Secondary Schooling Research Articles

Impact of Tuition‐Free Education Policy on Child Marriage and Early Childbearing: Does Secondary Matter More?

AbstractChild marriage and early childbearing severely impact maternal and child health as well as long‐term economic outcomes. Given their continued high incidence, analyzing the feasibility of effective national interventions remains crucial. While cross‐sectional surveys and a few small‐scale randomized experiments suggest delays in marriage and childbearing associated with secondary schooling, the impact of policies that advance secondary school at a national scale is largely unknown. Using a quasi‐experimental research design, we examine whether making secondary school tuition‐free delayed marriage and childbearing. We use a difference‐in‐differences strategy that exploits the natural variation in the timing of policy rollout in five sub‐Saharan African countries. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys, we estimate the impact of the policy change by comparing changes in outcomes over the study period between girls who were exposed to the policy to those who were not. We find that tuition‐free secondary reduced the probability of marriage and childbearing before 15 and 18 years of age. We observed significantly larger effects associated with tuition‐free secondary over tuition‐free primary for all outcomes. Our findings show it is important to support tuition‐free secondary education as a policy instrument to delay marriage and childbirth, especially given current high rates and their long‐term health and economic consequences.

The Act of Transitions: Exploring Cultural Aptitude Through Drama for Language Development

ABSTRACT The use of drama pedagogies in language education has fast become internationally recognised for its unique, synthesised approach to language learning. For this reason, the field has experienced large-scale growth, as evidenced by drama and non-drama specialists bringing applied and educational linguistics and drama together. This paper aims to interrogate drama’s ability to develop context-driven learning in the language classroom and looks more deeply at the affective embodied dimensions of drama for language development as a precursor to cultural aptitude. Data collected from a targeted drama program in Australia is used to discern patterns establish findings which contribute to linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes. This study suggests that drama helped students become more communicatively competent within an Australian secondary schooling environment, assisted by the cultural aptitude and skill development embedded within the program. This paper goes on to argue that that cultural aptitudes and skills can be developed as a result of the intertwinement of linguistic and cultural skills within the affective interactional contexts created by drama.

Online Education in Covid-19 Pandemic: A Thematic Case Study of Secondary Grade Tribal Students from India

Education helps in acquiring knowledge, skills, and competencies required for the development of an individual. The outbreak of Covid-19 shut all the educational institutes worldwide. Under these circumstances, all the educational institutes switched to an online mode of education, considering it a viable option. This transition was an arduous task for both students and teachers. The situation was even more challenging for students from underprivileged communities whose dropout rates are always high, especially when they enter secondary schooling. The tribal group are called as Scheduled Tribes (ST) in India represents one such disadvantaged group. Even before the pandemic, the tribal students accounted for the highest number of dropouts at different levels of schooling. Undoubtedly, switching to an online mode of education was not an easy task for them. Now that the schools have started functioning regularly, it becomes an important task to understand the impact online education has on the learning level of students, especially from a tribal community. This exploratory study presents the thematic analysis of responses collected from fifty tribal students studying in a Secondary school dealing with their experience of education through online mode.

Parental Engagement in Schooling: A Survey of Secondary Schools in Kwara State, Nigeria

This study inquired about parental engagement (PE) in schooling, focusing on secondary schoolstudents in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study also examined the existing differentials in parental engagements based on school type, geographic location, and students’ academic level. To accomplish the objectives, a descriptive survey design was adopted for the research. One thousand two hundred and ninety-six students were sampled from 72 secondary schools with multi-stage sampling procedures. A questionnaire titled “Parental Engagement Assessment Questionnaire” (PIAQ) was utilized as a data collection instrument. Mean scores, standard deviation, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were appropriate statistical tools used in analyzing the collected data. The key finding made known was that the general level of parental engagement in schooling among secondary school students in Kwara State was moderate. Explicitly, students in private schools experienced higher PE than those in public schools; students schooling within the Kwara Central senatorial district experienced higher PE than those in Kwara-South and Kwara-North respectively; even in grade 10 students received a higher level of PE compared to those in grade 11and grade 12 respectively. The study concluded that, despite the moderate level of PE in secondary school students schooling, significant disparitiesexistbased on school ownership, geographic/senatorial distribution, and students’ academic level. Thus, further studies are needed to investigate other students’ characteristics that determine PE.

