Social Disparity of Higher Education in India an Analysis of NSSO 55 th Round Abstract:

Transcription

1 Socal Dsparty of Hgher Educaton n Inda an Analyss of NSSO 55 th Round Abstract: Dsparty, measured n terms of enrolment n hgher educaton by age group gves the representaton by socal group, not only that t also gves an nsght nto the result of exstng affrmatve polces. Agan there are ntra and nter group dspartes whch s measured by Thel ndex. Ths paper attempts to analyse the dsparty across and wthn n hgher educaton for a specfc age group. Introducton: Educaton s unversally recognzed as an nvestment n human captal. It s the basc requrement and the most effectve nstrument of socal empowerment and can contrbute to soco-economc development by endowng ndvduals wth the means of mprovng ther health, skll, knowledge, and capablty for productve work The knowledge, skll and values acqured through educaton not only meet the educaton needs of the socety, but they are also permeated wth a socal content correspondng to the soco-economc and poltcal structure, and consequently socal stratfcaton and dstrbuton of power n socety. In educaton Inda has experenced much growth, expanson, advance and change n the number of nsttutons and the stages of educaton, n the strength and the qualty of the teachng, n the magntude of research works n all the dscplnes. Inda has the largest educatonal system n the world; ths largeness s manly due to the large populaton wth 12,600 colleges, 70 lakh students, 3 lakh teachers occupyng 16 central unverstes, 39 deemed unverstes, 221 unverstes, 156 state unverstes, 10,555 colleges of whch,815 have been recognzed. The expanson n the feld of educaton provded great access to all sectons of the socety. However, owng to a number of constrants, and socoeconomc factors, the benefts of expanson of educatonal facltes have not fully reach to all the communtes specfcally among the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Trbes (ST). In , the GER (Gross Enrolment Rate) was about 10.8 per cent at overall levels, the GER among the SC s (6.30 per cent), the ST s (6.33 per cent), and the OBC (16.60 per cent). Thus the GER for the SC/STs was three tmes and that of the OBCs was about two tmes lower as compared wth the Others. Between the SC/ST s and the OBC s, however the GER was lower among the former by two per cent ponts. (Sukhadeo Thorat, 2008). 1

2 The present paper s an attempt to present varous facets of the educatonal development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Trbes vs-a-vs other sectons of the communty. The per cent populaton enrolled at dfferent level of hgher educaton by varous socal groups s examned by gender, regon and household type by both rural and urban. The purpose to examne socal group by such categores was to analyze the enrollment for dfferent socal groups at varous level of hgher educaton, and the extent of dsparty f t exsts. Data and Methodology: For the present study, unt data from Natonal Sample Survey organsaton (NSSO) 55 th round, on Employment and Unemployment Survey n Inda, s used. Schedule 10 from NSSO 55 th round asks questons to the head of the household on the hghest level of educaton acheved by the ndvdual of the household. Hgher educaton wll be those from hgher secondary and above, means an ndvdual who has at least completed hgher secondary and has not completed hs or her graduaton degree. Smlarly graduate and above n varous streams lke engneerng, medcne, agrculture and others means they have at least completed graduaton n the respectve dscplne. For the present study we consdered the age group 18-29, the lower lmt beng 18, snce for a student to complete hgher secondary, the mnmum age requrement s 18, but ths lower lmt s rased to 20 n case of graduate and above. Generally age- group s consdered for hgher educaton but from data of NSSO t was found that there were szeable populaton n the age whch cannot be gnored hence the age group were consdered for analyss. An analyss by age of the sample populaton reportng attendance n nsttutons for graduate (and post-graduate) studes shows that the agegroup accounts for nearly 90 percent. Ths would suggest the age-group as approprate for the populaton wth Graduate and above level of completed educaton. Progresson at each level n the educatonal pyramd s condtonal on the successful completon of the precedng stage of educaton. Thus, holdng a graduate degree s a must for entry nto a post-graduate programme and a Hgher Secondary or equvalent qualfcaton s necessary for entry nto an under-graduate programme. 2

