Inequalities in education

Over recent decades Latin American countries have focused their education policies in the expansion of them. Some authors consider this achievement towards to the detriment of quality. But, what about the knowledge and skills of students?
Equity in students achievement is defined consistently with the concept of equality of opportunity (Causa & Chapuis, 2010, pág. 4). Equal access to education is among the basic human rights and a component of well being. In this paper we aim to evaluate inequalities in learning opportunities for individuals coming from different socio-economic backgrounds, measured by PISA test scores (2009), as a proxy for inequality of opportunity. The analyses are made inside and cross-country differences in 6 countries of Latin America.
Scores differences between students with high and low values of the Economic, Social, and Cultural Status index (ESCS) provide a measure of fairness of education in each country (OECD PISA reports 2001, 2004, 2007; Schutz et al., 2005, Schutz et al., 2007, Woessmann, 2004, d’Addio, 2007, cited by Causa & Chapuis, 2010). In this case, we applied a mean differences by student’s family and home background and we reinforce our results through Gini index, a conventional indicator.

Much of the in-depth work done on educational access has focused on patterns of education inequality in a particular country. While this focus is necessary, a broader cross-national comparative analysis of results from in-depth national studies has the benefit of providing a deeper understanding into the intricate mechanisms of educational inequality. This paper reviews empirical evidence from intervention studies, in-depth field surveys, observational studies and results from qualitative survey findings in India, Indonesia and China with the aim of shedding light on mechanisms behind educational barriers, and comparing them to common patterns of inequality more commonly found in existing literature. Through this international comparison, I hope to understand if there is more to learn about eliminating barriers to education than merely looking at patterns of inequality, and if there are potentially transferable solutions to ameliorable barriers. Differences in patterns and mechanisms of educational inequality would be just as meaningful as similar patterns but different mechanisms (and vice versa) of inequality across these countries in understanding the promotion of human capital acquisition in Asia.

Child development is an important predictor of later life course achievements including academic and labour market success, and in recent years increasing attention has focused on the relationship between child development and life course trajectories in low and middle-income countries. This study uses data from the first wave of the Chinese Family Panel Study (CFPS) collected in 2010 to examine the relationship between parental labour migration and educational outcomes for youth. The historically uneven development across China has contributed to differentials between the urban and rural populations. Labour migration may contribute to decreasing these inequalities. The paper examines the contribution of parental labour migration to explaining variation in three educational outcomes, school pacing, math and verbal achievement. Multivariate regression models are estimated to examine the contribution of individual, household and community characteristics to explaining variation in the outcomes measures highlight the relationships between migration, residence and Hukou. First, the urban Hukou advantage is not universal with observed differences only for language scores. Second, youth living in rural households with one or more migrant parents are more likely to have higher math scores compared to youth in other rural households.

The study tests the hypothesis that sexual behavior is likely to affect differences in educational achievement among young females. The analysis in this study was based on the data on youths (15-24 years) drawn from the 2008 DHS individual recode data file (sample size=12,694). The chi-square test in the table shows that majority of the respondents who initiated sex about age 16, got married by age 18 and had their first birth by age 19, reported lower educational status than others. OLS model explains 51% of variations in educational status in terms of indicators of sexual behavior while controlling for confounding variables (age, urban residence and region). The beta coefficients indicate that sexual initiation at age 17 and above is positively associated with years of schooling. Similarly, age at first birth and marriage are positively associated with years of schooling. Ever use of modern contraceptives is also significantly positively associated with differences in educational status. It is therefore clear that to improve educational achievement of females in the country it is imperative to incorporate in education policy strategies to increase age at sexual initiation, age at first marriage and childbearing among young women.

This paper examines the educational selectivity of immigrants in France – i.e. how their level of education contrasts with that of non-migrants in their country of birth – and the influence of this selectivity on the educational attainment of their children. I use the Barro-Lee dataset (2010), which compiles information on educational attainment by year, gender, and age group in 146 countries from 1950 to 2010. I combine this data with responses from INED’s Trajectoires et Origines survey (2009) to construct a measure of “relative educational attainment,” i.e an immigrant’s position in the distribution of educational attainment among the population of the same age and gender in their country of birth at the time when they emigrated. After showing that the direction and extent of immigrants’ educational selectivity differ by country of origin and period, I demonstrate and interpret the positive net effect of immigrants’ “relative education” on their children’s educational attainment, over and above family socioeconomic status in France. Finally, I put forward an interpretation of the mechanisms that could account for the influence of immigrants’ relative education on their children’s educational attainment.

