Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALSThe quality of educationbetween indigenous and non-indigenous studentswere explained by the poor quality of schoolsserving indigenous students (McEwan, 2004).These findings demonstrate that improving schoolquality and narrowing differences among schoolswill reduce inequality in student performance. In themid-1990s, Brazil created the Fundo de Manutençãoe Desenvolvimento do Ensino Fundamental e deValorização do Magistério (FUNDEF), a fund tofinance subnational spending on primary and lowersecondary education to ensure a more equitabledistribution of per-student spending across thecountry. Preliminary evidence suggests that thisredistributive policy has narrowed learninginequalities, though only by a small amount (Gordonand Vegas, 2005). In other countries, per-studentfunding formulas have been introduced to ensurethat resources are more equitably distributedacross regions and population groups.Box 2.23: Improving equity in PolandIn 1999, Poland started providing an additional year of generaleducation before students were split into upper secondary schooltracks. By using three rounds of PISA it is possible to assess thereform’s impact on equity:From 2000 to 2003, average variation in student performancein science fell from 51% of the OECD average to 15%. By 2006,Poland had one of the lowest levels of variation in scienceperformance among participating countries (Figure 2.41).Improvement in equity came about at the same time as generalimprovement in performance. For example, average readingperformance of 15-year-olds increased by twenty-nine scorepoints between 2000 and 2006.Most of the improvement occurred among students with poorperformance. From 2000 to 2006, the proportion of studentsfailing to score above level 1 in reading competency fell from23% to 16%.Students in the vocational track appear to have benefitedmost from greater integration of the system.School-based disparities do not operate in isolation.In many cases they interact with and reinforcewider disadvantage. Parental income and education,home language and other factors are all stronglyassociated with learning achievement levels, asthe following cases demonstrate:In Pakistan, children from families in the richestthird of the population scored on averagebetween 0.25 and 0.5 of a standard deviationhigher than children from the poorest households(Das et al., 2006).In Peru, in national assessments of mathematicsconducted in 2004, sixth grade pupils whosemother tongue was Spanish scored more thanone standard deviation higher than childrenwhose mother tongue was an indigenouslanguage (Cueto et al., 2009).Fifth grade students from Cameroon’s Bamilekelanguage group scored 48% on the PASECliteracy test, compared with 56% for studentsfrom the Ewondo language group (Fehrler andMichaelowa, 2009).In the 2006 SERCE assessments in Latin Americaand the Caribbean, students who undertook asignificant amount of work, inside and outsidethe home, had lower levels of mathematicsachievement on average. For example, inEl Salvador, sixth graders who worked hadaverage scores 6% lower than those of childrenwho did not (Bonnet, 2009).Source: OECD (2007b).A longitudinal study in Ethiopia found that 42%of 12-year-olds who had lost their mothersbetween ages 8 and 12 were unable to read,while for children with both parents living thefigure was 23% (Himaz, 2009). The studyattributed the difference to lower schoolenrolment among orphans, as well as poorerperformance in school.In countries with more equitable systems,children’s backgrounds are less important indetermining levels of achievement. In countrieswhere there is a strong relationship betweenstudent background and performance, or wherelarge differences in student background exist,reducing differences in school quality is unlikelyto be enough to improve equity significantly.Targeted programmes to improve learning amongchildren who are being left behind will also beneeded (see Chapter 3). In Mexico, the ConsejoNacional de Fomento Educativo (CONAFE) providessupplemental funds, learning materials – includingtextbooks in indigenous languages – and teachersupport to schools in areas marked by consistentunderperformance and disadvantage. Evaluationsindicate that these efforts have narrowed the gapin primary school mathematics scores, thoughthey have had little impact on Spanish scores(Vegas and Petrow, 2008).School-baseddisparities interactwith studentbackground andsocio-economicstatus111