Individual and family characteristics, educational opportunities and school performance: a longitudinal study in Peru
| Areas | : | Education and learning, Poverty and equality |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher/s in charge | : | Santiago Cueto |
| Other researchers | : | Gabriela Guerrero, Juan Leon, Silvana Freire, Víctor Saldarriaga, Mayli Zapata |
| Execution time | : | December 2011 - December 2012 |
Presentation
Studies conducted in Peru and other developing countries suggest that the educational system is set out in an unfair manner, strengthening existing inequalities in society in general. For instance, students from families in higher socio-economic level usually attend private educational institutions, which, in general, have better infrastructure than public educational institutions and higher performances in standardized tests. In turn, in general, students from urban and Spanish-speaking families have had better education performances than their peers in rural and indigenous zones. This has led some authors to assert that the Peruvian educational system is set out as an “apartheid”, where educational institutions reproduce and feed social inequalities. However, there is little empirical research that may allow analyzing simultaneously the connections between students’ individual and family characteristics, their educational opportunities and their performance. Furthermore, there are no databases in Peru that allow analyzing these relations longitudinally. In order to analyze interactions between individual and family characteristics over time, their opportunities and educational performance, we will use in this study the database of the Young Lives longitudinal study. As a result, we expect to produce a research document and an academic article.
