IMPACT OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCHOOLING ON ACHIEVEMENT IN THE

SCHOOL SYSTEM: EVIDENCE FROM ETHIOPIA

UKFIET ConferenceUniversity of Oxford, 17 September 2015.

Bridget Azubuike

INTRODUCTION

THE AIM OF THIS RESEARCH

• Measure the achievement of students in mathematics by private and public school types.

• Understand the role school types play in pupils achievement in mathematics.

• If there are differences by school types what factors might explain this gaps.

RATIONALE• Increased enrolments into primary school in developing

countries such as Ethiopia has also led to Increased supply of private provision of education especially at primary level.

• There are growing concerns around inequality and inequity because more advantaged students have access to private schools types which might be of better quality than public schools and will lead to inequalities in terms of educational achievement.

• As more children enrol into school there are more concerns for learning outcomes and their predictors.

• Although private schools have been around for a while in Ethiopia, there’s very little research available on their effects on pupils’ learning.

• The school survey was conducted in 2012 and covers seven

regions in Ethiopia namely; Addis Ababa, Oromia, Tigray, Amhara, SNNP, Somalia and Afar.

• Roughly 11,900 children were surveyed at school in a total of 94 schools and children were mostly in grades 4 and 5.

• The data is divided into pupil level data that contains information of the pupils’ personal and household characteristics, teacher level data which contains information of the teachers, principal level data, school level data and class level data.

• Pupils achievement in mathematics is measured by their raw score on a mathematics test conducted towards the end of the school year. The scores on the test ranges from 0 to 25 points.

YOUNG LIVES: ETHIOPIA SCHOOL SURVEY DATA

COMPARING DIFFERENCE IN CHARACTERISTICS OF PUPILS BY SCHOOL

TYPES

CHILD WORKS

ATTENDED PRESCH

REPEATED

ONCE DROPPED OUT

EXTRA MATH CLASS

LITERATE MOTHER

LITERATE FATHER

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Public Private

• Pupils from wealthier households are more likely to be in private

schools and their test scores are higher than their counterparts in public schools.

• Average maths test score for pupils in private schools are about 17.5 points while those in non-private schools have an average maths score of 13.9 points.

CONTINUATION

COMPARING DIFFERENCES IN SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS

VARIABLES Private Public Difference

School CharacteristicsMean Mean   

School radio54% 79% ***

Pipe borne water41% 69% ***

Teacher CharacteristicsMean Mean   

Teachers age 28 years 34 years ***

Male teachers 82% 45% ***

Teachers experience 6.3 years 13.2 years ***

Specialized in mathematics 47% 33% ***

Encourage Homework79% 65%

***

MEASURING THE PRIVATE SCHOOL EFFECT

Private School

Individual, household & school controls

Controls including previous attainment

Private school effect 3.63*** 3.05*** 1.24***

(0.126) (0.161) (0.133)

• Without  controlling  for  any  factors,  If  a child is in a private school, he/she scores 3.63  points  higher  in maths  than  those in public schools.• When I control  for characteristics of the pupils  and  the  schools,  the  private school effect reduces to 3.05 points.• Controlling  for  prior  attainment  on  a similar  test  reduces  this  coefficient  to 1.24 points.• Holding  all  other  factors  constant, including  prior  attainment  of  the student,  being  in  a  private  school increases a students performance on the maths  test of  interest by 1.2points. This impact  is  significant  at  a  conventional level. 

DECOMPOSING THE GAPS IN ACHIEVEMENT

• I carried out a decomposition analysis using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (O-B) strategy to decompose the achievement gaps of pupils in private school and public schools.• This analysis measures the gaps in achievement between students in the two school types and decomposes the gaps into two parts; one attributable to the students endowments effects (measured by observed characteristics) and the other treatment effects (unobserved).• It gives an overview of what might be driving the gaps in mathematics achievement in this context. We are able to measure if the drivers of the  gap  are  due  to what we  observe  in  terms  of  differences  in  the students and school characteristics or due to the treatment of private school pupils which is not observed (unexplained by the model).

WHAT IS DRIVING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP?

Difference between pupils in private and Public schools.

15%

Decomposing the gaps

Explained: Individual & household factors

20%

Explained: School factors

37%

Unexplained 43%

• The  achievement  gap  in  mathematics between pupils in private schools and those in public schools is about 15%.• The  differences  in  the  observed characteristics  at  the  individual  level,  at   household  and  in  school  between  private and public school pupils explains 57% of this gap.• The  individual  and  household  factors  that are controlled for in the model explains 20% of the gap and school factors explain 37% of the achievement gap.• The remaining 43% difference  in the maths score  is  the  ‘treatment  effect’ (unexplained).  The  treatment  of  pupils  in private  schools  that  differs  for  those  in public  schools  which  could  include  a number  of  factors  that  this model  has  not captured. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS (1)• In  this  application,  I  find  a  positive  effect  of  private  schools  on  a student’s  performance  in  mathematics  but  due  to  the  limitations associated with the empirical methodology, the effects are interpreted as associational rather than causal.• I also find that there are  important differences in the characteristics of the pupils before they enrolled into those school types. • Children  from  poorer  households  are  more  likely  to  attend  public school  which  could  be  due  to  both  the  direct    and  indirect  cost  of attending private schools which in this sample are all located in urban areas, this suggests that strengthening capacity of public schools which are  more  accessible  to  the  poor  could  be  useful  for  attenuating inequalities in educational achievements. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS (2)• Among  teachers  characteristics  captured  in  the  model,  I  find  that having  younger  teachers  that  encourage  students  to  do  homework, and  have  specialised  in  mathematics  is  associated  with  better performance in mathematics.•While  the  individual,  household  and  school  factors  that  have  been measured in this application are important for understanding the gaps in  achievement  in  mathematics,  there  are  other  differences  in  the school  types  that  could  be  driving  the  achievement  gap  in mathematics  that  the  model  has  been  unable  to  capture  and  could include  differences  in  communities where  the  schools  are  located  as well as school management factors. • There is need for more research and evidence on both private schools modus operandi in Ethiopia and the value they add to the educational achievement process.

THANK YOU