How Free is Free Pmiary Education in India

Jandhyala B G Tilak Based on data generated by the National Sample Survey Organisation on household expenditures on education this paper shows that households spend large sums of money on acquiring primary education. More specifically, it has been found that students pay tuition fee, examination fee and other fees even in government primary schools. The financial and material incentives provided by the government are found to be available only to a small fraction of students. There are large scale inter-state and inter-group (by gender and by region rural and urban) variations with respect to several aspects relating to public provision of incentives and also to the levels of household expenditure on education.