Developments in Provisioning of School Education in Punjab (India) in the Era of Neo-liberal Reforms: Insights from NSS Data

The paper talks about the rapid mushrooming of private schools in Punjab during the neoliberal economic reforms period and the role that these institutions are presently playing as the leading service providers particularly in the urban areas of the state. The study found the burden of such private school education, in terms of household expenditure, very high vis-à-vis government schools. This burden increases with the level of education, making the school education system of the state highly inegalitarian. Insofar as government schools in the state are concerned, the study noted that they are not providing ‘free’ education even at the elementary level. Furthermore, gender bias was also found to prevail in the school education system of the state, with more male children attending private schools as compared to their female counterparts.