MOTHER AND SCHOOLING: UNDERSTANDING MOTHERS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN URBAN POOR CONTEXT IN INDIA

Mothers and schooling is a topical area of investigation to address the issues in and around poverty and empowerment contexts. The methodology adopted was interpretive and qualitative data was collected from 10 mothers in resettlement colony in Hastsal, Delhi. Major tools used for the study are interviews and observation. Though there are various quantitative studies are done in the field in different geographical location than India which suggests more important role played by mothers in educational achievement and schooling of children but this study is specially looking at perception of a category of mothers regarding elementary schooling in India. These mothers are characterized as urban poor, migrated with poor literacy backgrounds. The theme for this work has been adopted from work done by Sacker et al. (2002) where the relationship between family social class and parental involvement has been discussed through a hypothetical conceptual framework. Major findings include, mothers perceive education as a tool for intergenerational class mobility and eligibility for highly paid employment but for girls, it is a tool for self empowerment and opportunity to deal with the outside world. Mothers perceive parents-teachers and government are pillars in determining quality education to children.