Impact of Migration on Non-Migrant School Completion Rates and Enrolment in South Africa

South Africa struggles with low secondary school completion rates and this has a negative effect on poverty and inequality. In this study, we examine the relationship between internal migration (international migrants were excluded) and non-migrant educational outcomes (secondary school enrolment and completion rates) in South Africa between 1996 and 2011. We use census data for the years 1996, 2001 and 2011 (at the district and municipal levels) in several linear probability regression models that include the First Difference (FD) and System Generalised Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) with instrumental variables. The 2011 census is the latest available in South Africa now. We find that internal migrants have a positive effect on both enrolment and completion rates of non-migrants. These results vary in intensity depending on the level of education of both internal migrant and non-migrant household heads. These results have implications for the local labour market and for income inequality in South Africa; internal migrants provide positive peer effects that contribute to raising non-migration enrolment and completion. Internal migrants also provide job market competition which influences non-migrants to complete secondary schooling. There is scant empirical evidence on the impact of internal migration on education outcomes in African countries, especially in South Africa. Our paper provides evidence from a country with a history of persistent internal migration. Most prior research has focused on the relationship between immigration and education outcomes in the developed world. We recommend that government improves secondary school quality in rural and urban areas and increase study loans for students at tertiary institutions.

Los (sin)Sentidos de la Escuela en el Sistema Penal Juvenil

ABSTRACT From a socio-anthropological, intersectional, and feminist perspective, this article analyzes the meanings that secondary schooling takes on for young males with alternative penal measures in a county of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Based on the analysis of ethnographic records, the article examines the role of the school within the architecture of needs proposed by the State for vulnerable youth in conflict with the law. The article points out that, for the actors within the Youth Justice, the school holds a central position. However, this relevance is questioned by the young individuals themselves, who bring forth multiple meanings based on their biographies and relationships with the educational system.

Caregiver burden among caregivers of mentally ill individuals and their coping mechanisms A facility based study

Problem: Mental illnesses not only affect the individual concerned but also the caregivers. Caregiver burden is a complex phenomenon. Caregivers who perceive high level of burden are those who lack both family and social support. They require tireless endeavor, sympathy and energy. Mostly family members fail to recognize it and caregiver’s own physical, mental and social health is often ignored. Care givers adopt various coping mechanism. A Mechanism, adopted in a positive way would lessen the amount of burden.6 Mal adaptive strategy in turn would affect the well being.7The study was done to measure and analyze caregiver burden and factors associated with the burden respectively. The study was also intended to explore coping mechanisms adapted by the caregivers in response to burden perceived by them. Approach: A cross sectional analytical study was conducted among 60 caregivers of patients with mental illnesses attending psychiatric medicine outpatient department in a tertiary care hospital, at Karur(India) between July 2022 and Dec 2022. After obtaining Institutional Ethics clearance and informed consent, study tool was administered. It consisted of 4 parts. Part 1 dealt with socio-demographic details of the participants. Part 2 enquired about clinical information of care recipient. Part 3 included the Burden Assessment Schedule. Part 4 was the brief COPE assessment scale. Data entry was done in Microsoft Excel. Entered data were exported to SPSS software version 20 for analysis. Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics were done. Independent T test, one way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation and Chi square tests were applied. Findings: Among caregivers other than spouses, male caregivers perceive higher burden (mean score +/- SE = 28.75 +/- 2.272) than the female caregivers (mean score +/- SE = 26.25 +/- 2.192). Perceived severity of disease was higher among Care givers residing in urban area (mean score +/- SE = 8.0385 +/- 0.36577) than those residing in rural area (mean score +/- SE = 6.9118 +/- 0.28438). Among caregivers other than spouses, caregivers who had completed higher secondary schooling or diploma holders perceive higher level of burden (mean – 28.75) than those who completed primary schooling (mean – 24.75). Impact of chronic mental illness of care recipients on well being of caregivers was higher among spousal caregivers than the others. A Positive correlation existed between burden perceived among spousal caregivers and problem focused, emotional focused and adaptive coping. All these associations were statistically significant at p value 0.05, 0.01 or 0.001. Distribution of moderate to severe burden among caregivers other than spouses (52.3%) is slightly higher than that of spousal caregivers (50%) and the difference is not statistically significant (p = 0.876). Conclusion: Among various factors, gender, education, residence and chronic nature of care recipient’s mental illness were found to be significantly associated with either one or another component of burden or the whole. Mental health professionals should broaden their vision so that burden perceived by the caregivers would also be attended. Public health personnel should take measures to implement family as well as community level approach to attend caregivers along with their mentally ill care recipients.

