Access to School and Higher Education among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Changing Scenario and Policy Issues

Abstract During the past two decades, access to school and higher education has increased significantly among every group. Since the commencement of the constitution, emphasis has been laid on the universalisation of elementary education. With the adoption of economic reforms, the role of private sector has significantly increased and resulted in reducing the State’s commitment towards social sector under the pretext of fiscal discipline. The obvious repercussion of such a policy shift was increasing the role of private sector at the cost of government sector. Against this background of expansion along with privatisation, it would be worthwhile to analyse whether the expansion during the previous two decades has been inclusive or not. This article thus, seeks to analyse how the expansion in school and higher education has affected the access of marginalised groups such as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Although the access at elementary level has reached universal level at elementary but the issue of retention is a major concern in this regard. The access at Secondary & Higher Secondary and Higher Education has increased among every social group and the growth rate is higher among SCs and STs, respectively than “Others’ but this increase has not been sufficient to overcome the existing disparities. The issue is noteworthy due to increasing share of private unaided institutions, lack of financial support and hence lower share of SCs and STs in private unaided institutions. Thus, there is a need of emphasis on providing equal opportunity with the consideration of structural changes in higher education