The connection between social inequality and the actual level of learning is not as well understood in India as the patterns of inequality in enrolment. A study was conducted of 23 neighbouring and similar government primary schools in a tribal belt of southern Madhya Pradesh to get the correlation of pupils' maths and language scores with various contextual factors. These included the pupils' gender, geographical location, out of school academic support provided by an external agency and their parents' caste, class, gender, political influence and education. Regression analysis was done to get the partial correlations after controlling for other factors. The greatest contributors to academic scores were found to be the parents' education and their political influence. Caste and class were significant processes but made relatively less contributions. Gender was statistically significant but had the least correlation with scores. The available out of school support was of a magnitude sufficient to decrease the difference between the advantaged and the disadvantaged, but in its present form was unlikely to ever erase it. The results suggest a need for rethinking some theoretical formulations in the sociology of education in India.