Center-Right Parties and Post-War Secondary Education

The massification of secondary schooling constitutes the key educational project of the first post-war period. However, the resulting educational structures differed in terms of streaming and standardization. Despite their historical opposition to such expansion, center-right parties contributed to shaping these reforms. They generally opposed standardization because their distributive strategy rested on support from elites and middle classes. However, their stance on streaming varied. Centre-right parties supported streaming when they were linked to teachers and private providers who opposed comprehensive reforms, but supported de-streaming where such groups aligned with the left. This article shows how center-right parties in Bavaria, France, and Italy, with common partisan distributive aims, introduced varied public service reforms following from their links to different vested producers. It argues that theorizing such reforms requires considering both distributive and productive environments.

Piety and privilege. Catholic secondary schooling in Ireland and the theocratic state, 1922–1967. Edited by Tom O'Donaghue and Judith Harford. Pp. x + 233. Oxford–New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. £75. 978 0 19 284316 6

Piety and privilege. Catholic secondary schooling in Ireland and the theocratic state, 1922–1967. Edited by Tom O'Donaghue and Judith Harford. Pp. x + 233. Oxford–New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. £75. 978 0 19 284316 6 - Volume 74 Issue 1

Transition in Primary and Secondary Schooling in Pakistan: Gender and Age Cohort Analysis

This study assesses the changing pattern of school attendance through age cohort analysis for both males and females in Pakistan. Based on the 1998 census data on educational attainment, the results indicate a profound rise in school attendance among younger age cohorts contributing to elimination of gender gap in primary-level schooling in urban areas only. The disadvantaged situation of rural females is reflected by a combination of low school entries/attendance to begin with, and high chance of discontinuing education before completing primary levels. The pattern of school transition reveals that among those few who have completed Class Five, the chances of staying through the secondary level are much higher—after which dropout accelerates rapidly. Two overall conclusions emerge from these results. First, the bulk of the deficit from universal primary education comes from females population, especially in rural areas. Second, the key to reducing dropouts and gender gap in school attendance lies in actions that raise the demand for schooling of girls, with equally matched availability of quality primary- and secondarylevel schools. It appears that achieving universal primary education by 2015, as mandated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), remains a tall order for Pakistan.

Bring your support team with you: The role of family and friends in supporting the motivation of international secondary students

To increase their prospects of acceptance into a Western university, a growing number of teenagers from Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) countries complete their secondary schooling in an English-speaking host country. The many challenges these teenagers encounter studying overseas can negatively impact their desire to persist with their studies. To investigate the positive mediating influences on students’ motivation, this study explored the influences on the achievement motivation of 15 academically successful CHC international secondary students. A framework employing theories about the influence of Confucian cultural heritage on motivation was used to analyse findings. Findings show that the teenagers’ motivation was influenced more by beliefs fostered in their home countries and by relationships with family at home and friends in their host country who shared a similar heritage background, rather than by school-based factors. These teenagers, while studying overseas, in effect study alongside rather than being integrated with host nation students, which fails to fulfil several goals of international education for students and host governments. Implications for host nations and schools are discussed in light of this finding.

