Does fertility decline alone lead to the emergence of ¨"uneconomic" schools?

J Retna Kumar, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The pattern of demographic transition of Kerala state (India) is widely acclaimed by international researchers. The transition has resulted in the reduction of students enrolled in schools affiliated to Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI). This has resulted in the formation of large number of “uneconomic schools’ in the state with less than 25 students enrolled. So far studies attempted to understand the linkages between demographic transition and the enrolment concluded that fertility decline is the sole reason for the formation of uneconomic schools. A limitation of these studies was that they focused only on schools affiliated to DPI. However, there is a parallel private unaided sector that is not affiliated to DPI and parents have shown keen interest to enroll the children in these schools. Results indicate that the shifting of students from DPI affiliated schools to private unaided played a crucial role in the formation of uneconomic schools.