The effects of Peru's push to improve education

I I Policy, Planning, and Re"sroh WORKING Education and Employment Population and Human Resources Department The World Bank March 1989 WPS 172 The Effects of Peru's Push to Improve Education Elizabeth M. King and Rosemary T. Bellew Peru's effort to expand public education from the mid-1950s to the 1960s has narrowed the educational gap between rural and urban residents, males and females - but male urban students are still likely to advance furthest in school. At the primary level, student achievement is greatly improved by such material inputs as desks and textbooks. The Policy. Planning, and Research Complex distributes PPR Working Papers to disseminate the findings of work in progress and to encourage the exchange of ideas among Bank staff and all others interested in development issues. These papers carry the names of the authors, reflect only their views, and should be used and cited accordingly. The findings, interpretaLions, and conclusions are the authors' own. They should not be attributed to the World Bank, its Board of Directors, its management, or any of its member countries.  | olyPlanning, nd Research | Educaionand Employment From the mid-1950s to the 1960s, the govem- inedicator that the link between socioeconomic ment of Peru undertook a major expansion of ba,-kground and access to schools had weak- public education, increasing the number of encd. schools, requiring primary schools that offered an incomplete cycle to add grades, and increas- * The relative effect of parents' education dif- ing school inputs (principally teachers and fered for sons' and daughters' schooling. Fa- textbooks). thers' education had tv -ce as great an effect on sons' schooling as mothers' education; for The authors examine the effects of Peru's daughters, both parents' education had equiva- educational policies, and the effects of family lent, strong positive effects. background and community characteristics on the schooling levels of a sample of adults. Data * Primary schools expanded rapidly even in on males and females were analyzed separately rural areas, so rural residence did not adversely by birth cohort, using a sample of 5,644 females affect the primary schooling of males. Urban or and 5,241 males aged 20 to 59. rural residence did matter greatly for females, however, suggesting less desire by rural parents The authors found that: to invest in the schooling of their daughters. * The govemment's policy to expand the - Urban residence at the age of 13 remained schools played a major role in raising education an important deterninant of educational attain- levels and narrowing the gap between rural and ment because of the great disparity between urban residents, and males and females. urban and rural areas in availability of secondary schools. * The impact of parents' years of schooling and occupations on the educational levels of * The availability of material school inputs, their children lessened over time as the supply of such as textbooks and desks at the primary level, schools expanded throughout the country - an had a large positive effect on final school levels. This paper is a vroduct of the Education and Employment Division, Population and Human Resources Department. Copies are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433. Please contact Cynthia Cristobal, room S6- 035, extension 33640. The PPR WoTking PapeT Series dissenPdnates the rindings of work under way in the Bantes Policy, Planning, and Research Complex. An objective of die series is to get these rindings out quickly. even if presentations are less than fully polished. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in these papers do not necessarily represent ofrficial policy of the Bank. Produced at the PPR Dissemination Center  Table of Contents Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . i I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. Trends In ducation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Patterns and Trends . ....... . . . ....... . . .. 2 Educational Policy Context .... . . . . . . . . ......... . 6 III. Framework, Data, and Variables . .... . . . . . . . 12 The Schooling Decision. .... . .... . . . . . . . . 12 Empirical Model . .. . . . . . . . . ...... 16 Variables . . . . . . . ......... ... . .... . . . 18 IV. Data Description and Sample Profiles....... . . . . . . 24 Sample Distribution by Gender, Cohort, and Residence . . . . . . 24 Educational Profiles by Gender and Residence.. . . . . 26 Changes in Educational Attainment Over Time . . . . . . . . . 27 V. Results .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Full Sample Regressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Regressions by Cohort .... . . . . . . . ........ . . 37 VI. Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 44 References ........ 