Impact of school consolidation on enrolment and achievement: Evidence from India

Arbeitspapier

I study the impact of school consolidation on enrolment and achievement, using its staggered roll-out in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Across the years 2014, 2016, and 2017, Rajasthan merged many of its grade 1-5 schools with grade 6-10 schools to create grade 1-10 'model' schools. Twenty-three per cent of government schools were eliminated in this education reform. Media reports suggested that consolidation led to declining enrolment levels and teacher lay-offs. Combining the government orders on consolidation and administrative data on schools, I rule-out that consolidation had a negative impact on enrolment or number of teachers. I find that consolidation decreased the number of schools in a village by one, increased the proportion of children studying in a school with a principal by 0.1, and increased the number of teachers in a village by 0.7. I also find that consolidation increased school enrolment in a village by 2 per cent- in particular, girls' enrolment increased by 2 per cent. I further show that consolidation decreased the proportion of high scorers among grade 5 students by 0.08 and did not decrease the proportion of high scorers among grade 8 students by more than 0.02. School consolidation is a policy worth pursuing in contexts that are concerned about a large number of schools.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-9267-283-6
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2022/150

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education and Inequality ; Education and Economic Development ; Education: Government Policy ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
• Subject: consolidation ; children ; education ; enrolment ; schools

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Varghese, Vinitha
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (where): Helsinki
• (when): 2022

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/283-6
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/273940
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET