Secondary Education Enrollment Research Articles

Falling behind the Rest? China and the Gender Gap Index

China’s rank falling in the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum has aroused the domestic scholar’s controversy. Based on the data provided by the Global Gender Gap Report, this article will describe the gender inequality in China by comparing its overall index scores and scores in the fields of economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment with other countries, and then examining the reasons for China’s falling in rank through the score changes of sub-dimensions and indicators. Analysis of the data suggests that China has not kept up with the rate of improvement in the overall index, and in the four fields, compared to the original 112 countries, the upper-middle income countries, and the Asian and Pacific countries. Over the 13 years covered by the report, China’s score experienced a rapid improvement from 2006 to 2009 and a decline after 2013. China’s high sex ratio at birth, further expansion of gender inequality in active life expectancy, and an enlarged gender gap in secondary education caused China’s lagging overall score and ranking. In addition, the inclusion of measures such as secondary education enrollment, political empowerment, and other indicators also led to the backward ranking of China to some extent.

Female participation in parliament. Are we ever going to converge to Scandinavia?

Despite the fact that female political participation has been steadily growing over time, women’s representation in politics is substantially lower than their proportion in society. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of women’s representation using a GMM system estimation to address the possible endogeneity. We employ a unique dataset that covers data for 130 countries from 1972 to 2005 in 7 different geographical regions to estimate a dynamic model for women’s representation and calculate each region’s steady state. In general, we find that the steady state values are above each region’s current percentage of women in parliament; however, without changing other variables, no region significantly increases the percentage of women in parliament. Moreover, we find that 66–87% of the gap between each region’s steady state with Scandinavia is explained by female secondary education enrollment, labor force participation, and political and economic rights.

Cultural prerequisites of socioeconomic development.

In the centuries since the enlightenment, the world has seen an increase in socioeconomic development, measured as increased life expectancy, education, economic development and democracy. While the co-occurrence of these features among nations is well documented, little is known about their origins or co-evolution. Here, we compare this growth of prosperity in nations to the historical record of cultural values in the twentieth century, derived from global survey data. We find that two cultural factors, secular-rationality and cosmopolitanism, predict future increases in GDP per capita, democratization and secondary education enrollment. The converse is not true, however, which indicates that secular-rationality and cosmopolitanism are among the preconditions for socioeconomic development to emerge.

The Pathway to Improving Human and Economic Development: Girls’ Secondary Education, Governance, and Education Expenditures

Abstract An extensive field of research identifies girls’ secondary education as central to improving human and economic development. Despite improvements in girls’ secondary education enrollment, there are still over 34 million female adolescents out of school—the majority in developing nations. While gender equity in education has improved, girls still lag behind boys in secondary education enrollments. Building on existing research, we argue that the failures of education spending in creating equitable access to secondary education are due to a lack of governance. We contend that strong governance has the potential to increase the effectiveness of education expenditures at improving female secondary education relative to males. Using two-way fixed effects models for a sample of 105 low and middle-income nations from 1997 to 2012, we examine how the interaction between four measures of governance and education expenditures impact gender equity in secondary education. Our findings suggest that governance increases the effectiveness of education expenditures in improving girls’ secondary education enrollment compared to males.

Enrolment status disparity: evidence from secondary education in Myanmar

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore individual enrolment trajectories to fully understand the actual disparity in secondary education enrolment statuses among the different socio-economic status (SES) groups in a newly emerged nation, Myanmar.Design/methodology/approachThe differences in enrolment statuses among various SES groups (high, middle and low) were examined based on enrolment trajectory diagrams and individual enrolment patterns using longitudinal data. The analyses utilised a sample of 932 students from government schools in the urban Yangon Region.FindingsThe results revealed that the ideal enrolment trajectory cases (i.e. entering secondary education at Myanmar’s official age and completing all grades without repetition) increased for the highest-SES level, whilst the cases with diverse and complex enrolment trajectories increased for the lower-SES levels. Additionally, over-aged students in the lowest-SES level (boys in particular) were more likely to demonstrate worse enrolment patterns.Originality/valueBy analysing disparities with enrolment trajectories rather than with the cross-sectional parity index, the findings offer clearer and more detailed evidence for the current enrolment status inequalities by SES level in Myanmar. This more complete evidence could allow for an effective accomplishment of worldwide equitable and universal secondary education.

