the education sector. India’s Television Networks can be used as
49
advertisement programs for not just young viewers, but parents as well since the number
of parents that watch Television has increased sharply over the past decade.78
The use of Television can help motivate parents to participate more in their
child’s education, but what else can be done to encourage more parental participation in
77
Devi, 134.
78
Devi, 135.

the decentralization process of their education systems? Some scholars believe that
attendance and literacy rate depend on a government’s commitment on expanding
infrastructure for education. These authors believe that “positive spending” on education,
such as hiring more qualified teachers and construction of new schools, can shape how
parents feel about sending their children to school. For instance, some families in
impoverished areas live very far from the nearest school. Since some of these
impoverished areas lack access to public transportation, it seems too much trouble
sending the child to school in the first place. In order to solve this problem, the GOI
invested heavily on school buses in rural areas in order to get unprivileged children to
school, and home once classes dismiss for the day. Put simply, positive spending will
most likely shape parental behavior towards their child’s education.
Section 4.4, SUMMARY:
As a summary of this chapter, I find that literacy rates in India are showing
improvement when compared to the 1980s. In the 1980s, only 43% of India’s population
were considered literate; a little over half the population at that time did not know how to
read or write. As decades passed, literacy rates in India increased as by 2015 nearly 90%
of India’s population are literate as a result of the GOI’s participation of promoting
50
education for all. Policies such as ESD and 12th
Plan improved the quality of education
by stimulating thinking on new topics originally not found in public schools in India,
such as EE, culture diversification, peace, and alleviation of poverty. These courses are
taught by experts in these areas of concentration, such as members of the Chipko
Movement, which has been around for over 250 years. However; the possible demise of

ESD might create a negative backlash in India’s education system as ESD promoted
quality education in the social science field.
If ESD expires after 2015, the GOI will have to implement policies that
complements the expansion of secondary and higher education for its citizenry. The FGI,
state/local, and village governments are currently working together to formulate what is
known as India’s 12th
Plan. This policy was established in 2012 with the goal of
expanding access to quality education by encouraging PPP. Despite the fact that India’s
12th
Plan initially started off on the wrong side as outdated trades were being taught to
high schoolers and university students, this policy has shown some improvement in
recent years. New partnerships with the skilled labor sector began to improve the quality
of education in both education sectors. These partnerships, known as skilled labor
education, provides quality education in secondary and higher education by taking
specialized skilled workers in areas of trade, such as the motor industry, and allowing
them to teach to high schoolers and college students in related areas of study. These
partnerships are getting more people involved with the education system as well as
increasing the enrollment rate.
Furthermore, I find shared responsibilities between state/local and federal
governments will increase enrollment rates in the education sector. For instance, India’s
experiment with education reforms resulted in an increase number of students in the
51
classroom. In 2006, India’s net secondary school enrollment rate consisted only 56.1%.
In 2008, after the implementation of Rights to Education Act and ESD, that number
escalated to 61.9%; and in 2013, after the implementation of 12th
Plan, the net enrollment
rate in India was 68.5%. Figure 4.3 displays that over the past eight years the enrollment
rate in India’s secondary education sector has increased substantially.

India’s secondary education enrollment rate accounts for nearly 70% in 2013,
which can improve with more parental participation. As figure 4.2 indicated in the
previous section, a mean average of 25% of the sample size failed to attend their classes
due to economic problems at home. Poverty still remains an issue in India, and many
people struggle to provide the necessities for their family, such as food and water.
However, the data from the previous section also indicates that 21% of the sample did not
attend due to lack of interest. This is where the parents need to step in and provide
explanations as to why send them to school.
52
Figure 4.3
Secondary Education Net Enrollment, India, 2006-2014
Year Enrollment
2006 56.1
2007 58.7
2008 61.9
2009 61.3

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