Shadow education in Bengaluru, India : the impact of examination boards on the private supplementary tutoring received by secondary students

Abstract

Shadow Education is a global phenomenon and is fast spreading around the world. Although previous studies have explored the impact of various micro, meso and macro-level factors on demand for shadow education, the influence of different examination boards has not been a significant focus of investigation. This dissertation focuses on patterns in Bengaluru, capital of India’s Karnataka state and the third most populated city in India. The researcher conducted a mixed-methods study using face-to-face interviews and a questionnaire survey of secondary students in classes VIII, IX and X in five schools. Each school was affiliated to both State and National boards, and served lower-middle and middle income households. The analysis of the data proceeded in three steps. First, the researcher highlighted the key differences between the two boards concerned. Second she examined the inter-board variations in the demand patterns of shadow education. Finally, with the help of binary logistic regression she investigated whether examination boards had a significant impact on the decision to receive tutoring, and explored key statistically significant determinants of demand for shadow education in Bengaluru. The quantitative analysis was performed with the help of SPSS, and qualitative analysis was performed using NVivo. The data from these five schools suggest that examination boards do not significantly influence the decision to receive tutoring, but they do impact the types, costs, subjects and intensities of tutoring received. At the micro-level the primary determinants of demand were gender, students’ perceived academic performance, availability of free out of school support, and socio-economic status. At the meso-level the main driver of demand was the board examination. At the macro-level credentialism was found to be the key determinant of the decision to receive tutoring. The study contributes to the broader literature on demand for shadow education by highlighting the impact of examination boards and credentialism thereby reducing the research gap on shadow education in India.