Power, Privilege And Sex Education in Irish Schools, 1922-67: An Overview

An overview of the thinking that led us to write our most recent book, Piety and Privilege. Catholic Secondary Schooling in Ireland and the Theocratic State, 1922-67, constitutes the substance of this paper. Our central argument is that during the period 1922-1967, the Church, unhindered by the State, promoted within secondary schools, practices aimed at “the salvation of souls” and at the reproduction of a loyal middle class and clerics. The State supported that arrangement with the Church also acting on its behalf in aiming to produce a literate and numerate citizenry, in pursuing nation building, and in ensuring the preparation of an adequate number of secondary school graduates to address the needs of the public service and the professions. This situation proved attractive to successive governments, partly because the great majority of the nation’s politicians and public servants were themselves loyal middle-class Catholics. In addition, the teaching religious played a crucial role in the State’s project of harnessing schools as part of its Gaelic nation-building project. This paper considers what we deem to be three distinctive aspects of our work. First, we detail how it is a contribution not just to the history of education in Ireland but also to the broader field of the history of Catholic Church and State relations in education in the English-speaking world for the period examined. Secondly, we deliberate on the research approach we adopted in generating our exposition. Thirdly, we outline our consideration of three aspects of the process of education in Catholic schools that have been neglected in many accounts to date, namely, the manner in which privilege, piety, and sex education were approached. Keywords: Ireland, secondary schooling. piety, privilege, sex education

Piety and privilege: catholic secondary schooling in ireland and the theocratic state, 1922-1967, by Tom O’ Donoghue and Judith Harford

Review of the book Piety and privilege: catholic secondary schooling in ireland and the theocratic state, 1922-1967, by Tom O’ Donoghue and Judith Harford

Effective teaching for Pasifika learners – know me, teach me!

Some Pacific learners are achieving very well in both primary and secondary schooling, but the system is failing many Pacific learners. An area that requires further development, therefore, within the New Zealand education system is for education to be more responsive to the diversity of its learners. That said, for teaching to be effective, teacher practice and pedagogy must be responsive to all learners. This article serves to explore what effective teaching for Pasifika learners looks like using three policy documents to analyse the journey. Employing discourse analysis, I examine the complexities of the policy documents and its nuances regarding Pasifika learners.

Plans, hopes, dreams and evolving agency: case histories of young people navigating transitions.

ABSTRACT Young people’s transitions are important crossroads for their future position within society. At the end of obligatory schooling, adolescents have to decide on whether they want to attend higher secondary schooling or to enter the job market. These decisions are framed by educational and occupational aspirations. Based on young people’s narratives in a three-wave panel study, we analyze their imagined future starting one year before completing obligatory schooling. In a qualitative longitudinal case history approach, we analyze their aspirations as well as their embeddedness in their biography. We found that plans, hopes and dreams give more nuance to aspirations and are thus helpful conceptual frames for analyzing transitions. With two case histories, we illustrate different navigation processes: one with educational and the other with occupational focus but both starting with rather vague plans for their next steps. Despite different aspirations, both adolescents navigate the transitional phase and develop agency. The concretization of aspirations through plans, hopes and dreams brings evolving agency to light. Our results shed light on the process of change in young people’s aspirations with an emphasis on the person’s perspective and frame of reference.

. Cultural, economic, and educational predictors of school exit exam scores in Azerbaijan

Introduction. The Ministry of Education (MOE) of the Azerbaijan Republic requires that students take an exit exam at the end of secondary schooling. The school exit exam (SEE) is administered to graduating students in 11th grade (i.e., high school equivalent) in three core subjects: (1) mathematics, (2) instructional language, and (3) foreign language. The State Examination Centre (SEC) has administered the SEE for over five years and recently changed the format, impacting university admissions (UA). In 2019, admission to a university was in two stages: (1) the SEE and (2) the university admissions exam. The current study used publicly available SEC data (N = 73) from Azerbaijan’s 2019/2020 academic year by region.Aim. The current research aims to examine the cultural, economic, and educational predictors of the school exit exam (SEE) in Azerbaijan’s cities/regions according to the 2020 data. The article intends to demonstrate the relationship between economic, educational, and cultural precursors for successful versus unsuccessful SEE results. Methodology and research methods. This correlational study used Multivariate (MANOVA) and Univariate (ANOVA) Analyses of Variance (RQ1) and Multiple Regressions (RQ2 and RQ3).Results. For cultural predictors of the SEE, the Northern region had significantly higher Instructional Language (p = .010), English (p = .020), and Total scores (p = .010) compared to other regions. For economic indicators of the SEE, the average monthly salary was significantly predictive of Foreign Language (p = .035). For educational variables, the percentage of outstanding graduating students was predictive of all outcomes (p < .000 for all).Scientific novelty and practical significance. Literature supports that the percentage of outstanding students and a family’s annual income are strong positive predictors of SEE scores for all four D.V.s. Thus, this study claims that regions with exceptional academic performance and high family income tend to produce higher SEE scores. This substantive finding highlights the inter-rater reliability between the MOE and the SEC, as academic achievement is assessed by the MOE and the exit exam by the SEC.

