Inclusion and social justice in neoliberal India: examining the world’s largest public-funded programme for private education

ABSTRACT A provision of India’s Right to Education Act requires private schools to enrol 25% of children from ‘disadvantaged’ and ‘economically weaker’ backgrounds. Described as a unique public-private partnership, this policy has been widely debated for its promotion of private actors in ensuring equity and access to education. Within this controversial policy field is the increasing involvement of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that aim to reform the education sector through neoliberal logics and privatisation in India and globally. We analyse documents and reports from two NGOs and pay special attention to the discursive strategies employed. Among them, we find that establishing neutral expertise, legitimising educational privatisation, and promoting assimilationist pedagogy are noteworthy practices. We contribute to the extant literature by illuminating how NGOs implement this controversial provision and negotiate tensions around their position within a neoliberal policy landscape, which embodies privatisation in education yet touts social justice and equality as its objectives.