Ministerio del Ambiente y Recursos Naturales

Kovai International is in the eastern border of Coimbatore district which is in the northwest part of the southern state of Tamil Nadu (see the maps, Figures 2.2, 2.3). The school itself is locked in vast expanses of rural hinterland. Cholam fields16 _{spread out in}

all directions. The school gate opens to a narrow village street, which is lined with oet vitu17_{, traditional village hutments. Grazing cows and goats are a common sight, even}

flocks of sheep cross one’s path occasionally. It is a curious and contradictory image of an international school, with all ultra-modern trappings including air-conditioned rooms, wi-fi, even a self-sustaining electricity generator surrounded by large stretches of agrarian countryside.

Kovai International (KI) is an example of a new genre of IB schools in India. The creation of an international school in a provincial region such as Coimbatore points to the prosperity of its industrial communities and the global expansion of their businesses. More specifically, KI’s establishment can be linked to the changing educational practices of the dominant communities in the region. A longitudinal study of land-owning farmers (Gounders, Naidus and Chettiyars, with Gounders in the majority) in a Coimbatorean village showed that over the period 1981-82 to 2008-09, education was becoming increasingly important for these communities. The study noted the preference for private English medium schools and an increased importance of girls’ education among these groups (Heyer, 2000, 2016). In a more recent study conducted in Tiruppur, a district adjoining Coimbatore and part of the Kongu Nadu region, De Neve (2011) traced the changing educational practices of the dominant industrial families. Based on interviews conducted largely with Gounders, and additionally with Mudaliars and Muslims, he 16 _{Cholam, a millet consumed by animals and humans is the largest crop grown in this area (Census of}

India, 2011).

17 _{Oet Vitu – Local name for traditional houses, made of red tile roofs and mud walls. These days the}

concluded that while the earlier generation of these industrial entrepreneurs typically had little school education, since the 1980s they have sought private English medium schooling for their sons, followed by higher education in local universities. Since the 1990s, the trend has been to send sons to western countries for higher education. Educating girls up to university level has also become important for these communities; however, girls are not sent abroad for studies. De Neve points out that these educational practices are sought to strengthen the family business which have an increasing global reach. Further, he considers that these educational practices are part of the larger efforts of these communities to emulate middle-class cultural practices. The educational practices of the dominant communities of Coimbatore are in turn related to the changing landscape of schooling in the region and the accompanying shifts in the dominant discourse of education (Kohli, 2006a, 2006b; Chopra, 2010). It is in light of these developments that the establishment of KI can be understood.

KI is an English medium international school with residential facilities which serves over 1000 students. The total staff strength for the school and hostel is around 400, of which around 200 are teachers and the remaining include administrative staff, bus drivers, cooks, cleaners and security guards. The school was established in 2003 by an enterprising group of friends who belong to the dominant communities of the region. In the early years of the twenty-first century, they envisioned that there would be a demand for international education in a region which had witnessed first-hand the profitability of opening to global markets. The founders were keyed in to the changing cultural and educational practices of the local elites. Having themselves been to America and back, for the local communities they symbolized aspirational possibilities. Being from these very regions meant that the founders could be located within extended networks of kin and community, their biographies could be traced back to previous generations, all these lending the school a legitimacy and trustworthiness which would be difficult for a non-autochthonous entrepreneur to immediately acquire.

KI students came from families whose incomes were far higher than the district per capita income of Rs. 77,975. In April 2016, I asked the IBDP students to anonymously fill out a questionnaire, which included a question on family income (see Appendix 11). The eight students who responded to this question reported annual family incomes ranging from Rs. 6 lakhs to 2 crores18_{, the first of these being over seven times the}

district average per capita income (it should however be noted that per capita income cannot be compared with family income). I regard students’ reporting of family income as only indicative. However, teachers also corroborated that the KI clientele were indeed drawn from wealthy backgrounds. This is not surprising, given that the annual school fee in 2015-16 ranged from Rs 1.5 lakhs to Rs. 3.5 lakhs. While the school fees can be placed in the lower to middle range among international schools in the country, it is undoubtedly an exclusive school, accessible only to affluent communities.

From their response to questionnaire 1 administered in October 2015 (see Appendix 10), I inferred that the IBDP students largely came from professional and business families, including expatriate families. There were also a few children from agricultural families among the IBDP students. Such a student profile mirrors contemporary

enrolment practices in international schools, where apart from the globally mobile, the clientele has expanded to regional affluent groups who are attracted to such schools for their prestige and perceived superiority (Hayden, 2011).

Although the school had residential facilities, student enrolment from outside the region was limited. Among the 45 IBDP students, nearly all were from Tamil Nadu or the neighbouring southern states (information gathered from questionnaire 1). In case of students whose parents were living outside the country, they originally came from regions near the school, and generally had family connections in the area. The one exception in the IBDP group was a student whose parents were Hindi-speaking north Indians who were both teachers in the school.

As I gathered over the course of fieldwork and verified from the schoolteachers, the KI school population, both teachers and students, were largely Hindus, followed by a significant number of Christians, especially among the teaching staff. The Christians were generally Malayalis from the neighbouring state of Kerala. Muslims (6% of Coimbatore population, Census of India, 2011, p. 32) were conspicuously absent in the school; there were none among the IBDP student group or the teachers with whom I interacted. Among students, there were many Marwari Jains, who constitute a fraction (less than 0.5%, Census of India, p. 32) of the total population of the district. KI students were largely drawn from among the Gounder community, the dominant caste in the region. Some teachers estimated that between 25 to 30 percent of students in the school are Gounders (interview, Bharati madam, February 2016). Naidus were also present in considerable numbers among the KI student group, along with a few

Mudaliars and Telugu speaking Vaishyas (traders, including jewellers). Scheduled castes were largely absent from the KI student community. Their presence in the school was mainly as low-ranking staff, ayya ammas19 _{and annas}20_{, generally from the}

Mathari21 _caste.

The school community was also linguistically diverse, mirroring the wider society. While majority of the IBDP students were Tamil speaking, followed by Telugu speakers, there were among students and faculty, Malayalis, Kannadigas and Hindi speaking Marwaris (questionnaire 1, see Appendix 10).

The KI clientele was drawn from industrial, business and farming communities who do not constitute the traditional middle classes in India (Markovits, 2004, 2008; Fernandes, 2006, 2011; Jeffrey, 2010; De Neve, 2011). It is their cultural practices, including in the educational sphere, which mark them as being part of the emergent middle classes. This can in turn be related to the changing socio-economic currents in the country, including the liberalisation of the economy and the changing doxa in the field of education. I discuss these theoretical considerations at greater length in the next chapter and also examine contemporary research on schooling and the middle classes.