Preuniversity science education in India: Insights and cross cultural comparison

A large scale survey reveals that the performance of the Indian preuniversity students in internationally standardized physics tests is intermediate to the American and the Chinese but reveals a disturbing bimodality. Scientific reasoning skills, however, are similar to both. The bimodality in physics tests corresponds to two different educational experiences, one in which the school ties up with privately run coaching centers (which we term as the integrated mode) and the other (nonintegrated mode) which has no such arrangement. These two modes have an underlying economic connotation and pose equity concerns. The study draws attention to this problematic educational phenomenon, often called “shadow education,” widely prevalent in many countries including India and China.

Figure 1

Performance of Indian students in the FCI [19], a standardized test in mechanics consisting of 30 questions. The graph is first plotted for the whole sample and then separately for the NIM and the IM. Note the bimodality in the plot for the whole sample.

Figure 2

Performance of Indian students in the CSEM [21], a standardized test in electricity and magnetism consisting of 32 questions. The graph is first plotted for the whole sample and then separately for the NIM and the IM. Note the bimodality in the plot for the whole sample.

Figure 3

Performance of Indian students in the LCTSR [23], a standardized test in general scientific reasoning consisting of 24 questions. The graph is first plotted for the whole sample and then separately for the NIM and the IM. Note the absence of bimodality.