47 Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Appendix A Educational Attainment of Peruvians Aged 15 and Over, 1940-1981 Table A.1 Percent of Peruvians Aged 6-14 and 15-19 Enrolled in School, 1940-1981 Table A.2 Trends in Peruvian Education: Selected Indicators, 1950-1980 Table A.3 Average Annual Enrollment Growth Rates, 1950-1980 Table A.4 Appendix B Means and Standard Deviations of Regression Variables for All Cohorts, For Hales and Females Table B.1 Means and Standard Deviations of Variables in Male Regressions, By Birth Cohort Table B,2  Means and Standard Deviations of Variables for Female Regressions By Cohort Table B.3 Determinants of School Attainment Levelst OLS Regression Results For Males, By Birth Cohort Table B.4 Determinants of School Attainment Levelss OLS Regression Results For Females, By Birth Cohort Table B.5 Determinants of School Attainment Levels: OLS Regression Results For Males Who Ever Attended School, By Birth Cohort Table B.6 Determinants of School Attainment Levels: OLS Regression Results For Females Who Ever Attended School, By Birth Cohort Table B.7  I. Introduction Over the past few decades in Peru, expanding and improving the quality of public education have been important components of government strategies to accelerate economic development and redistribute income. Given the historically key role assigned to education, this study addresses the following questionst How rapidly have educational opportunities and schooling levels changed over time? In the process, have they become more equitably distributed? How have educational policies of past decades affected levels of educational attainment? What other factors (e.g., family background and community characteristics) explain observed variations in the levels of education among individuals and differences in those levels between males and females? Throughout the paper, the terms educational attainment and schooling levels are used interchangeably. Both are defined as the number of years of schooling completed. The paper is organized as follows. The next section traces the expansion of education in Peru, relating it to changes in the economy and to educational reforms of recent decades. Section III reviews economic models of schooling choice, presents the empirical mode's estimated, and defines the variables used in the analysis. Section IV describes the sample, and Section V presents and discusses the findings of the study in light of educational change and development in Peru. Section VI presents some concluding remarks.  II. Trends In Education Patterns and Trends This section traces the growth of educational opportunities in Peru from 1940 through 1980 and describes the economic and educational policy contexts in which they occurred. Due to minimal data prior to 1950, most of the discussion pertains to the years 1950-1980. For these decades, educational trends are traced by quinquennia in order to capture the effects of different administrations' policies on levels of educational attainment. To provide a basis for explaining variations in adult educational attainment, each quinquennium is matched with the birth cohort whose educational experience most likely corresponds to that period. Trends in Enrollment. In the early 19408, schooling opportunities in Peru were quite limited. As a consequence, over one-half of all adults could neither read nor write (Appendix Table A.l);l' only one child in three enrolled in a primary or lower secondary school (Appendix Table A.2). Moreover, raising school attendance was particularly challenging. Two-thirds of all Peruvians were scattered in rural areas, and 35 percent of the population spoke only Quechua or Aymara, the two main Indian languages, while Spanish was the language of the schools (Censos Nacionales, 1981). 1/ By way of comparison, among Latin American countries, only El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic had higher illiteracy rates than Peru in the early 1940s (Drysdale and Meyers, 1975). 2  Since that time, educational opportunities have expanded considerably. Figures lA-3B display the rapid rise in enrollments and gross enrollment ratios between 1950 and 1980. They show the following patterns: (1) Enrollment of males and females has increased steadily at all levels of education. (2) Hale enrollment in primary school increased bioner than female enrollment. In 1950, male enrollment relative to the school-age population reached 100 percent, while that for females was 69 percent.2/ At other levels of education, less of a differential between male and female enrollment is observed. Educational opportunities were still very limited for both sexes. (3) In primary education, females who would have been of school age during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s (i.e. cohorts born between 1950 and 1964) increased their enrollment faster than other cohorts. As a result, female enrollment ratios rose from 65 percent in 1955 to 99 percent by 1970, which narrowed the differential between male and female enrollment. Hales born between 1955 and 1964 show the largest enrollment increases. However, since males began the 19508 with already high rates of enrollment, their gains were far less dramatic than those achieved by females. (4) Not only were more Peruvians attending primary school in the 19609, but a larger proportion were continuing on to secondary schocl. Relative to other cohorts, males and females born between 1950 and 1959 registered the largest proportional 2/ Gross enrollment ratios are computed as the ratio of total enrollment to the population aged 6 to 11. When under- or over-age students are enrolled, owing to repetition, early or delayed entry, or re-entry, the ratio can exceed 100 percent. On the other hand, net enrollment ratios exclude over and under- aged youths. They are computed as the ratio of 6 to 11 year olds enrolled in school to the 6 to 11 year old population. To gauge how these two ratios differ, Peru's 1980 net enrollment ratio is reported at 85Z, compared to a gross enrollment ratio of 115Z. Therefore, in 1980 approximately 30Z of all students were either under- or over-age but we do not know the share attributable to repetition, delayed or early entry, or re-entry. 