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Author: Joydeep Roy In 1983 the Indian state of West Bengal abolished the teaching of English at the primary level from public schools, narrowing the curriculum to the other subjects then taught. The objective of this intervention - a lowering of the existing academic standards - was to make primary education more accessible, particularly for poorer and rural children, who at that time had low enrollment and high dropout rates. Using two large data sets from India and a difference-in-differences strategy, I investigate the effect of this unusual policy on educational outcomes in West Bengal. I find that there was a positive and significant effect of the policy on subsequent educational attainment, and that this was larger for children from poorer families. However, there was simultaneously a large increase in expenditure on private tutoring. This suggests that families who could afford to do so were supplementing the skills of their children by private purchases, since in a multilingual country like India, a knowledge of a common lan- guage like English has significant benefits later in life, both in the labor market and otherwise. Click here to view publication as a PDF  Click here to email a PDF |
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