From margins to mainstream: Private school outreach inclusion processes for out-of-school children in India

This paper centres upon understanding processes involved in mainstreaming ‘out-of-school’ children from non-formal education programmes to formal schooling. Three ‘private school outreach’ initiatives in India provide the empirical base for the discussion, with the focal point being a key dilemma faced by their managements: between providing out-of-school children with an education that will give them equality of opportunity, and an education that is appropriate to their needs. The attempted resolutions of this dilemma and their corresponding practices and policies are examined and compared in the three cases and the findings are discussed in the light of literature on ‘inclusive education’.