Santiago CuetoGRADE - Young Lives (Peru)

Peru: progress and challenges in education

Introduction

• Education in Peru has experienced an uneven growth over the last decades.

• Enrolment has increased quite significantly, however the quality of schools and student´s achievement on international (PISA), regional (UNESCO evaluations) and national assessments are on average low, but increasing, and strongly correlated with the socioeconomic characteristics of children.

Equity in education

• Equity is a complicated cultural notion that has been discussed from different perspectives.

• An equitable educational system involves the following aspects: i. Access to schools.ii. Educational opportunities at school.iii. Educational outcomes, none of which should be

associated with students´ socio-demographic characteristics or family background.

The General Law of Education

The General Law of Education (28044), approved by Congress in 2003, specifies that education is a right for all children.

It also includes several principles, including quality, equality, inclusion of students with special needs, mandatory provision of education for students considering their culture and language, and an orientation to strengthen democracy, among others.

National Education Project (NEP), issued by National Council (www.cne.gob.pe).

The National Education Project (NEP)

• The NEP specifies one general and six specific goals for Peruvian education until 2021.

• The general goal ("vision") for Peruvian education is: "Everybody develops their potential from early childhood, have access to literacy, solve problems, practice values, know how to continue learning, see themselves as citizens with rights and responsibilities, and contribute to the development of their communities and country by combining their cultural and natural capital with world advances“.

• Thus, according to both the General Law of Education and the NEP, education should be an instrument for quality and equity.

Attendance rates have improved

YearAttendance in preschool

Attendance in primary

Attendance in high school

1997 45.9% 73.4% 56.4%2003 52.5% 92.0% 69.4%2013 71.9% 89.5% 78.5%

Source: National Household Surveys (ENAHO) 1997, 2003, 2013. We used the ratio of live children attending school / existing children for ages 3 to 5 (preschool), 6 to 11 (primary), and 12 to 16 (secondary).

Attendance rates by groups

2013 Attendance in preschool Attendance in primary Attendance in high schoolSex      

Boys 71.8% 88.9% 77.6%Girls  71.9% 90.0% 79.5%

Mother tongue      Spanish 72.6% 89.8% 79.9%Indigenous 65.3% 88.1% 69.0%

Poverty      Not poor 76.8% 90.0% 83.1%Poor 63.6% 88.7% 71.4%Extreme poor 60.0% 87.1% 55.7%

Area      Urban 74.6% 89.4% 83.2%Rural 65.0% 89.5% 68.3%

Maternal education      Higher Education 80.9% 91.2% 89.2%

Secondary incomplete or complete 73.2% 88.5% 85.5%

Primary complete or incomplete 63.7% 89.3% 73.0%

No education or preschool 54.6% 87.9% 61.5%

• It used to be that inequality in education was linked to access to school, in fact, access to primary school was one of the goals set in United Nation´s Millennium Development Goals and UNESCO´s Education for All for 2015. However, more recent initiatives (SDG) have emphasized the importance of not only attending school but also achieving at expected levels (i.e. enrolment plus learning).

Is it enough to attend school?

Average Mathematic Scores in Student Census Evaluations (2nd grade)

Mathematic Score    2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Average 512.4 519.9 515.7 519.4 523.0 526.0 560.0

School management

Private 545.5 565.5 553.5 555.6 550.1 546 567Public 504.4 507.7 503.6 507.5 513.2 519 557Gap 41.1 57.8 49.9 48.2 36.9 27.0 10.0

Sex of studentsBoys 513.9 523.1 518.1 522.1 525.4 530 565Girls 510.9 516.6 512.8 516.7 519.5 522 555Gap 3.0 6.5 5.2 5.3 5.9 8.0 10.0

Type of schoolComplete 521.8 533.1 529.1 533.6 535.4 538 496Multigrade 489.6 474.3 469.0 458.2 463.1 474 573Gap 32.2 58.8 60.1 75.4 72.3 64.0 77.0

  Area where the school is located 

Urban 525.5 538.7 532.4 536.3 539.0 540 574Rural 485.7 482.5 466.4 457.2 462.4 470 500Gap 39.8 56.1 66.0 79.1 76.6 70.0 74.0

Source:  Student Census Evaluation; initial mean of 500 and standard deviation 50.  