3  $~~~ 11 _ -!f III plj 1- -g __ X- Ei I___ li 6 UX E~ __ -R ------- -[- II!F- _ X X X I_ i, _ _L ; ..__ {X - _ ;, ----- ii 1:'~~~~~~ I - a;t1' " 8 _ . . . _ . . 8 . _ _  increases in secondary school participation. (5) In higher education, enrollment of males and females began a strong upward trend in 1960 that continued throughout the subsequent decade. But, the gap between the proportion of males and of females enrolled relative to their respective school-age populations widened. Urban-Rural Patterns. Throughout the period of rapid expansion during the S0s and 609, children in rural areas were less fortunate than those in urban areas, where many of the new school places were concentrated. In 1972, only 63? of rural children six to fourteen years old were enrolled in primary and lower secondary schools, compared to 902 of urban youths. Opportunities for upper secondary and tertiary education were rare in rural communities. Only 17S of rural youths aged 12-17 were enrolled in such schools, compared to 54? in urban areas (Appendix Table A.2). Since the early 708, however, an increasing number of parents in rural areas have sent their children to primary and lower aecondary school so that by 1981, the gap in participation rates between urban and rural children was 50 percent lower than it was in 1970. At the upper levels, rural residents made little progress. In 1981, only 24 percent of the relevant school-age population in rural areas attended an upper secondary or tertiary institution, compared to 63? of their urban counterparts. Changes in Educational Attainment. Changes in the educational levels of adults mirror these enrollment expansion patterns. Average years of schooling of Peruvians aged 15 and above have increased steadily over time and the proportion who had never attended school dropped from 58? in 1940 to 16S 5  in 1981 (Appendix Table A.1). The strong growth in female enrollment in primary school during the 60. and the trend to continue on to secondary and higher education are particularly evident. The proportion of females who reported primary school as their highest level attended rose from 38 percent in 1960 to 42 percent in 1972; and by 1972, 24 and 18 percent of all males and females, respectively, had attended secondary school compared to 6 and 3 percent in 1940. By 1981, these proportions each rose by 10 percentage points reflecting comparable enrollment growth for males and females. A similar pattern is observed for higher education. Educational Policy Context The particularly strong upward trends observed during the 508 and 609 reflect the commitment of Presidents Prado (1956-1962) and Belaunde Terry (1963-1968) to expand public education. Under their administrations, schools, teachers, and government expenditures on education grew at unprecedented rates. Between 1955 and 1965, the number of primary schools rose from just 12,000 to 18,500 and the number of teachers nearly doubled (Appendix Table A.3). Higher education grew the fastest, offering not only more student places but also a wider variety of programs.31 The number of universities mushroomed from 9 in 1955 to 27 ten years later. 3/ Many new post-secondary non-university institutions known as sinstitutos de educacion tecnica superior' (IETS) were established to meet the demand for higher education that lead to a professional title and to provide an alternative to students unable to obtain admission to a university. 6  During these two administrations economic prospects were also bright,4/ and public resources were made increasingly available for education. The share of public expenditure allocated to education leaped from just 14Z in 1950 to 232 in 1968, representing about 1.6C and 5Z of GDP (Drysdale, 1975; World Bank, 1973). As a result of these investments, the proportion of Peruvian children enrolled in school relative to the size of the school-age population far exceeded participation rates in the average Latin American country.51 During the subsequent decade, the school system grew at a more moderate, but steady, pace under the leadership of Generals Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975) and Morales Bermudez (1975-1980). Between 1970 and 1980 only 1,500 new primary schools were opened. Enrollment increases levelled off at 3 and 8 percent a year in primary and secondary schools, respectively, and at 8 percent in post-secondary institutions (Appendix Table A.4). Public resources also became more constrained and less available for education as the economy 4I Growth in GDP was sustained at 5.52 per annum, reaching 7.2? between 1960-1965. (World Bank, 1985) Much of this growth resulted from policies promoting foreign and public investment in the manufacturing, mining and fisheries industries, particularly under Belaunde. As a result of these investment priorities, manufacturing replaced agriculture as the leading sector. Sl Gross enrollment ratios for Peru reache