Educational tracks of Russian youth in system of education (on state statistics 2000-2017)

Unlike in developed countries, there are few indicators in the Russian education statistics concerning youth educational tracks between its successive levels, from the basic to the higher one. Since 2014, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia has published raw statistical data, inaccessible to readers as they are, on its website. The author has calculated and analyzed a number of relevant indicators from this and other sources. The evaluation is focused on the 2000-2017 changes in the enrollment in Basic and Secondary Schools and subsequent distribution of students across educational tracks; enrollment in Secondary Vocational Education (mid-level specialist and skilled worker programs), distribution of students across modes of study and educational attainment at admission; enrollment in Higher Education Institutions across modes of study, types of Higher Education Institutions ownership and educational attainment at admission to full-time and extramural classes. The data on the number of relevant age cohorts inform the analysis.

Powering economic growth and development in Africa: telecommunication operations

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the effect of telecommunication operations on economic growth and development in selected African countries. The analysis considers a panel of 46 African countries from 2000 to 2015. To measure economic growth, real gross domestic product serves as the proxy, while economic development is measured by the Human Development Index, and telecommunication operations by a composite index of telecommunication computed from mobile line, fixed/CDM line and Internet access penetration via principal component analysis. The physical capital stock is measured by gross fixed capital formation, level of employment by the employment to population ratio, human capital development by enrolment in secondary education for both sexes and technology transfer by net inflows of foreign direct investment in Africa. The empirical results suggest that telecommunication operations promote economic growth and development in Africa. These results imply that for every positive expansion in telecommunication operations and physical capital stock, aggregate output and standard of living will adjust positively in Africa. Thus, an appropriate policy to improve overall investment in Africa and most especially in the telecommunication sector since the spillover effect cut across other sectors and the general economic performance.

Financial development and economic growth: panel evidence from BRICS

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth for five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South (BRICS) during 1993 to 2014 using banking sector and stock market development indicators. Design/methodology/approach To begin with, the study first examined some of the principal indicators of financial development and macroeconomic variables of the selected economies. Next, using generalized method of moment system estimation (SYS-GMM), the relationship between financial development and growth is investigated. The banking sector development indicators used in the study include size of the financial intermediaries, credit to deposit ratio (CDR) and domestic credit to private sector (CPS), whereas the stock market development indicators are value of shares traded and turnover ratio. Also, some macroeconomic control variables such as inflation, exports and the enrolment in secondary education were used. Findings The examination of the principal indicators of financial development and macroeconomic variables have shown considerable differences between the selected economies. Results from the dynamic one-step SYS-GMM estimates confirm that in presence of turnover ratio, all the selected banking development indicators such as size of financial intermediaries, CDR and CPS are positively significantly determining economic growth. Similarly, in presence of all the selected banking sector development indicators, value of shares traded is found to be positively significantly associated with economic growth. However, the same is not true when turnover ratio is regressed in presence of banking sector variables. Overall, the evidence suggests that banking sector development and stock market development indicators are complementary to each other in stimulating economic growth. Practical implications A positive association between financial development and growth indicates that the policymakers should take necessary measures toward simultaneous development of both banking sector as well as stock market for inducing growth. Originality/value The present paper attempts to examine the relationship between financial development and growth using both banking sector and stock market development indicators which has not been attempted before for BRICS. Also, most of the existing studies are found in case of developed economies. This paper tries to fill this void by studying five major emerging economies.

Health, Education and Economic Growth Nexus: Evidence from Middle Income Countries

Health and education are indispensable factors for economic growth. This study examines the role of health and education in economic growth for 76 middle income countries during 1991-2016, using fixed and random effect approaches. The empirical findings demonstrates that a progressive link among life expectancy and economic growth while inverse association exists between infant mortality and economic growth. The outcomes of FE and RE models stated that secondary and tertiary level education contribute to increase in economic growth. The results also shows capital's encouraging impact on growth, while the labor has negative influence to economic growth. The impact of life expectancy, infant mortality, enrollment in secondary and tertiary education on economic growth is stronger in upper middle income countries (UMIC) with comparison to lower middle income countries (LMIC). The study recommended that economies should focus on education and better health facilities towards betterment especially in lower income states.