Percentage of students in Level II (Satisfactory) in Mathematics (2nd grade)

Average Reading Comprehension Score in Student Census Evaluation (2nd grade)

Reading Comprehension Score 

 

    2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Average 503.2 523.9 535.0 535.0 541.0 545.0 568.0

School management

Private 561.2 572.2 591.2 588.2 592.9 581 601

Public 489.3 511.1 517.2 517.4 523.3 532 556Gap 71.9 61.1 74.0 70.8 69.7 49.0 45.0

Sex of studentsBoys 499.0 519.1 530.4 529.6 536.6 541 564

Girls 507.4 528.7 539.6 540.4 545.0 550 573Gap -8.4 -9.6 -9.2 -10.7 -8.4 -9.0 -9.0

Type of schoolComplete 519.5 536.9 554.2 552.4 555.7 558 581

Multigrade 463.7 479.1 468.7 459.5 471.5 489 505Gap 55.8 57.8 85.5 92.9 84.2 69.0 76.0

  Area where the school is located 

Urban 525.8 541.8 559.3 556.2 561.1 561 584

Rural 457.4 488.4 463.9 456.8 466.3 481 500Gap 68.4 53.4 95.4 99.3 94.8 80.0 84.0

Source: Student Census Evaluation; initial mean of 500 and standard deviation 50.

Percentage of students in Level II (Satisfactory) in Reading Comprehension

Peabody score (Source: Young Lives)

  Younger cohort Older cohort  2006 (5 years old) 2009 (8 years old) 2013 (12 years old) 2006 (12 years old)Average 27.79 57.51 83.9 79.22Gender           Boys 28.54 58.45 86.12 81.14   Girls 27.05 56.59 81.69 77.11  Gap  1.49 1.86 4.43 4.03Maternal´s first language           Spanish 32.12 62.15 88.55 83.64  Indigenous language 19.98 49.13 75.41 73.43   Gap  12.14 13.02 13.14 10.21Baseline (2002) area of residence           Urban 34.48 63.71 89.82 86.09   Rural 16.46 47.12 73.97 70.63  Gap  18.02 16.59 15.85 15.46Maternal education           Higher Education 45.19 72.27 99.74 97.56  Primary complete up to complete secondary 29.05 60.13 85.74 84.11  Primary incomplete or less 17.74 46.72 73.78 71.52  Gap  27.45 25.55 25.96 26.04Baseline (2002) poverty           Top quintile 40.64 68.67 96.17 88.2   Bottom quintile 15.7 46.61 74.65 72.65  Gap  24.94 22.06 21.52 15.55

Results on standardized tests show that, on average, students achievement have increased. However, the question remains if the gaps between groups are associated with the socioeconomic characteristics of children and their families in a way that tend to reinforce inequalities.

Achievement, opportunities and equity

Educational opportunities : Association between mathematics achievement and public expenditure per pupil at primary level

Opportunities to learn:  cognitive demand of mathematics exercises

Opportunities to learn: number of exercises by SES groups

416552

83124

45

118

22

38

48

7

15

45

201

248

643

Primer Tercil (n=34) Segundo Tercil (n=34) Tercer Tercil (n=34)

Numeración

Geometría

Medición

Estadística

FECBEjercicios : 670

Ejercicios : 898

Ejercicios : 1,686

Conclusions Education in Peru has improved in recent years :

• Enrollment is increasing in all levels of basic education.• the budget for education has been steadily increasing during the

current administration (going from 2.9% of GDP in 2012, to 3.8% of GDP in 2015).

• Students achievement in standardized tests has increased, as shown by the National Census Evaluation of second graders and PISA .

The major challenge for Peruvian education lies in the inequality of educational opportunities for children who come from indigenous, poor, rural backgrounds, or who come from families with poorly educated mothers and even worse for children who exhibit several or all of these characteristics.

Conclusions: a vicious, or virtuous, triangle

Context of the country: Presidential elections (first round April 10)

Questions?