Public Expenditure on School Education and Quality of Educational Provisions in Assam with Special Reference to the Tea Garden

In this context, where the new labour codes have been notified and have become applicable to the tea gardens in the state, a discussion on the school education also becomes imperative for the state in order to improve the quality of education in the state. [...] The enrolment numbers from the schools clearly showed that the children belonging to the tea garden communities were in majority in the schools located in the tea garden areas. [...] The high representation of children from tea garden community in the tea garden schools could primarily be because of the ease of commuting and the location of schools. [...] In addition to caste, the gender profile of enrolment shows that the population of girl students was higher in both kinds of schools irrespective of area; while 62% of the population in non-tea garden schools were girls, more than half of the population (55%) in the tea garden schools were also girls. [...] While entitlements provided at the school level contribute greatly to the experience of education that the child undergoes in her school, it also becomes important to examine the classroom processes, ease of going to school and the children’s perspective on the challenges and advantages of being in school to get a picture of the critical elements that form a part of the experience of education in.