Inequality of Opportunity for Education in Sudan: Results from Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey, 2014

Huda Ahmed

doi:10.14738/assrj.71.7668

Abstract

Inequality of opportunity (IoP) in education is widely addressed in the literature, with few, if any, in Sudan. This paper aims to measure IoP for educational attainment and school attendance in Sudan, using data collected by Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (2014). Circumstance variables used were gender, household wealth, residential areas, head of household education, and region of residence. The study used ordered logistic and dissimilarity index to assess the ex-ante IoP and used the Human Opportunity Index for school attendance. The findings show that circumstance variables were responsible for more than half of the inequality. Household wealth accounted for the largest share, followed by the household head's education level, then residential areas. The total coverage of school attendance was 51.3%, and about 14% of the chances were distributed unequally. The study recommended effective policies based on spatial redistribution of educational resources like teachers, books, schools, and to implement more comprehensive plans that integrate poverty reduction strategies.

Highlights

Income inequality, being a common phenomenon in developed and developing countries, has attracted the attention of economists and political scientists since the early nineteenth century
The study used ordered logistic regression and the dissimilarity index to measure the ex-ante inequality of opportunity in educational attainment and Human Opportunity Index to measure the inequality in ever attending school
Inequality of opportunity may lead to a perpetuation of inequality in education and income as well; while on the national level, it may give rise to considerable waste in human capital, which more likely will impact negatively on development and growth potentials

Summary

Introduction

Income inequality, being a common phenomenon in developed and developing countries, has attracted the attention of economists and political scientists since the early nineteenth century. The impact of income inequality on economic growth has been much debatable since the era of [1] in 1817. Reference [6] in 1971, put the primary goods as the fundamental metric of justice, whereas [3] focuses on the quality of life that individuals can achieve, and [4] views a distributional scheme to treat people as equals. Though they interpreted the concept of equality from different points of view, they agreed with the fact that individuals should not be limited by circumstance factors that are beyond their control when they come to achieve what they want

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Discussion

Conclusion