India - Participation and Expenditure in Education: NSS 64th Round, Schedule 25.2, July 2007 - June 2008

Sample Design

Outline of sample design:
A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for the 64th round survey. The first stage units (FSU) will be the 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. However, for the newly declared towns and out growths (OGs) in census 2001 for which UFS has not yet been done, each individual town/ OG will be considered as an FSU. The ultimate stage units (USU) will be households in both the sectors. In case of large FSUs i.e. villages/ towns/ blocks requiring hamlet-group (hg)/ sub-block (sb) formation, one intermediate stage will be the selection of two hgs/ sbs from each FSU.

Sampling Frame for First Stage Units:
For the rural sector, the list of 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards for Kerala) will constitute the sampling frame. For the urban sector, the list of latest available Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks and for non-UFS towns list of such towns/ OGs will be considered as the sampling frame.

Stratification:
Within each district of a State/ UT, generally speaking, two basic strata will be formed: i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and (ii) urban stratum comprising of all the urban areas of the district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there are one or more towns with population 10 lakhs or more as per population census 2001 in a district, each of them will form a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district will be considered as another basic stratum. For a few districts, particularly in case of Tamil Nadu, if total number of towns in the district for which UFS is not yet done exceeds certain number, all such towns taken together will form another basic stratum. Otherwise, they will be merged with the UFS towns for stratification.

Sub-stratification:

Rural sector:
If 'r' be the sample size allocated for a rural stratum, the number of sub-strata formed will be 'r/4'. The villages within a district as per frame will be first arranged in ascending order of population. Then sub-strata 1 to 'r/4' will be demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum will comprise a group of villages of the arranged frame and have more or less equal population.

Urban sector:
If 'u' be the sample size for a urban stratum, 'u/4' number of sub-strata will be formed. The towns within a district, except those with population 10 lakhs or more and also the non-UFS towns, will be first arranged in ascending order of population. Next, UFS blocks of each town will be arranged by IV unit no. × block no. in ascending order. From this arranged frame of UFS blocks of all the towns, 'u/4' number of sub-strata will be formed in such a way that each sub-stratum will have more or less equal number of FSUs.

For towns with population 10 lakhs or more, the urban blocks will be first arranged by IV unit no. × block no. in ascending order. Then 'u/4' number of sub-strata will be formed in such a way that each sub-stratum will have more or less equal number of blocks.

All non-UFS towns taken together within the district will form one sub-stratum.

Total sample size (FSUs):
12688 FSUs for central sample and 13624 FSUs for state sample have been allocated at all-India level.

Allocation of total sample to States and UTs:
The total number of sample FSUs is allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per census 2001 subject to a minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. While doing so, the resource availability in terms of number of field investigators has been kept in view.

Allocation of State/ UT level sample to rural and urban sectors:
State/ UT level sample is allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per census 2001 with 1.5 weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. should not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 8 FSUs is allocated to each state/ UT separately for rural and urban areas. Further the State level allocation for both rural and urban have been adjusted marginally in a few cases to ensure that each stratum gets a minimum allocation of 4 FSUs.

Allocation to strata:
Within each sector of a State/ UT, the respective sample size will be allocated to the different strata in proportion to the stratum population as per census 2001. Allocations at stratum level will be adjusted to a multiple of 4 with a minimum sample size of 4.

Selection of FSUs:
From each sub-stratum of a district of rural sector, four FSUs are selected with Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the population as per census 2001. For urban sector, from each sub-stratum four FSUs are selected by using Simple Random Sampling Without Replacement (SRSWOR) for UFS towns and by PPSWR in case of non-UFS towns with size being the population as per Census 2001. Within each sub-stratum, samples are drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples in both the rural and urban sectors.

Formation and selection of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks:
In case hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks are to be formed in the sample FSU, the same done by more or less equalizing population. It is ensured that the hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks formed are clearly identifiable in terms of physical landmarks.

Two hamlet-groups (hg)/ sub-blocks (sb) are selected from a large FSU wherever hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks have been formed, by SRSWOR. Listing and selection of the households are done independently in the two selected hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks to be described as sample hg/ sb 1 and 2. The FSUs without hg/ sb formation will be treated as sample hg/ sb number 1.

Schedule 25.2 (participation and expenditure in education)

The listed households will be stratified into two SSS as under:

SSS 1: households having any member of age 5 - 29 years enrolled at primary and above level
SSS 2: other households

97% of households