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Paper short abstract:

In the absence of equal access to opportunities, even an expansion of the educational system might reinforce inequalities with predictable winners and losers. This paper reflects on the empirical evidence of educational development and intergenerational mobility for girls & women in eastern India.

Paper long abstract:

The dearth of longitudinal data in developing countries implies most studies on group- based inequalities concentrate on the intergenerational mobility analysis of fathers and sons. Household survey- based datasets have virtually no information on young married women, because of the customary practice of patrilocality in South Asian societies. This paper uses a novel region-specific dataset ,to overcomes this exclusion bias by including relevant information on married daughters.

The analysis presents considerable persistence of inequality, despite massive educational expansion, especially based on gender and caste identity. Additionally, by employing feminist methodology this paper combines the quantitative study of gender stratified educational outcomes with the qualitative analysis of life aspirations to unearth insights regarding the gendered mobilities in the context of a transitioning agrarian society. The qualitative study is based on the data collected from in-depth interviews as part of fieldwork, to map a typology of the educational aspirations articulated by the young women given their social location, specificities of gender norms, access to role models, information networks, and education and occupation of parents.

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Paper short abstract:

By investigating the effectiveness of extra class—a type of afterschool private tutoring offered by schoolteachers to their own pupils, the paper touches on the issues of transparency and equality within the education system of Vietnam

Paper long abstract:

Extra class, or private tutoring offered by schoolteachers to their own pupils, is a widespread phenomenon in many developing countries. This paper examines the effectiveness of extra class on pupils’ learning at primary schools in Vietnam. Using a school survey of 3,284 pupils in Grade 5, I distinguish between extra-class effects on teacher grades and on standardized achievement tests. I find that teachers grant higher school grades to pupils attending extra class, but extra class attendance does not yield higher scores at standardized achievement tests. I interpret these results as evidence of opportunistic behavior, whereby teachers exploit their arbitrariness in awarding grades, which count for secondary school admissions, to extract rents. The extent of grade inflation is larger among children from low SES, half-day schools or low-qualification teachers, i.e. disadvantaged settings with fewer monitoring mechanisms against (bad) teacher incentives. Attending extra class also generates a gap in pupils’ self-image, suggesting teachers discriminate based on extra-class status of pupils. The lack of productivity of extra class on human capital implies that parents pay for extra class mainly for passing examination and earning qualification. Pupils from disadvantaged background will likely suffer more in this race. These findings suggest extra class comes at the costs of both efficiency and equity in education. This paper contributes to the literature on corruption and education quality and the growing literature on shadow education.

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Paper short abstract:

Based on empirical work in Malaysia, this study contrasts rural young people's aspirations related to 'development' as they encounter Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, the government's intermediary for national development underpinned by 'science for development'.

Paper long abstract:

Zooming in on the economic promise that dominates the development discourse, Drori’s (1998) model of ‘science for development’ traces the putative link between science education at all levels, the expansion of scientific labour force, and subsequently national economic development. Across the Global South, this model has been internalised and reflected in a national focus on science—and recently STEM—education as a means of development. Through a postcolonial critique of development, this study foregrounds the perspectives of rural young people on 'development' through the prism of aspiration, in their encounter with STEM education as the government's intermediary for national development. Using a comparative case study approach in Malaysia, the aspirations of young people in 'luar bandar' (rural, literally 'out of the city' in Malay) are contrasted against the national discourse emphasising STEM education. I pay close attention to their lived experience as a means of analysing and critiquing development, subsequently pointing to other development 'options'. Emplaced in the othered context of 'luar bandar', young people's aspirations for development are characterised by hybridity with modernity and globalisation, ambivalence vis-à-vis STEM education, employment and mobility, as well as filial piety and a keen awareness of place. Compared to the Malaysian government's aspirations valorising the 'bandar' (city), urbanisation and economic growth, the aspirations of young people in 'luar bandar' demonstrate nuanced accounts of resistance, appropriation and imagination. Such grassroots epistemologies contribute to the work of unsettling the politics of knowledge making in development, thereby potentially salvaging the concept and its potentials.