Educational Segregation and Household Occupation: Role of School Education in Reproduction of Social Hierarchy in India

Abstract

We investigate the role of school education in diluting/reproducing social hierarchy in India. We argue the ‘quality’ of education and socialization provided by different school types is likely to affect the future position of the student in the social hierarchy. Using disaggregated data on school education and household occupation for 2007–2008 and 2017–2018, we rank schools based on their ‘quality’, and rank households, to which students belong, in terms of their primary occupation. We find a significant association between them has persisted over the period of analysis. Using a multinomial logistic model, we find even after controlling for income differences, students from higher-ranked households are more likely to attend better-‘quality’ schools, while those from lower-ranked households are segregated to low-‘quality’ schools. Persistence of such an association is likely to shape differential opportunities for social mobility for students, and, in the process, reproduce conditions of inequality and social hierarchy within the occupational structure.