Household Expenditure on Secondary Education in Haryana (India): Levels, Patterns and Determinants

Existing studies on household expenditure on education in India largely focus on the elementary and tertiary levels of education. Until recently, researchers have paid little consideration to examining the issue of household investment at the secondary level of education, especially in the sub-national context. Using a recent primary survey encompassing quantitative and qualitative data, this article examines the levels, patterns and determinants of parental allocation of financial resources for secondary education in Haryana, India. We find that households spend 7.22% of their annual family income per student per annum in secondary education—with stark differences between government (2.26%) and private schools (10.68%). Besides, the complex interplay of socio-economic and cultural factors in the state leads to systematic patterns in the said expenditures, intensifying pro-male gender disparities and deepening the hegemony of the privileged sections (i.e., in terms of a household’s caste, class and educational capital), particularly at the urban and intermediate levels. The study emphasizes the role of policies and practices of the state in pragmatically aiming at the removal of the aforesaid inequalities, inter-alia, by regulating the commercialization of school education in the non-state sector.