Education Trajectories : From Early Childhood to Early Adulthood in Peru

Abstract

Over the past few decades, every President in Peru has proclaimed education as a priority; yet, in spite of recent progress across several indicators, educational outcomes are still on average low, and gaps between students large and closely linked with their individual and family background. This paper looks at the education trajectories of children in different stages of life, using data from Young Lives, an international study that follows two groups of children: an Older Cohort (born in 1994) and a Younger Cohort (born in 2001). According to the Peruvian Constitution and General Education Law, education is considered a human right, and all students should have access to a quality service. However, results from our study and others suggest that while there have been important advances over the past two decades, there is still a long way to go for this to become a reality for everyone. Peruvian early childhood education consists of two types of preschool: Jardines, which are located in urban areas, and PRONOEI, which are usually in rural or impoverished areas. While attendance in preschool education has increased recently, our results show that by the age of 5 there are already differences in abilities that are related to family background. Furthermore, even after adjusting for these, children from Jardines have higher results in primary school than children from PRONOEI. Peruvian children are expected to attend primary school during middle childhood (ages 6 to 12), and most do. When we compare overage instances between the Older and Younger Cohort, it has been reduced, which is positive as more children are in their normative grade. Achievement in national and international assessments, as well as our own data, also show increases on average scores along with large gaps by wealth, area of residence, maternal education, and ethnicity. Regarding the latter, while Peruvian law states that children have the right to learn in their mother language, our results show that almost 39 per cent of indigenous children learn in Spanish only. In general, we find that educational opportunities are not fairly distributed. For example, urban schools (public and private) congregate richer, Spanish-speaking students and have better resources and more pedagogically able teachers; these students in turn have higher test results. During adolescence, children are expected to attend secondary schools. Overage at age 15 is higher than in primary, and continues to be related to the family background of students. During this period, we also find large gaps in achievement by student background. In regards to early adulthood, by about age 17 children should have finished secondary school: we found that nearly 68 per cent of our cohort had finished school at age 19 (42 per cent finished on age and 26 per cent overage); 20 per cent of adolescents had dropped out of school. Beyond secondary, young adults from Spanish-speaking homes, wealthier, and with more educated mothers (who had completed secondary education or above), are more likely to attend universities. Additionally, more than 38 per cent of the sample only worked and did not study at age 19; and in the case of women, 25 per cent already had children. Progress in enrolment and average achievement is clear in the educational trajectories of the two cohorts of children from early childhood to adulthood. This reflects the importance the population and successive governments have attributed to education. However, large disparities remain, related to students´ and family’s characteristics. In basic education, inequality is not related so much to access to school as it is to the educational opportunities children have at school, and their results in standardised tests. Children who come from relatively poor families, are indigenous, have a mother with less than complete secondary education, or who live in a rural family tend to have fewer opportunities and lower outcomes than their peers; the situation is worse for those who combine several of these family characteristics. Fortunately, disparities in opportunities and achievement by sex are relatively small. In tertiary education, there are still large gaps in access between groups, with privileged students having more access to university studies. Our conclusion is that the educational system may be reinforcing inequalities since it does not provide equal opportunities for all children; ideally, it should prioritise the opportunities of children and young adults who we know are more likely to have poor educational outcomes (i.e. vulnerable children). This should start at a young age, as we have found that gaps in achievement are evident by the age of 5. There are reasons to be optimistic, however, as public funding in education is increasing rapidly. In this scenario, we suggest that inequality in educational opportunities and outcomes becomes a priority.