Educational action takes place in the context of larger, systemic structures including, educational programmes, schemes, policies and initiatives. This course will introduce students to the institutional design of the school system in India by discussing its structure, processes, and actors. The evolution and the shaping of the school system by historical, social, political, and economic contexts will be discussed using concepts from institutional theory and political-economy analysis. The course will introduce the overall structure of the education system: different levels of the system, providers, organisations, and personnel, as also the history of its development.

Further the course will introduce the policy context of schooling in India and enable students to examine and analyse policies. It will aim to familiarise students with the historical trajectory, global and national contexts, ideological and political orientation of educational policies, and help them reflect on the implications and outcomes of policy choices. The relationship of policies to structures, processes and actors in the system will be understood with the help of policy and organisational studies. This will enable students to make linkages between the policy environment and organisational subsystems (like school, DIET, DPI etc.), and study continuities and discontinuities that characterise their relations.