One step forward, two steps back: transitions between home, pre-primary and primary education in rural India
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Authors
Alcott, B
Banerji, M
Bhattacharjea, S
Nanda, M
Ramanujan, P
Publication Date
2020Journal Title
Compare
ISSN
0305-7925
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Volume
50
Issue
4
Pages
482-499
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Alcott, B., Banerji, M., Bhattacharjea, S., Nanda, M., & Ramanujan, P. (2020). One step forward, two steps back: transitions between home, pre-primary and primary education in rural India. Compare, 50 (4), 482-499. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2018.1527214
Abstract
A growing evidence base highlights the value of high-quality early childhood education (ECE) to children’s cognitive and social development. However, far less is known about how families and children, especially in developing countries, participate in ECE or how these participation patterns reflect families’ thinking and decision-making. This paper utilises a mixed-methods approach to analyse longitudinal household survey and interview data (on 7,336 and 180 children, respectively) from the India Early Childhood Education Impact study. Our results indicate that children’s participation trajectories in the early years (age 4 to 8) do not reflect the age or grade norms specified by national educational policies. And, far from being linear, children’s educational pathways entail considerable back and forth between home, preschool and school. We argue that these trajectories reflect both poor implementation of national norms as well as an inadequate understanding among both parents and service providers of how best to support young children’s cognitive development.
Keywords
Early-childhood education, participation, India, Assam, Rajasthan, Telangana
Sponsorship
British Association for International and Comparative Education
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2018.1527214
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/286198
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