Educational Opportunities in Bolivia: Persistent Inequalities and Pathways to Equity (2011-2021)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35319/lajed.202441513Keywords:
Educational Inequalities, Equal Opportunities, EquityAbstract
This study analyzes the inequality of opportunities in access to education for the population between 6 and 17 years of age in Bolivia. It evaluates the level of equality of educational opportunities through the Human Opportunity Index, which measures the opportunity coverage rate discounted by the dissimilarity index, that is, the fraction of opportunities that would need to be redistributed to achieve equality of opportunity. We decompose these approximations based on their marginal contributions using the Shapley decomposition. The results from the 2011-2021 Household Surveys reveal that timely enrollment and attendance evidence higher levels of equality and freedom from obligations experience lower levels. Shapley's decomposition highlights the relevance of factors such as geographic location and parental education level in access to education. Although improvements in opportunity indices are observed during the period of analysis, challenges persist as evidenced by the Dissimilarity Index. It is also evident that private schools have experienced improvements in the opportunity indexes. In addition, the study reveals a larger opportunity gap in rural areas than in urban areas.
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