总冲击与基础教育：来自印度的证据

摘要

This paper examines whether aggregate shocks affect school participation uniformly across age groups. Using nationally representative NFHS-5 data from India, we draw on interrupted survey fieldwork around the 2020 school-closure period to compare children interviewed before and after the onset of pandemic-era schooling disruption within the same districts. School non-attendance was 1.3 percentage points higher after the disruption, equivalent to about 18 percent of the pre-disruption mean. The increase was concentrated among children aged 6–10, with the largest change among those aged 6–7, while children aged 11–14 showed no change. Reported reasons for non-attendance, together with time-use and labour-force evidence, are more consistent with delayed school entry, re-entry frictions, and weakened schooling routines than with full-time child labour or schooling-cost barriers. The findings indicate that pandemic-era schooling disruption was associated with weaker participation at foundational ages. Post-crisis recovery should therefore monitor early-grade entry, facilitate re-entry, and restore regular participation following major educational disruptions.