Explaining the rural-urban learning achievements gap in Ethiopian primary education: a re-centered influence function decomposition using Young Lives data

Gender achievement gap in the national secondary education examination in Ethiopia

“…Further, we investigate the effect of the rural-urban composition of students and the distribution of rural secondary schools. Sanfo and Ogawa (2021) presented evidence of rural-urban learning achievement gaps among elementary students in Ethiopia. In our analysis, the rural enrollment share of tenth-grade students is negatively associated with the regional average GPAs [9].…”

“…The Ethiopian education system has undergone different restructuring processes in the last two decades. In 2002/03, it changed from a system of six years of primary education, two years of junior high school and four years of high school (6-2-4), to a system of eight years of primary, two years of general junior high school and two years of preparatory high school (8-2-2) (Joshi and Verspoor, 2013; Tesema and Braeken, 2018; Sanfo and Ogawa, 2021). In the 8-2-2 system, which was operational from 2002/03–2018/19, students take a regional examination at eighth grade and a national examination at tenth and twelfth grades.…”

“…For that reason, researchers have tried to identify factors that contribute to the academic performance of students. These factors can be grouped into individual and family characteristics, school characteristics and intangible factors (Sanfo and Ogawa, 2021; Farooq et al. , 2011; Eshetu, 2015).…”

“…In Ethiopia, a few studies have examined learning achievement gaps in primary and secondary education (Sanfo and Ogawa, 2021; Tesema and Braeken, 2018). In primary education, Sanfo and Ogawa (2021) examined rural-urban achievement gaps across learning distributions using the Young Lives 2016–2017 school survey of grades 7 and 8 students. The study showed that rural students perform poorly compared to urban students in both math and English tests.…”

“…Second, using the aggregate state-level data, identify factors that influence students' test scores and the gender achievement gaps. It adds to the previous studies, such as Sanfo and Ogawa (2021) and Tesema and Braeken (2018), in two ways: (1) tracking trends of the test scores and achievement gaps over time and across regions, and (2) evaluating factors that affect the regional average test scores. The research employs z -tests for equality of the average male and female GPAs and proportion tests for equality of the male and female proportions in the upper and lower GPA distributions.…”