There is a popular perception that social conservatism is the cause of the educational disadvantage among Indian Muslims. However, we find that this does not seem to be so. One important signifier is the boy-girl difference in education. We found that the education gap between boys and girls in Muslim families is smaller than in Hindu families. Rather than conservatism, this seems to suggest a gap in public policy attention to Muslim children’s education. The gap between Muslim and SC children also suggests the same thing. Muslim children had better school completion rates than SC/ST children in 1983. However, our research shows that by 2004, when the impact of policies targeted at these groups (first articulated in the National Policy on Education in 1986 and then reiterated in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan more recently) starts to be felt, Muslim boys had begun to lag behind SC boys in grade completion. Importantly, underlining the case that this is problem of public policy inattention rather than “culture,” the comparison of the boy-girl difference between communities remains unchanged. While more SC boys complete primary (as well as secondary) school than Muslim boys, SC girls continue to lag behind Muslim girls. thehindu/opinion/op-ed/still-in-the-last-row/article4860869.ece
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 09:35:42 +0000