Participation or eschewal? Final-year secondary school students’ attitudes towards participation in higher education in Cameroon

In this article we examine students’ attitudes towards participation in higher education in Cameroon and consider the role of personal and socioeconomic factors in their post-school educational trajectories. The data were drawn from a questionnaire survey of 1,860 final-year secondary school students from Yaoundé, Cameroon, as well as supplementary interviews with 16 students. The findings show that the majority of respondents indicated a preference to continue their education after the end of secondary school and participate in some form of higher education. However, contrary to previous studies that identify gender or SES segregation in higher education participation, the findings in this study suggest that the influence of SES and gender on students’ attitudes was minimised in the later stage of secondary schooling. Among the relatively minor external influences, institutional factors surpass family influence, and fathers’ influence is stronger than that of mothers, echoing the patriarchal cultural background in Cameroon. Considering the positive attitudes revealed in this study, it is suggested that more external efforts could be made to respond to students’ optimistic attitudes and smooth their transition processes. Higher education institutions should improve their capability to enrol and accommodate more students and patriarchal culture should also be challenged to boost women’s educational opportunities.

Parental risk preferences, maternal bargaining power, and the educational progressions of children: Lab-in-the-field evidence from rural Côte d'Ivoire

We analyze the effect of parental risk preferences and a novel measure of maternal bargaining power over educational expenses - elicited via lab-in-the-field experiments in rural Côte d'Ivoire – on the educational progression of boys and girls. Data from 135 couples and their children show that father's risk aversion is negatively associated with school attendance for boys and lowers the likelihood of transition from no-schooling to primary schooling for both boys and girls. Mother's risk aversion, on the other hand, has a positive association with the transition into primary schooling and a negative association with the transition into secondary schooling only for girls. Mother's bargaining power is also negatively associated with girls’ schooling, while greater bargaining power for mothers who are relatively more risk averse than the father adversely impacts the transition into primary schooling for boys. Our findings are in line with suggestive evidence that points to a preference for current income generated by the employment of boys in high value cash crop production and the concern for girls’ safety associated with traveling long distances to attend secondary schools.

"It's the poverty"-Stakeholder perspectives on barriers to secondary education in rural Burkina Faso.

Universal primary and secondary education is a key target of the Sustainable Development Goals. While substantial gains have been made at the primary school level, progress towards universal secondary education has slowed, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we aimed to determine perceived barriers of secondary schooling in rural Burkina Faso, where secondary school completion is among the lowest globally (<10%). We conducted a two-stage qualitative study using semi-structured interviews (N = 49). In the first stage, we sampled enrolled students (n = 10), out-of-school adolescents (n = 9), parents of enrolled students (n = 5), parents of out-of-school adolescents (n = 5) and teachers (n = 10) from a random sample of five secondary schools. In a second stage, we interviewed key informants knowledgeable of the school context using snowball sampling (n = 10). Systematic analysis of the pooled sample was based on a reading of interview transcripts and coding of the narratives in NVivo12 using the diathesis-stress model. Recurring themes were classified using a priori developed categories of hypothesized barriers to secondary schooling. Major reported barriers included school-related expenses and the lack of school infrastructure and resources. Insufficient and heterogeneous French language skills (the official language of instruction in Burkina Faso) were seen as a major barrier to secondary schooling. Forced marriages, adolescent pregnancies, and the low perceived economic benefits of investing in secondary schooling were reported as key barriers among young women. Our results guide future interventions and policy aimed at achieving universal secondary education and gender equity in the region.

Infant Health, Cognitive Performance, and Earnings: Evidence from Inception of the Welfare State in Sweden

Abstract We identify earnings impacts of exposure to an infant health intervention in Sweden, using individual-linked administrative data to trace potential mechanisms. Leveraging quasi-random variation in eligibility, we estimate that exposure was associated with higher test scores in primary school for boys and girls. However, only girls were more likely to score in the top quintile. Subsequent gains, in secondary schooling, employment, and earnings, are restricted to girls. We show that the differential gains for women accrued from both skills and opportunities.