School educational attainment in Kerala : trends and differentials

This paper examines the trends and differentials in school educational attainment in Kerala, the State that ranks right on top in terms of human development in India. The trend analysis is based on a cohort-level comparison of educational attainment while the differential analysis is done using life table techniques. The analysis is based on data on educational attainment of the household population in the National Family Health Survey (2005-06). The unique features of this paper are that it provides comparable time-series data on entry to different stages of the schooling system, right from the time the State was formed in 1956, and that it analyses the probabilities of continuing from the first standard to the higher secondary level across different sub-groups of the population. Over these years, female students have acquired a definite edge over their male counterparts at the high school and the higher secondary levels. The progress noted at lower levels of schooling is not manifest at the higher secondary level, with less than half the children enrolled in high school proceeding to the next level. Socio-religious differences are large at the higher levels of education, with scheduled tribes, Muslim girls and scheduled castes benefiting the least, in that order. The situation among the vulnerable scheduled tribe communities is today worse than what it was among other backward class Hindus or even the forward castes at the time the State was formed. The backwardness of Muslim children in schooling begins from the higher secondary level onwards. The survival analysis brings out that uninterrupted continuity in schooling is a major issue in the State, with a fifth of the children at the higher secondary level being overaged, according to the study’s definition. Further, females do better in schooling continuity than males. It also reveals considerable levels of socio-economic disparities in higher secondary school education. Religious differentials indicate Christians are well ahead of other religious groups in terms of uninterrupted progress to the higher secondary level. The presence of a graduate in the household and the educational level of parents have a significant impact on children’s schooling continuity. The paper also exposes the wealth-based inequalities in schooling continuity in Kerala. Key words: schooling, continuity, inequality, social divide, educational attainment, Kerala. JEL Classification: I 21, I 28, J 7, I 10