Globalization-Poverty Nexuses: Evidences from Cross-Country Analysis

The current study examines the impact of globalization on poverty across 119 countries by utilizing poverty headcount index based on 1.90$ international poverty line and KOF globalization index developed by Dreher, Gaston, and Martens (2008). The main objectives of the research are to examine the general impact of globalization on poverty andregion specific impact of globalization on poverty. The crosssection analysis based on OLS method suggests that globalization significantly reduces the level of poverty of selected countries. Apart from that, the study found that secondary education enrolment ratio, percentage of urban population and percentage of population who has access to electricity also reduce the poverty. However, impact of globalization on poverty is not equal across all the regions. The region-based analysis confirms that globalization reduces poverty in all considered regions except Sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, contribution of globalization on poverty reduction is more substantial in South Asia region followed by East Asia and Pacific and Europe and Central Asia regions. Consequently, the study strongly recommends countries to engage with the process of globalization and however the degree of opening up trade policies, capital accounts and labor markets should be decided based on their own domestic macroeconomic conditions and future economic goals.

Primary teachers’ perceptions that impact upon track recommendations regarding pupils’ enrolment in secondary education: a path analysis

In less meritocratic educational systems, teachers’ decision-making processes and their perceptions of pupils are essential for the practice of pupils’ allocation at transitory moments. The present study investigated how perceptions held by teachers impact upon teacher track recommendations regarding pupils’ enrolment in secondary education in Flanders. By means of structural equation modelling, we studied the hypothesised impact of pupils’ cognitive (i.e. maths skills, language skills and technical skills) and non-cognitive (i.e. school-appropriate behaviours and personal-social behaviours) attributes and of teacher–pupil relationships, as perceived by the teachers. Additionally, we addressed the hypothesised (mediated) impact of perceived parental involvement in education and parents’ socio-economic status (SES) and ethnicity, as social and cultural parental background characteristics. Results show that teacher track recommendations are best directly predicted by pupils’ perceived maths skills. Also pupils’ perceived school-appropriate behaviours and parents’ SES substantially and directly predict teacher track recommendations. Teacher track recommendations are further indirectly affected by perceived parental involvement in education, parents’ SES and parents’ ethnicity.

Flexible education in Australia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the extent to which the South Australian flexible learning option (FLO) secondary school enrolment strategy supports some of the most vulnerable and disengaged students to simultaneously engage in secondary- and higher-education, skills and work-based learning; second, to explore the degree to which this FLO enrolment strategy addresses the United Nations (UN) principles of responsible management education and 17 sustainable development goals.Design/methodology/approachThe approach includes a practice perspective, field-notes and documents analysis.FindingsThis paper finds the flexibility inherent in the FLO enrolment strategy goes some way to addressing inequity in education outcomes amongst those who traditionally disengage from education and work-based learning. Findings also highlight ways in which the FLO enrolment strategy addresses some of the UN principals and 17 goals.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper supports the work of HESWBL by calling for future research into the long-term benefits of flexible education strategies that support HESWBL, through exploring the benefits to young people, from their perspective, with a view to providing accountability.Social implicationsThe paper offers an example of a way a practice perspective can explore an education strategy that addresses “wicked problems” (Rittel and Webber, 1973). Currently, “wicked problems” that pervade member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development include intergenerational poverty, under-education and unemployment.Originality/valueThis paper is valuable because it explores from a practice perspective, how a secondary education enrolment strategy supports vulnerable students engage in their secondary schooling, while simultaneously supporting students achieve higher education, skills and work-based learning.

Disability and school attendance in 15 low- and middle-income countries

Out of school children are a critical issue in education and development. Very little is known as to whether a disability is associated with a higher risk of being out of school for children in developing countries. This paper presents and analyzes the gap in enrolment in both primary and secondary education between children with and without disabilities using for the first time an internationally tested and comparable measure of functional difficulties (e.g. seeing, hearing, and walking). Using nationally representative datasets from 15 developing countries, this paper finds a consistent and statistically significant disability gap in both primary and secondary school attendance. The paper econometrically examines potential explanations for this disability gap using several specifications. A household fixed effect model shows that disability reduces the probability of school attendance by a median 30.9 percentage points, and that neither individual characteristics nor their socio-economic and unobserved household characteristics explain the disability gap. While general poverty reduction policies through for instance social transfers to the poor may improve school attendance in general, they seem unlikely to close the disability gap in schooling. The disability gap for primary–age children follows an inverted U-shape relationship with GNI per capita. This suggests that, as GNI per capita rises and more resources become available for improving access to education in middle-income countries, children without disabilities increasingly attend school, whereas the situation of children with disabilities may improve more slowly. Despite the adoption of an inclusive education agenda globally, this paper shows that more research and policy attention is needed to make schooling disability-inclusive in developing countries. More attention is also necessary regarding the functional difficulties experienced by children, as some may be preventable and the schooling inequalities associated with them may thus be avoidable.

