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@rhi_moore

Unequal opportunities:

Inequalities in secondary education in

India, Vietnam and Ethiopia

Rhiannon Moore

Young Lives, University of Oxford

OUTLINE

Introduction to Young Lives &

Secondary School Surveys

Learning quality & equity:

Looking across three countries

Learning quality & equity:

Within one country (India)

Implications & Discussion

YOUNG LIVES & LINKED SCHOOL SURVEYS

Longitudinal survey of children,

their households, schools and

communities running for 15 years

in 4 countries

Young Lives school surveys:

introduced in 2010

2016-17 school surveys: school

effectiveness in Ethiopia, India and

Vietnam

• Ethiopia: upper primary (Grades 7-8)

• India: lower secondary (Grade 9)

• Vietnam: upper secondary (Grade 10)

WHY SECONDARY SCHOOL SURVEYS?

Secondary education ‘critical’ to breaking

intergenerational transmission of poverty (World Bank,

2009)

Inequalities in access - Unequal transition to secondary

reinforces exclusion of disadvantaged groups in labour

market (DFID, 2017)

Inequalities in learning - A high degree of inequalities

in test scores at secondary level suggest a high degree

of wage inequality in the future (Nickell, 2004, in Das &

Zajonc, 2010)

SCHOOL SURVEY 2016-17 DESIGN

School effectiveness design:

Student performance in terms of

progress (rather than cross-sectional

measure)

The teaching and learning processes that

affect student progress

The ‘value-added’ of one year of school

To do this, we administered:

Cognitive tests at beginning and end of

one school year

Background instruments and psychosocial

measures for teachers and students to

contextualise learning progress

Putting the school surveys in context:

Existing Young Lives findings on education

YL FINDINGS ON EDUCATION & EQUITY

While enrolment rates have increased, in each country

some children remain educationally vulnerable

Analysis of vulnerability reveals that family background,

learning achievement and educational opportunities

reinforce each other, creating negative cycles (Cueto, Singh,

Woldehanna & Le Thuc Duc, 2016)

Significant evidence of inequality of outcomes within

countries, with widely varying educational attainment.

Findings from India (AP and Telangana) reveal that

disparities in children’s early school lives impact on their

later learning. (Singh & Mukherjee, 2017)

Similarly, in Ethiopia analysis has shown that those

children who have attended pre-school have significantly

higher cognitive performance at age 5 and age 8 than

those who have not (Woldehanna, 2016)

YL FINDINGS ON LEARNING

Although all four Young Lives countries have now achieved

‘mass enrolment’ at primary level, and India, Peru and

Vietnam have also achieved this at lower secondary level,

only Vietnam appears to have made the transition to

‘mass learning’.

Comparisons of learning outcomes show that, while

mathematics achievement levels are similar across

countries at age 5, by age 15 they have widened

dramatically, demonstrating very different learning

trajectories.

Children are learning the most in Vietnam, across all

levels of prior attainment, while India and Ethiopia

appear to have entered a ‘low level equilibrium’ in

learning outcomes (Rolleston, 2016)

SECONDARY SCHOOL SURVEY: RQS

Collecting data on secondary

education to try to enhance

understanding of the ‘messiness’

of expanding education and try

and shed light on specifics

Particular focus on secondary –

what does this mean for social

mobility / future opportunities?

Different conceptualisation of

quality learning at secondary to

basic education – ref to BAICE

pres and Compare paper

Learning Quality & Equity:

Looking Across Three Countries in 2016-17

DEVELOPING COMPARABLE LEARNING METRICS

0

.002

.004

.006

200 400 600 800

ET 1 IN 1 VN 1

ET 2 IN 2 VN 2

COMPARING PROGRESS MADE

WHICH SCHOOLS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE?

YL Ethiopia YL Vietnam YL India

Ru

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Priv

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Priv

ate

un

aid

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Stat

e go

vern

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Trib

al s

oci

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elfa

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Ben

Tre

Da

Nan

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Hu

ng

Yen

Lao

Cai

Ph

u Y

en

ETHIOPIA: WHO ATTENDS MORE EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS?

INDIA: WHO ATTENDS MORE EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS?

VIETNAM: WHO ATTENDS MORE EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS?

COMPARING LEARNING BETWEEN COUNTRIES

Most effective schools:

Private unaided schools in India; schools in Da Nang, Vietnam

More variation within than between countries

Student wealth and school effectiveness:

Ethiopia & Vietnam: no clear relationship – more equitable systems?

India: varies by school type – private unaided schools attended by

wealthier children are more effective, but this is not the case for

state government schools

Learning progress:

Students make comparable progress in one year across the three

countries – but there are clear differences in learning levels

Learning Quality & Equity: India

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

0

.001

.002

.003

.004

kde

nsity

200 500 800Maths score (IRT scaled score)

Wave 1 Wave 2

W1-W2 Maths Score

In maths, students made an average of 31 points of

progress in Grade 9

CROSS-SECTIONAL DATA REVEALS INEQUALITIES

Large differences in

learning attainment at

the start of Grade 9 by

student background

E.g. by household

wealth

Reflects different

experiences prior to

Grade 9…

• E.g. type of school

attended, home

background, parental

education, access to

different educational

opportunities outside

school…

Q1

(poorest)

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (least

poor)

Mean Maths

Score (start

of school

year)

