Charu Smita Malik
National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi
This empirical paper is based on the measurement of perceptions of school functionaries
in secondary education in Uttar Pradesh. The perceptions were measured on a selfconstructed scale titled Perceptions on Equity in Secondary Education (PESE), bifurcated
into two, Positive Measures for Equity (PMES) and Negative Measures for Equity (NMES)
for purposes of analyses. For this research, school functionaries constituted 98 school
principals and 196 school teachers of secondary schools across two districts in Uttar
Pradesh. The purpose of doing this analysis was to understand how school functionaries
perceived different dimensions of equity, that were based on systemic policies, learner
attributes, teaching-learning and classroom processes. T-test and correlations were used
as statistical techniques to find out differences amongst groups of school functionaries
on how they perceived equity as well as to find any associations between demographic
and professional details of school functionaries and their perceptions on equity. The
findings revealed that school functionaries found a few dimensions of PMES as critical
for enhancing equity in secondary education in Uttar Pradesh. Their perceptions were
also significant on NMES and its dimensions. These findings were useful in drawing
implications for improving the practices of school functionaries towards an equitable
secondary education experience for students.