Publication: Inequality of Educational Opportunity: The Relationship between Access, Affordability, and Quality of Private Schools in Lagos, Nigeria
Loading...
Files in English
1,072 downloads
Date
2018
ISSN
0305-4985
Published
2018
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Using data from a census of private schools in one of Lagos, Nigeria’s administrative jurisdictions, this paper explores the linkages between a heterogeneous sector of private schools and issues of school access, affordability, quality, and ultimately social mobility for households at the bottom of the income distribution. Although a large private education market has buoyed Lagos’s growth towards near-universal primary enrolment, this heterogeneous school sector appears to be providing socially stratifying paths towards educational attainment. We apply Lucas’s theory of effectively maintained inequality to assess the extent to which access to higher quality education services within the private sector is determined by cost. We find that higher-cost private schools provide students with greater opportunities to study in institutions with higher quality inputs and increased potential for progression within the educational system. As such, it is highly likely that these schools are primarily accessible to students at the upper ends of the income distribution.
Link to Data Set
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
- Cited 21 times in Scopus (view citations)
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication The Role of the Private Sector in Lagos, Nigeria(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06-30)Private schools are currently educating the majority of primary and secondary education students in Lagos State, Nigeria. As such, Lagos is one of the largest private school markets in the world. Notwithstanding the influence of this sector, not enough is known about the operations of private schools in Lagos State, their impact on student learning opportunities, and their overall implications for the economic and social development of Nigeria. This report presents results from analyses of: (i) the regulatory environment governing private education provision; (ii) implementation of existing regulations; and (iii) the provision of private school services in Lagos. The results of this research can be used to inform the government on how to effectively regulate and engage with the private education sector.Publication Ghana Engaging the Private Sector in Education(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06)Systems approach for better education results (SABER) - engaging the private sector (EPS) research in Ghana has found that enrollment rates for primary and secondary education have increased significantly. At both the primary and secondary levels, quality, and equity remain challenges. The private sector plays an increasingly significant role in education at both levels. Based on a review of existing policies, SABER-EPS offers the following recommendations for Ghana to enhance private sector engagement in education and meet the challenges of access, quality, and equity: (1) strengthen policies to ensure independent private schools are more accountable for learning outcomes; (2) provide greater incentives to support a diverse number of private school providers while ensuring equitable access; and (3) encourage innovation in schools by ensuring greater flexibility in managing schools, services, and staff. This report presents an analysis of how effectively policies in Ghana engage the private sector in basic (primary and secondary) education. The report provides an overview of the SABER-EPS tool, followed by a description of the basic education system in Ghana that focuses on the private sector and government policies related to the private provision of education. The report then benchmarks Ghana’s policy environment utilizing the SABER-EPS framework and offers policy options to enhance access and learning for all children in primary and secondary school.Publication The Role of the Private Sector in Providing Basic Education Services in Kasoa, Ghana(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015)Despite significant government investments in the public education system, population growth and migration have led to an undersupply of school places, especially in urban centers, leading to an increase in private education enrollments in Ghana. Ghana has nearly doubled enrollment at the primary and junior high school levels since the introduction of free and compulsory universal basic education. Ghana’s primary net enrollment rate of 86.8 percent in 2013 is still slightly below the average for lower-middle-income countries, which was 87.3 percent. Its net rate of secondary enrollment (including junior and senior high school), 51 percent, is also lower than the 58 percent average for lower-middle-income countries (EdStats). Ghana’s public spending on education is comparable to that of other middle-income countries and the government is currently focusing its attention on upper secondary education (senior high school), with plans to build more schools to increase access. Rising enrollment rates have not been accompanied by gains in student learning; some parents are choosing private schools due to their perceived higher quality. The education system in Ghana is currently facing fiscal pressures due to low levels of accountability, inefficient allocation of resources, and plans to expand upper secondary provision. Although the Ghanaian government has made progress in improving equitable access to education through new programs and policies, government resources are currently unevenly distributed across regions in terms of spending per pupil as well as the allocation of teachers. Ghana currently has a budget deficit, with teacher salaries forming a large part of recurrent costs in education. The country also plans to expand education at the senior secondary level to meet the needs of the economy. The construction of 200 schools will put further pressure on government budgets.Publication What Matters Most for Education Management Information Systems : A Framework Paper(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-06)The main objective of this paper is to outline what matters most for an effective education management information system (EMIS). It presents the conceptual background and operational tools for the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-EMIS domain. These tools are intended for use by government education policy makers to assess policy areas of relevance to a country s EMIS against international best practices. This paper begins with an introduction of the domain and the rationale for an EMIS benchmarking tool. Chapter 1 then provides an overview of current data-related demands to improve education, explains how an EMIS meets those data demands, and highlights examples of specific system s in action. Chapter 2 outlines what matters in an EMIS, starting with an explanation of what comprises the construct validity and theoretical underpinnings for benchmarking an EMIS. This chapter shows that the guiding principles behind an EMIS drive actionable policies. A detailed description of four policy areas specifically, the enabling environment, system soundness, data quality, and utilization for decision making then follows in chapter 3. The chapter describes the rubric for the SABER-EMIS Tool and gives a brief overview of an EMIS benchmarking pilot, which demonstrated the feasibility of the concept. The last chapter describes how an EMIS is benchmarked, scored, and subsequently leads to a situation analysis. This assessment sequence provides an understanding of the strength and weaknesses of an EMIS system for fuller, more comprehensive depiction of its status. Overall, this