Early-Life Nutrition Is Associated Positively with Schooling and Labor Market Outcomes and Negatively with Marriage Rates at Age 20–25 Years: Evidence from the Andhra Pradesh Children and Parents Study (APCAPS) in India

India's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is among the world's largest public nutritional programs, providing daily nutritional supplements and other public health and educational services to pregnant and nursing women, children aged <6 y, and adolescent girls. We estimated the long-term association between early-childhood ICDS nutrition and adult outcomes. We used follow-up data from a controlled nutritional trial conducted during 1987-1990 in 29 villages near the city of Hyderabad. In 15 intervention villages, a balanced protein-calorie supplement-made from locally available corn-soya ingredients and called upma-was offered to pregnant women and to children <6 y old. No supplement was offered in the 14 control villages. During 2010-2012, adults born during the trial were re-surveyed (n = 715 in the intervention arm and n = 645 in the control arm). We used probit regression and propensity score-matching methods to estimate the association between birth in an intervention village and rates of secondary and graduate education completion, marriage, and employment or enrollment in higher education of these adults. Adults born in the intervention group during the trial, compared with the control group, were 9% (95% CI: 0.04, 0.14; P < 0.01) more likely to complete secondary school and 11% (95% CI: 0.06, 0.15; P < 0.01) more likely to complete graduate education, were 6% (95% CI: -0.11, -0.01; P < 0.05) less likely to be ever-married at age 20-25 y, and were 5% (95% CI: 0, 0.11; P < 0.05) more likely to be employed or enrolled in higher education. The estimated associations for graduate education completion and employment-study rates were greater for men, whereas the associations for secondary education and ever-married rates were greater for women. Exposure to nutritional supplement in utero or during the first 3 y of life was associated with improved adult educational and employment outcomes and lower marriage rates in India.

How do vulnerable youth complete secondary education? The key role of families and the community

ABSTRACTThis article demonstrates how the engagement of families and other community members in decision-making processes in a school may prevent early school leaving among vulnerable youth and simultaneously increase their enrolment in secondary education. Based on a large-scale, EU-funded study, this article focuses on the case of one school located in a deprived area inhabited mainly by Roma people – one of the vulnerable populations most affected by early school leaving – where a specific egalitarian participatory process of Roma families was implemented. According to the analysis of the collected data, this participation contributed to a reduction in student dropout rates during primary education, led to the implementation of compulsory secondary education in the same school, and increased the numbers of students who graduated from secondary school. These achievements transformed the educational and social prospects of vulnerable youth who were following the path to failure and who now dream of continuing their studies. Furthermore, these youth are acting as role models for younger children in primary education, helping to prevent school dropout and early school leaving from early ages. The case shows how the community participation in decision-making processes transformed the climate and expectations regarding education in the neighbourhood.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUMBERS OF INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ARRIVALS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE ASEAN-8: PANEL DATA APPROACH

In an open economy, economic growth is not only supported by international trade but may also be supported through the development of tourism. We can use international tourist arrivals as one of indicators of international tourism. This study aimed to examine the factors that influence international tourist arrivals as well as to analyze the relationship between the number of international tourist arrivals and economic growth in the Southeast Asian regions. This study uses panel data regression to 8 ASEAN countries during the period of 2000 to 2012. The results showed that the variables that identified as the determinant of international tourist arrivals are GDP per capita, secondary education enrollment gross ratio, and life expectancy. Furthermore, the number of international tourist arrivals have a significant effect on economic growth in conform with tourism-led economic growth hypothesis (TLGH). This finding infers that tourism sector could be developed as an effort to increase economic growth.Keywords: International Tourism, Economic Growth, International Tourist Arrivals, TLGH,Panel DataSubject/Object of research: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam,Cambodia, Lao PDR

FDI DETERMINANTS IN THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION COUNTRIES AND EURASIAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION EFFECT ON FDI INFLOWS

