Teaching–learning process in low-fee-private schools: perspectives of parents and school management

This article is based on a qualitative research approach undertaken in rural Kashmir to highlight the tensions of Low-fee private schools (LFPSs). It provides a critical analysis of the predominant pedagogic discourses and parental perspectives associated with LFPS. Using the concept of institutional habitus, it argues that school and parental imaginations about good education embody marginalisation and disempowerment. Both parents and school management narratives prioritise examination performance over other creative development. Parents consider good examination performance instrumental for success, and to school management, such pedagogic discourse sits well alongside the need to thrive in a competitive educational market. This study forwards understanding about the intersections of marketisation of schooling within the milieu of educational and economic marginalisation.