This paper analyzes the impact of high school household income and scholastic ability on post-secondary enrollment in South Africa. Using longitudinal data from the Cape Area Panel Study, we analyze the large racial gaps in the proportion of high school graduates who enroll in university and other forms of post-secondary education. Our results indicate that family background and high school achievement are strong predictors of post-secondary enrollment and statistically account for all of the black-white difference in enrollment. Controlling for parental education and baseline scholastic ability reduces the estimated impact of household income on university enrollment, though there continues to be an effect at the top of the income distribution. We also find evidence of credit constraints on other forms of post-secondary enrollment. Counterfactual estimates indicate that if all South Africans had the incomes of the richest whites, African university enrollment would increase by 65%, even without changing parental education or high school academic achievement. The racial gap in university enrollment would narrow only slightly, however. Our results suggest that the racial gap in postsecondary enrollment results mainly from the from the large racial gap in high school academic achievement.

Hierarchies of castes, economic status, gender, cultural diversities and uneven economic development deeply influence the access to and equality of education. Present study aims to identify the level and determinants of educational attainment of youth in India across socio-economic groups. The paper is based on data from the survey - “Youth in India: Situations and Needs Study”- conducted in 2006-07 in six states. Cross Tabulations and Logistic regression has been used in the analysis. The preliminary findings show that as the educational level of mother increases, a large proportion of youth attains higher secondary and above levels of education. Urban youth avail the higher secondary and above education twice more than their rural counterparts, also it is more among Hindus than the Muslims. The findings of this analysis demonstrates that improvements in socio-economic conditions are a pre-requisite for enhancing access to basic education.

The problems of school drop-out and access to education in India has been a vexed question since independence. The so-called BIMARU states always show a dismal picture in educational outcomes. An attempt has been made in the present paper to throw light on problems related to school drop-out and access to education for four laggard Indian states ( UP, Bihar, MP , Rajasthan) using the national sample survey data (64th round). The analyses show that drop-out rate is quite high in all the four states though school enrollment rate is satisfactory. Financial problem and domestic problem are found to be the main reasons of drop-out and discontinuation. These two factors create problem in access to educational resources. But the patterns of problems vary across states and the problems are different for different religious and social groups. Efforts should be taken by the Govt. according to the nature of the problem to nourish the human capital in the states.

Kherwadi Social welfare Association’s Yuva Parivartan (YP) programme with its Vision, Mission, motivates school dropouts in the age group of 16-25 years, less educated and deprived youth towards socially productive occupations and opportunities in urban and rural settings. It creates livelihood opportunities and gives second chance to youth through wage or self employment. Since 2003, YP has provided livelihood training on different courses like Basic Computer, DTP, Tally, Tailoring, Beautician, Mobile repairing, Motor Mechanic, Wire-man, Fashion designing, Nursing, Retailing etc. in 44 districts of India and trained over 100,000 students during the financial year of 2011-2012. The tracking on beneficiaries has not been done to assess the impact of the intervention. The impact of intervention needs to be assessed and learning from interventions should be utilized for further expansion and widespread impact. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to collect information for this study. Study will use semi-structured questionnaires, face to face interview with individuals and family, FGDs and Case studies. Multistage sampling will be done to select respondents. Sample of 10 to 15 percent of the individuals from each course will be drawn. Data will be analyzed through SPSS with statistical testes and comparative form.

This paper examines the relationship between gender, sibship and education over time in Egypt using demographic and health survey data from 2000, 2005 and 2008. While the gender gap in education in Egypt narrowed considerably, it is unclear whether parents still discriminate against girls when their resources are constrained such as in the context of large families. There is extensive literature on the negative association between sibsize and education. However, such research often fails to examine how the impact of sibship varies by the gender configuration of siblings and the child’s gender. While women’s education and women’s age at first marriage have increased, patriarchy still affects the lives of many Egyptian girls. The expansion of the education system in Egypt coupled with high fertility put tremendous strain on an already overburdened education system. This study shows that sibsize has a consistently negative and significant effect on conditional grade progression ratios; however, its effect is stronger for girls than boys. The negative effect of the number of brothers on a child’s education is consistently stronger than that of the number of sisters. The impact of the number of younger brothers is especially pronounced in the case of girls’ education.