I discuss the idea of school choice and the prospects for it in India with Parth Shah, President of the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in this episode of the Education in India podcast.
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You can read the full transcript of the interview.
In the podcast, we talk about a wide range of issues relating to school choice as outlined below. The time location of each broad topic within the audio podcast is mentioned below, for those who may want to jump to a specific point in the podcast.
- 00.03.00 - Explaining school choice to the layman.
- 00:06:50 - What would a parent need to do to benefit from school choice?
- 00:09:55 - What are the policy changes that would be required to implement school choice?
- 00:12:30 - On the scarcity of schools and difficulty in finding land for new schools especially in urban areas.
- 00:14:43 On the incentives for setting up new schools
- 00:17.39 On the freedom for schools to pick or choose the students they want to admit, social stratification in schools and fostering social mixing
- 00:27:04 On how to help parents make informed choices when selecting schools for their children
- 00:33:39 On dealing with switching costs for changing schools and the long time it takes to get feedback on the value added by a school.
- 00:36:42 Different school choice models
- 00:42:15 - The Charter School Model and its Indian variant
- 00:43:50 How has School Choice worked in other countries?
- 00:47:56 The prospects of implementing school choice in India and the receptivity for the idea of school choice.
- 00:54:52 On the role of grassroots political demand for improving education in India