437 457 484 502 541

0

.001

.002

.003

.004

Den

sity

250 500 750Maths Score

Q1 (poorest) Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (least poor)

Maths Performance By Wealth Quintiles

ALSO MAKING UNEQUAL PROGRESS

Gaps in test performance appear to be widening over the course of the

school year

E.g. the least poor students make an average of 44 points of progress,

while the poorest students make 22 points – falling further behind

0

.001

.002

.003

.004

.005

Den

sity

250 500 750Maths Score

Wave 1 - poorest quintile Wave 2 - poorest quintile

Wave 1 - least poor quintile Wave 2 - least poor quintile

Maths Performance By Wealth Quintiles

SCHOOL TYPE IS ALSO IMPORTANT…

Analysis shows

significant

differences between

school types in Wave

1 and Wave 2 test

scores in both

English and maths

But existing research

suggests private

school effects are

heterogeneous (e.g.

Singh, 2014)

So need to look at

the effectiveness of

private schools in

more depth

0

.002

.004

.006

kde

nsity

200 500 800Wave 1 Maths score (IRT scaled score)

Private Aided Private Unaided

State Govt Tribal Social Welfare

Wave 1 Maths Score By School Type

ARE CHILDREN LEARNING MORE IN PRIVATE SCHS?

Value-added analysis reveals that Private Unaided schools are ‘adding

more value’ in the course of one school year – this is the average VA,

and when we look school-by-school there are exceptions.

When we control for differences in student background, the gaps

between school types narrow slightly – but there are still significant

differences between Private Unaided schools and all other school types

-10

010

20

30

Eng

lish V

alu

e-A

dd

ed

Private Aided Private Unaided State Govt Tribal Social Welfare

Mean School VA (English) by School Type

Mean School VA (uncon) Mean School VA (con)

-20

-10

010

20

30

Math

s V

alu

e-A

dd

ed

Private Aided Private Unaided State Govt Tribal Social Welfare

Mean School VA (Maths) by School Type

Mean School VA (uncon) Mean School VA (con)

ARE ALL PRIVATE SCHOOLS ‘EQUALLY BETTER’?

Private Unaided schools which charge higher school fees add more

value in 1 school year

010

20

30

40

50

Math

s V

alu

e-A

dd

ed

Lower fee school Medium fee school Higher fee school

Private Unaided schools only

Mean School VA (Maths) by Fee Level

Mean School VA (uncon) Mean School VA (con)

SMALL SCHOOLS ADD LESS VALUE…

Bigger schools (more

sections in Grade 9) add

more value in 1 school year

Similar patterns seen

between private schools in

urban v rural areas (more

VA in urban areas)

Suggests that private

schools are not equally

better – the amount of

value added varies by fee

level, location, school

size…

Characteristics of better

schools – more accessible

to more advantaged

children?

010

20

30

40

50

Math

s V

alu

e-A

dd

ed

1 section 2 sections 3 or more sections

Private Unaided schools only

Mean School VA (Maths) by Number of Sections

Mean School VA (uncon) Mean School VA (con)

LEARNING & EQUITY IN INDIA

Analysis from this survey suggests that there are inequalities in

learning outcomes between different groups of children at the start

of Grade 9 – and that these are increasing throughout the school

year

Evidence appears to suggest more advantaged children are ‘sorted’

into ‘better’ schools, even when the background of children is

controlled for.

On average, the poorest children start Grade 9 100 points behind

the least poor in maths – that’s equivalent to more than 3 average

school years. This gap widens further over the course of the school

year.

Not just about ‘private schools’ vs ‘govt schools’ – even within

private schools there is a lot of inequity

Not all private schools ‘equally better’ – those which are more

expensive and those in urban areas add more value

Discussion and implications

DISCUSSION & IMPLICATIONS

Looking across countries, there are gaps but also notable

overlaps – despite the differences in education systems and

country context.

Differences in ‘equity’ of education systems – in Vietnam /

Ethiopia less clear association between school effectiveness and

wealth than in India

Within the Indian survey, inequalities in learning outcomes

appear to be increasing – serious implications for equality of

opportunities after secondary school.

Evidence appears to suggest more advantaged children are

‘sorted’ into ‘better’ schools in India, even when the background

of children is controlled for.

The large gaps present at the beginning of Grade 9 suggests

efforts to equalise learning need to happen earlier – by

secondary school, inequalities are already heavily entrenched.

NEXT STEPS

Analysis of teacher data – e.g. how

does who a teacher is, what their

attitudes are, and the practices they

use in the classroom relate to student

learning?

Analysis using student background

data – e.g. how do student attitudes to

schooling relate to their learning

outcomes?

Classroom observations in India –

sample of teachers and classes where

more learning is taking place to

understand more about what is

happening in the classroom

Thank you!

Any questions or comments?

Additional slides

NEXT STEPS – FURTHER ANALYSIS OPPORTUNITIES

Construct Measure

Teacher Psychosocial

Measures (focus on

motivation and efficacy)

‘Wellbeing’ scale

‘Relationship with others in the school’ scale

‘Morale and job satisfaction’ scale

‘Equality’ scale

‘Professional Commitment’ scale

‘Efficacy’ scale

Teacher Professional

Knowledge

15 item questionnaire

Classroom Instructional

Environment

‘Engagement and empathy’ scale

‘Awareness and control’ scale

A range of teacher and student level measures were included in the survey

– next steps include looking at some of this data. E.g.