3 Among the four socal groups SC, ST, OBC and OTHERS n the NSSO round the OTHERS group was taken as a reference group. OTHERS were taken as a reference group due to larger per cent of the populaton n the hgher educaton and tradtonally and hstorcally they were never deprved for educaton. Hence whle takng the reference the proporton of the populaton wth a educatonal level n the age group to the total populaton n the age group was taken for each of the socal groups, whch s the gross enrollment rato. To explore whether nter group dsparty or ntra group dsparty s more evdent we use the Thel ndex wth respect to enrollment n hgher educaton. Here the calculaton s based on enrollment n hgher educaton for ST, SC, OBC and OTHERS, by ther gender, regon and household type. Let us consder the total number of ndvduals ( =1 to ) n the age group are grouped nto four groups namely ST, SC, OBC and OTHERS. Let R be the rato of the total number of students wth an educatonal level from hgher secondary and above to graduate and above to the total number of populaton n the age group 18-29, and let p be the populaton share of the group n the entre populaton of age group Then overall nequalty can be represented as follows: T = = 1 p R log R + = 1 p R T Where T 1 n S r log r Where S ndcates that T s generated by summng over all persons comprsng group, n s the total populaton n the age group and r s the rato of ndvdual wth that educatonal level to the total number of populaton n the age group The frst term n the value of T gves the extent of between group n equalty across all the four groups and the second term s the extent of wthn group nequalty across all the four groups. 3

4 Result from Analyss: Table1 shows the dstrbuton of socal groups n the age group wth and wthout educatonal level, the second column gves the per cent dstrbuton of all the populaton, Table1: Dstrbuton of populaton for dfferent Socal Groups n the age group Socal Groups Percentage of populaton n the age group Percentage of populaton wth hgher educaton n the age group ST SC OBC OTHERS Total Populaton Source: Unt data NSSO 55 th Round Lteracy and level of Educaton n Inda By usng the Thel ndex we try to estmate the ntra group dsparty among dfferent socal groups. The results gven below are the Thel ndex calculated for dfferent socal groups at dfferent educatonal level agan concentratng n the age group Both ntra group dsparty and nter group dsparty by usng the sum p RT, where = 1 T 1 n S r log r were calculated, but the value for nter group dsparty was found to be very neglgble, hence only the frst sum value s gven. At dfferent level of educaton, the Thel ndex s approxmately equal to zero more n the case of hgher secondary and above than other levels of hgher educaton, thus n hgher secondary and above the ntra group dsparty s less and more promnent for graduate and above level of educaton. The negatve values of ST, SC and OBC shows that n terms of extent of nequalty ST, SC and OBC are the margnal groups n terms of representaton, whereas the group OTHERS are n a better poston. The negatve values brng down the scale of equalty. Calculated value of Thel Index: Hgher secondary and above: = 0.06 Graduate and above n agrculture: T = = 0.135

5 Graduate and above engneerng: T = = 0.13 Graduate and above medcne: = 0.15 Graduate and above others: T = = 0.16 In all the above cases the Thel Index gves negatve value for ST, SC and OBC whereas n all the levels of Hgher educaton the value s postve for the socal group OTHERS. Thus ndcatng that ST, SC, OBC are laggng behnd the OTHERS n all the levels of hgher educaton. Thel ndex equal to zero ndcates equal dstrbuton. In all the above values the T value s approxmately equal to zero, especally n hgher secondary and above, whereas n all the other cases the values though hgher than hgher secondary and above s almost same for graduate and above n dfferent subects. Thel ndex calculated by gender for male and female showed that ntra group dsparty exst although not that sgnfcant, between ST, SC, OBC and Others. Comparatvely the ntra-group dsparty n hgher educaton was slghtly more for females than males. The ntra group dsparty was mote promnent n graduate and above at dfferent level of educaton and relatvely nsgnfcant at hgher secondary and above. Agan the dsparty was much more evdent for ST and SC than OBC. Male: Female: Hgher secondary and above: = 0.0 = 0.08 Graduate and above n agrculture: T = T = = 0.08 = 0.25 Graduate and above engneerng: = 0.13 = 0.12 Graduate and above medcne: 5

6 T = T = = 0.12 = 0.17 Graduate and above others: T = = 0.11 = 0.19 Analyss n progress. 6