Access to Elementary Education in India. Country Analytical Review

This analytical review aims at exploring trends in educational access and delineating different groups, which are vulnerable to exclusion from educational opportunities at the elementary stage. This review has drawn references from series of analytical papers developed on different themes i.e. regional disparity in education, social equity and gender equity in education, problem of drop out, education of the children of migrants, inequity in educational opportunities, health and nutrition, governance of education and so on. The first and second section of the paper presents brief review of the state of elementary education in the country with particular focus on regional disparities and social inequities in provision. The third section delineates different zones of exclusion highlighting the nature and magnitude of the problems of access, transition and equity. Fourth section captures the profiles of the varying groups of children responding to the questions of who are excluded from schooling and why are they excluded. In the final section, the paper makes an effort to identify gaps in our understanding of the issues pointing to the need for further research as well as identifying strategies that seem to work in addressing issues of access to elementary education in India. (Contains 16 footnotes, 31 tables and 10 figures.)