The paper examines the potential determinants of foreign direct investment inflows into the region of Eurasian Economic Union, as well as incentives for investment into other neighboring countries. In the first model, the authors test a hypothesis on country specific foreign direct investment determinants for the Eurasian Economic Union region. The results of fixed effects estimation show that gross domestic product, infrastructure development and secondary education enrollment have a positive statistically significant effect on the foreign direct investment inflows into the region. Conversely, the impact of Customs Union on foreign direct investment appeared to be negative. Furthermore, in the second model of the natural experiment, the authors empirically test the hypothesis on Customs Union’s effect on foreign direct investment while controlling for both country and time effects. The model includes evaluating the impact of the policy change on foreign investment inflows. The natural experiment outcome also points to the negative effect of Eurasian economic integration on foreign direct investment inflows. Although the countries of Eurasian Economic Union have relatively business friendly regulations, such procedures as enforcing contracts, resolving insolvencies and dealing with construction permits are time-consuming. For attracting foreign investment, it is advisable to facilitate such procedures and make the process of setting up a new business less onerous. The research can be used as an outline for further examining of Eurasian economic integration and apart from that, the study results can be applied for practical purposes of policy elaboration aimed at stimulating foreign direct investment into the Eurasian Economic Union.

Perceptions of caretakers with different socioeconomic status about the harmful outcomes of fever in under-five children in Dodoma region, central Tanzania: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundSocioeconomic status can affect health in childhood through many different pathways. Evidence on how households differ with regard to socioeconomic status and the degree to which this difference is associated with investment in child health is essential to the design of appropriate intervention strategies. AimThis study examines the impact of caretakers’ socio-economic characteristics on perceptions about the harmful outcomes of fever among under-five children. Material and methodsThe study used a three-stage cluster sample of households with under-five children in Dodoma region, central Tanzania. Multilevel modelling approach was used to model the relationship between the outcome measure and caretakers’ socioeconomic characteristics while controlling for other variables. ResultsA total of 329 under-five children with fever were studied of which 74.8% were perceived by their caretakers to have some chances for harmful effects of fever to occur when they experienced fever. Secondary school education or above of caretakers was significantly associated with decreased beliefs about the occurrence of harmful effects of fever. ConclusionMany caretakers are concerned about the occurrence of harmful effects of fever for their under-five children. Study findings suggest that promoting enrolment in secondary education or above and participation in the labour market particularly in non-farm activities of women would be valuable to the health of under-five children in central Tanzania.

Empirical Analysis of Poverty Determinants in Republic of Macedonia

Poverty is one of the most serious and persistent problems facing the world. Hence, poverty reduction is a top priority of international policy and agenda of many international and financial organizations such as World Bank and especially United Nation. For illustration, poverty reduction is top priority of the United Nations Millennium Development. The situation with poverty is not significantly different in Republic of Macedonia, so the poverty reduction is one of the top priorities of Macedonian government many years ago. As a result of government active role through many programs, measures and actions the poverty rate in Republic of Macedonia has been reduced from 30% in 2006 to 21.5% in 2015. The paper empirically investigate the poverty in Republic of Macedonia and tries to answer what are the main determinants of high rate of poverty in the country by applying VAR (Vector Auto Regression) econometric model where we investigate how the economic growth, unemployment rate and school enrollment in high school influence of poverty rate. The estimated results show that economic activities and school enrollment in secondary education decrease the poverty rate, while there is negative correlation between poverty rate and unemployment rate. Additionally, the empirical analysis of poverty rate shows that the most vulnerable persons, groups and households are the youngest persons, households of two adults with two, three or more dependent children, unemployed and other inactive persons and households without social transfers. Finally, the paper summarizes the government policies, actions, and measures for poverty reduction.

WHO GOES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENTIAL DECISION AMONG INDIAN STUDENTS

The purpose of the present study is to examine the factors which influence students’ decision to go for higher education in Indian context. The facts and figures highlight that the gap between secondary and higher education enrolment ratio is significant and a major chunk of 12th grade graduates don’t go for higher education. Methodology of the present study involves mixed method approach and data was collected from the sample of 400 first year students. Self structured questionnaire and semi structured interviews were used for collection of data. Factor analysis and logistic regression have been used for analysis purpose. Findings of the present study highlight that different factors motivate students to go for higher education. Major motivation for pursuing higher education is economic. Perceived low academic grades and financial crisis are the major impediment for unsuccessful transition. Logistic regression results confirm that location, academic achievement, socioeconomic status, generation status, family support, relative functionalism, self efficacy are significant factors which influence students’ decision to go for higher education. Present study contributes to the body of research in the Indian context where it is an unexplored area and needs worthy investigation in order to make Indian higher education system more inclusive and equitable.