India's Urban Education: Concepts, Inequalities, and Emerging Challenges

Abstract

In India, urban education reflects both opportunities and exclusions. Although expanding cities host some of the country's top schools and colleges, they also reveal significant disparities in access, quality, and outcomes for students. In this paper, we situate urban education within the broader context of urbanisation and socioeconomic stratification. Since the adoption of the Constitution in 1950, urbanisation, state-led educational reforms, and privatisation have shaped the trajectory of urban education in India. The country sought to meet the aspirations of a new republic in the early decades after independence by expanding schooling through municipal institutions. As urban centres grew into hubs of higher education, teacher training, and specialised institutions, they played an important role in producing skilled labour for industry and government. Despite this, the benefits of this expansion were unevenly distributed among different social and economic groups. Urban education began facing structural challenges towards the end of the twentieth century. A sharp contrast existed between elite private schools and public schools, primarily due to overcrowded classrooms, inadequate infrastructure, and a shortage of qualified teachers. Children from slums, migrant children, and marginalised communities are often excluded from quality schools, which deepens urban inequalities. While privatisation of education expanded access in some ways, it also widened the gap between different classes of students. Over the years, successive governments have introduced various measures to promote urban education, including the Right to Education Act, mid-day meal schemes, urban literacy missions, and, more recently, the National Education Policy 2020. Despite these interventions, ensuring equity and inclusion in urban education remains a challenge. Therefore, studying urban education in post-independent India provides insight into the relationship between education, urban growth, and social justice. This paper aims to understand the state of urban education in post-independent India, drawing on secondary resources.