paper evaluates whether a management information system is set up to use the information it generates for improving operational efficiency and educational quality.Publication Learning from Local Practices : Improving Student Performance in West Bank and Gaza(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06-12)The motivation for this study is to contribute to the preparation of the new Palestinian Education Strategy by shedding light on the school and classroom level factors that influence student learning, and to identify good practices that can be generalized from high-performing classrooms to those that need improvement. While most Palestinian children are in school, performance on assessments indicates that many of them are not learning as much as they could. This represents not only inefficiency in the use of public resources, but also a lost opportunity for individual students and the society as a whole. The current study was carried out by the Assessment and Evaluation Department (AED) of the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) with technical and financial support from the World Bank. The analysis presented in this paper was prepared by the World Bank team as a complement to a previous paper prepared by a team of experts from AED. For the purposes of this study, schools were classified by student performance in TIMSS 2011 and the 2012 Palestinian national exams. Classroom and school-based tools were then used to gather information from both high and low-performing schools. A total of 122 public, private and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools were surveyed using four different instruments: (i) stalling's classroom observations; (ii) school leadership survey; (iii) teacher survey; and, (iv) school facilities survey, which are all provided in annex one.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Enhancing Burkina Faso Regional Connectivity(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12)Regional integration and international connectivity via economic corridors play an essential role in reducing the isolation of West Africa’s landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso’s main international corridors are the Ouagadougou-Lomé road corridor connecting it to Togo, the Ouagadougou-Tema (Ghana) road corridor, and the Ouagadougou-Niamey (Niger) road corridor, as well as the Ouagadougou-Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) road and rail corridors. Each of the corridors plays a unique role in regional integration, national trade, and sub-national rural and urban development, by providing connectivity to consumption centers, economic production zones, and/or economically lagging areas. The national perspective suggests that the Ouagadougou-Lomé corridor is very important for Burkina Faso’s imports, serving as the artery for about 40 percent of all cargo entering the country, while the Ouagadougou-Abidjan road and rail corridors play an equally crucial role in allowing Burkina Faso’s exports to reach global markets. The region’s trunk road infrastructure is in fair-to-good condition on most sections, although large gaps remain on corridors such as the eastern link between Lomé and Niamey. This study develops several scenarios of corridor interventions that address the inefficiencies to quantify the expected impacts in terms of real income growth and domestic market accessibility.Publication Special Economic Zones in Africa : Comparing Performance and Learning from Global Experience(World Bank, 2011-02-15)Economic zones have grown rapidly in the past 20 years. In 1986, the International Labor Organization's (ILO's) database reported 176 zones in 47 countries; by 2006, it reported 3,500 zones in 130 countries. This huge growth occurred despite many zones having failed to meet their objectives; however, many others are contributing significantly to growth in foreign direct investment (FDI), exports, and employment, as well as playing a catalytic role in integration into global trade and structural transformation, including industrialization and upgrading. This study aims to address some of these questions and deliver an analysis that is both data-driven and policy-focused. The objective of the study is to explore the experience of zone programs, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, to understand the factors that contribute to static and dynamic outcomes. It aims to provide input to the question of whether and how zones can make a significant contribution to job creation, diversification, and sustainable growth in African and other low-income countries.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Pakistan Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)Integrating climate and development is a pillar of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Climate Change Action Plan 2021-25. To advance its implementation, the WBG has launched the Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR). This new, core diagnostic tool analyzes how a country’s development goals can be achieved in the context of adapting to, and mitigating against, climate change. As such, the Pakistan CCDR provides analysis and policy recommendations on how to harmonize the country’s efforts to achieve further economic growth and lower poverty rates, on the one hand, with the pursuit of a climate-resilient, low-carbon, and equitable development path, on the other. In light of the devastating 2022 heatwaves and floods and the country’s vulnerability profile, the CCDR puts a strong emphasis on the need for building long-term resilience. Further, it explores pathways for Pakistan to achieve deep decarbonization by 2050, and eventually reach net-zero emissions by 2070 without undermining its development ambitions. It also provides assessment on technical, financial and institutional and governance frameworks needed for these climate transitions. Most importantly, it attempts to capture the centrality of people in climate policies by assessing how climate risks affect lives and livelihoods, and ways in which governments can build resilience and address poverty, distributional and job impact of climate change and climate actions. Lastly, it sheds lights on ways for Pakistan to galvanize cooperation between public and private sectors and support from international communities.Publication The Informal Sector in Francophone Africa : Firm Size, Productivity, and Institutions(Washington, DC: World Bank and Agence Française de Développement, 2012)This book is a major step towards improving the understanding of the complex reality of informal sector firms in francophone West Africa. It innovates by concentrating on informal firms rather than informal employment (as other studies do), and identifying 'large informal' sector firms whose sales rival those of large formal-sector firms but operate in ways that are similar to small informal operators. Not only is the regulatory environment facing these two types of informal firms distinct, but policies aimed at improving their productivity need to be differentiated. This study focuses on the urban informal sector in three capital cities: Dakar (Senegal), Cotonou (Benin), and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). The study also breaks new ground with an eclectic methodology and primary data collection. Quantitative and qualitative firm-level data were collected involving a unique and fruitful collaboration among academic researchers, government officials, the West African economic and monetary union commission, informal and formal sector business associations, and labor unions. This volume represents the culmination of a long collaboration between the Centre de Recherches Economiques Appliquees (CREA) at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar and the World Bank.